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Government
"Students in grade twelve pursue a deeper understanding of the institutions of American government. They compare systems of government in the world today and analyze the history and changing interpretations of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the current state of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government. An emphasis is placed on analyzing the relationship among federal, state, and local governments, with particular attention paid to important historical documents such as the Federalist Papers. These standards represent the culmination of civic literacy as students prepare to vote, participate in community activities, and assume the responsibilities of citizenship."
-LAUSD Government Course Description
Principles of American Democracy (Government) Standards
(12.1 - 12.10)
Click on an image below for an article relating to the standard. After reading the article, complete a Homework on the Web (HOTW).
12.1 
The Bill of Rights (12.1.6)
Students
explain the fundamental principles and moral values of American democracy as
expressed in the United States Constitution and other essential documents of
American democracy.
1. Analyze the influence of ancient
Greek, Roman, English, and leading European political thinkers such as John
Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Niccolo Machiavelli, and William Blackstone
on the development of American government.
2. Discuss the character of American
democracy and its promise and perils as articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville.
3. Explain how the U.S. Constitution
reflects a balance between the classical republican concern with promotion of
the public good and the classical liberal concern with protecting individual
rights; and discuss how the basic premises of liberal constitutionalism and
democracy are joined in the Declaration of Independence as “self evident
truths.”
4. Explain how the Founding Fathers’
realistic view of human nature led directly to the establishment of a constitutional
system that limited the power of the governors and the governed as articulated
in the Federalist Papers.
5. Describe the systems of separated
and shared powers, the role of organized interests (Federalist Paper Number
10), checks and balances (Federalist Paper Number 51), the
importance of an independent judiciary (Federalist Paper Number 78),
enumerated powers, rule of law, federalism, and civilian control of the
military.
6. Understand that the Bill of
Rights limits the powers of the federal government and state governments.
12.2
Becoming a U.S. Citizen (12.2.6)
Students
evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and
obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they
are secured.
1. Discuss the meaning and
importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how
each is secured (e.g., freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition,
privacy).
2. Explain how economic rights are
secured and their importance to the individual and to society (e.g., the right
to acquire, use, transfer, and dispose of property; right to choose one’s work;
right to join labor unions; copyright and patent).
3. Discuss the individual’s legal
obligations to obey the law, serve as a juror, and pay taxes.
4. Understand the obligations of
civic-mindedness, including voting, being informed on civic issues,
volunteering and performing public service, and serving in the military or
alternative service.
5. Describe the reciprocity between
rights and obligations; that is why enjoyment of one’s rights entails respect
for the rights of others.
6. Explain how one becomes a citizen
of the United States, including the process of naturalization (e.g., literacy,
language, and other requirements).
Political Action Committees (12.3.2)Students
evaluate and take and defend positions on what the fundamental values and
principles of civil society are (i.e., the autonomous sphere of voluntary
personal, social, and economic relations that are not part of government),
their interdependence, and the meaning and importance of those values and
principles for a free society.
1. Explain how civil society
provides opportunities for individuals to associate for social, cultural,
religious, economic, and political purposes.
2. Explain how civil society makes
it possible for people, individually or in association with others, to bring
their influence to bear on government in ways other than voting and elections.
3. Discuss the historical role of
religion and religious diversity.
4. Compare the relationship of government and civil society in constitutional democracies to the relationship of government and civil society in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.
How a Bill Becomes a Law (12.4.1)Students
analyze the unique roles and responsibilities of the three branches of
government as established by he U.S. Constitution.
1. Discuss Article I of the
Constitution as it relates to the legislative branch, including eligibility for
office and lengths of terms of representatives and senators; election to
office; the roles of the House and Senate in impeachment proceedings; the role
of the vice president; the enumerated legislative powers; and the process by
which a bill becomes a law.
2. Explain the process through which
the Constitution can be amended.
3. Identify their current
representatives in the legislative branch of the national government.
4. Discuss Article II of the
Constitution as it relates to the executive branch, including eligibility for
office and length of term, election to and removal from office, the oath of
office, and the enumerated executive powers.
5. Discuss Article III of the
Constitution as it relates to judicial power, including the length of terms of
judges and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
6. Explain the processes of
selection and confirmation of Supreme Court justices.
Miranda v. Arizona (12.5.4)Students
summarize landmark U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and
its amendments.
1. Understand the changing
interpretations of the Bill of Rights over time, including interpretations of
the basic freedoms (religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly) articulated
in the First Amendment and the due process and equal-protection-of-the-law
clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Analyze judicial activism and
judicial restraint and the effects of each policy over the decades (e.g.,
Warren and Rehnquist courts).
3. Evaluate the effects of the
Court’s interpretations of the Constitution in Marbury v. Madison,
McCulloch v. Maryland, and United States v. Nixon,
with emphasis on the arguments espoused by each side in these cases.
4. Explain the controversies that
have resulted over changing interpretations of civil rights, including those in
Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda
v. Arizona, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke,
Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, and United States v. Virginia
(VMI).
The Electoral College (12.6.6)Students
evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective
offices.
1. Analyze the origin, development,
and role of political parties, noting those occasional periods in which there
was only one major party or were more than two major parties.
2. Discuss the history of the
nomination process for presidential candidates and the increasing importance of
primaries in general elections.
3. Evaluate the roles of polls,
campaign advertising, and the controversies over campaign funding.
4. Describe the means that citizens
use to participate in the political process (e.g., voting, campaigning,
lobbying, filing a legal challenge, demonstrating, petitioning, picketing,
running for political office).
5. Discuss the features of direct
democracy in numerous states (e.g., the process of referendums, recall
elections).
Separation of Powers (12.7.2)Students
analyze and compare the powers and procedures of the national, state, tribal,
and local governments.
1. Explain how conflicts between
levels of government and branches of government are resolved.
2. Identify the major
responsibilities and sources of revenue for state and local governments.
3. Discuss reserved powers and concurrent powers of state governments.
4. Discuss the Ninth and Tenth Amendments
and interpretations of the extent of the federal government’s power.
5. Explain how public policy is formed, including the setting of the public agenda and implementation of it through regulations and executive orders.
6. Compare the processes of lawmaking at each of the three levels of government, including the role of lobbying and the media.
7. Identify the organization and jurisdiction of federal, state, and local (e.g., California) courts and the interrelationships among them.
8. Understand the scope of presidential power and decision making through examination of case studies such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, passage of Great Society legislation, War Powers Act, Gulf War, and Bosnia.
Media and Politics (12.8.2)Students
evaluate and take and defend positions on the influence of the media on
American political life.
1. Discuss the meaning and
importance of a free and responsible press.
2. Describe the roles of broadcast,
print, and electronic media, including the Internet, as means of communication
in American politics.
3. Explain how public officials use the media to communicate with the citizenry and to shape public opinion.
Tyranny in Haiti (12.9.4)Students
analyze the origins, characteristics, and development of different political
systems across time, with emphasis on the quest for political democracy, its
advances, and its obstacles.
1. Explain how the different
philosophies and structures of feudalism, mercantilism, socialism, fascism,
communism, monarchies, parliamentary systems, and constitutional liberal
democracies influence economic policies, social welfare policies, and human
rights practices.
2. Compare the various ways in which
power is distributed, shared, and limited in systems of shared powers and in
parliamentary systems, including the influence of parliamentary leaders (e.g.,
William Gladstone, Margaret Thatcher).
3. Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of federal, confederal, and unitary systems of government.
4. Describe for at least two
countries the consequences of conditions that gave rise to tyrannies during
certain periods (e.g., Italy, Japan, Haiti, Nigeria, Cambodia).
5. Identify the forms of
illegitimate power that twentieth-century African, Asian, and Latin American
dictators used to gain and hold office and the conditions and interests that
supported them.
6. Identify the ideologies, causes,
stages, and outcomes of major Mexican, Central American, and South American
revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
7. Describe the ideologies that gave
rise to Communism, methods of maintaining control, and the movements to
overthrow such governments in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, including
the roles of individuals (e.g., Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, Lech
Walesa, Vaclav Havel).
8. Identify the successes of
relatively new democracies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the ideas,
leaders, and general societal conditions that have launched and sustained, or
failed to sustain, them.
Balancing Majority Rule with Individual Rights (12.10)Students formulate questions about and
defend their analyses of tensions within our constitutional democracy and the
importance of maintaining a balance between the following concepts: majority
rule and individual rights; liberty and equality; state and national authority
in a federal system; civil disobedience and the rule of law; freedom of the
press and the right to a fair trial; the relationship of religion and
government.