Essential Questions of Unit 2 1.To what extent does the DOI, Constitution, and the Amendments recognize and protect the rights of the individual? 2.Why do people differ in their beliefs on the proper role of government? Does our Government established by the Constitution promote morality, fairness, equality, and freedom? 3.How should the Government balance individual rights (including your rights) with promoting the common good? How much are you willing to sacrifice? 4.Who has the power in America? Are trade-offs necessary when creating a government? To what extent has does our Constitution/B.O.R. strike to proper balance between competing ideals? (liberty and authority, freedom and equality, and efficiency and equity) 5.To what extent are varying perspectives represented in our Constitution and Amendments? How much do varying perspectives impact our government/society today? 6. How effectively did the founding fathers recognize, protect against, and utilize the idea of self-interest when creating the Constitution and the Amendments? 7.To what extent can a person in government promote their own self interest without regarding the interest of others? 8.To what extent does the ratification process, voting process, lawmaking process, and amendment process represent voluntary exchanges? 9.How much does the Constitution and the Amendments create harmony amongst individuals? In this country how are collective decisions reached? Is the minority still protected? 10.Why and How does the Constitution and the Amendments prevent concentrations of power? How well has the plan succeed? 11.To what extent do the principles of the Constitution promote or hinder efficiency in our government? 12.Does the government do a good job of recognizing ALL costs and benefits of a policy? To what extent should the costs and benefits of public policy be equally shared amongst individuals in society? 13.Does our system of government result in greater choice, accurate information, and the opportunity to respond to feedback? 14.To what extent does our Constitution create an Open or Closed system? To what extent does our government function as it was intended? How much are the fundamental principles still relevant today? To what extent is the Constitution a “living document?” 15.To extent does the Constitution and BOR create or remove barriers?

Enduring Understandings of the Class The Individual (Self) 1.All Individuals have self-worth and natural rights. 2.An Individual’s experiences and perspective establishes their values and allows them to develop their own definition of subjective terms such as fairness, equality, morality, and value. 3.The Individual is the basic unit of decision-making whether it is economic, social, or political. (Only individuals matter, and all individuals matter equally). 4.Individual decision-making involves making trade-offs, rationally thinking on the margin, and responding to incentives. (All resources are scarce, there is nothing without costs, there is no “right or wrong” – only trade-offs, and people respond to incentives). 5.Societies and governments are comprised of individuals. Only individuals have the ability to think, feel, believe, make decisions and have values. How Individuals interact (Others) 6.Individual’s pursing their self-interest both compete and cooperate with others. People are simultaneously self regarding and others regarding. 7.When there is a “repeating game” an individual can only promote their own interest, if they are in tune with the interest and reactions of others. Selfishness = self destruction 8.Voluntary exchanges are made between individuals because they believe that they will be mutually benefited. Systems 9. The manner in which individual self interest is coordinated and how collective decisions are made defines the economic and political systems. 10. The concentration of power is the biggest threat to liberty and free choice. 11. Collective decisions are restricted by the same parameters that apply to individual decisions. 12. All decisions result in both private and social impacts, nothing occurs in isolation. 13. In systems where individuals have freedom of choice, accurate information, and the ability to respond to feedback, no free exchanges will take place unless both parties benefit. 14. Relatively speaking, all systems are either open or closed and have feedback loops which lead to evolution. 15. Barriers restrict evolution and growth