1. AP GOVERNMENT
Ch 15 Notes

2. The Policy-Making Process
Agenda Building: identifying a problem and getting it on the agenda.
Policy Formulation: the debate that occurs among government officials and the public in the media, in Congress, and through campaigns.
Policy Adoption: selection of a strategy for addressing the problem from among the solutions discussed.
Policy Implementation: the administration of the policy adopted
Policy Evaluation.

3. II. Health Care The Rising Cost of Health Care Medicare Medicaid
Advanced Technology
The Government’s Role in Financing Health Care
Medicare
Medicaid
Why has Medicaid spending exploded?
Medicaid and the States

4. II. Health Care (cont.) D. The Uninsured The Uninsured Employed
Shifting Costs to the Uninsured
E.  National Health Insurance
The Canadian System
F.  Health Savings Account

7. III. Life Expectancy in the U.S.

8. IV. Poverty and Welfare
Income transfers, transfers of income from some individuals in the economy to other individuals. This is generally done by way of the government.
The Low-Income Population
The Antipoverty Budget

9. IV. Poverty and Welfare (cont.)
D.  Basic Welfare
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
E.  Welfare Controversies
F.  Supplemental Security Income (SSI) 
G.  Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) 
H.  Homelessness

11. V. Immigration The Continued Influx of Immigrants
More than a million people a year immigrate to this country. 
Minority Groups will constitute the “majority” of America by 2060.
Some point out the positives of immigration—offsetting the low birthrate and aging population.

12. D. Attempts at Immigration Reform
2006 Congress initiated, but did not pass, sweeping legislation that would make all illegal immigrants in the United States felons.

13. VI. Crime in the 21st Century
Crime in American History
Crimes Committed by Juveniles
The Cost of Crime to American Society

14. Declining Crime Rates

15. Declining Homicide Rates

16. Declining Theft Rates

18. The United States
has the highest
incarceration rate
among major
world nations
measured
by the number
of prisoners
per 100,000 residents.

19. Incarceration Rates by Population Group

20. VI. Crime in the 21st Century (cont.)
D. Federal Drug Policy
Money spent on federal drug interdiction programs has not met with much success, as illegal drug consumption in the U.S. has remained steady. State and local governments, however, have been attempting new remedies to curtail the drug problem.
E. Confronting Terrorism
Counter-terrorism strategies will necessarily be a part of federal government policy for years to come.

21. VII. Environmental Policy
Environmentalism
Conservation was a policy under which natural resources should be used, but not abused.
Preservation called for natural preserves that are isolated from the effects of human activity.
The Environmentalist Movement
Ecology

22. D. Cleaning Up the Air and Water
1.  The National Environmental Policy Act
2.  Curbing Air Pollution
The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1963 constitute a comprehensive policy mandating cleaner air in urban areas.
3.  Water Pollution
The Clean Water Act sought to make waters safe for swimming, protect fish and wildlife, and eliminate the discharge of pollutants into the water.

23. E. Cost-Effective Solutions
1.   One method of supporting cost-effective solutions was part of the Clean Air Act of The act capped overall national sulfur dioxide emissions but also permitted free trade in “rights” to emit sulfur dioxide. As a result, the sulfur dioxide emissions are made by the companies that reap the greatest economic advantage from their right to emit. 
2.   As a result of legislation, air and water pollution is down dramatically from what it was three or so decades ago. Lead content in the air is 3 percent of what it was. Sulfur dioxide is down by four-fifths. 

24. F. Other Environmental Issues
The Endangered Species Act (ESA)
Global Warming
The Kyoto Protocol
The Global Warming Debate

25. Possible FRQ Ideas
Presuming that national health insurance is off the table in the United Sates, what else could be done to protect the uninsured population from catastrophic medical costs? 
How important is income in children’s achievement? What things can money buy that can help children achieve? What can it not?

26. Possible FRQ Ideas
III.  Prison populations continue to explode. What can be done?
IV.   Why are environmental problems often difficult to legislate away? What improvements have been made in air and water quality in recent years? What problems still need solutions? 

27. Chapter 16 Economic Policy

28. I. Introduction
A major economic policy issue is how to maintain stable economic growth without falling into either excessive unemployment or inflation (rising prices).
Inflation, a sustained rise in the general price level of goods and services.

29. II. Good Times, Bad Times
The U.S. economy experiences booms and busts. The busts are called recessions.
Recession, two or more successive quarters in which the economy shrinks instead of grows.
Unemployment
Full employment, an arbitrary level of unemployment that corresponds to “normal” friction in the labor market.
Measuring unemployment.
Inflation
The Business Cycle: reoccurring booms and busts

30. E. More than a Century of Unemployment

31. Changing Rates of Inflation: 1860-Present

32. National Business Activity, 1880-Present

33. III. Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policy is concerned with achieving economic policy goals through changes in spending or levels of taxation.
Keynesian Economics
Government Spending
Government Borrowing
Discretionary Fiscal Policy
The Thorny Problem of Timing
Automatic Stabilizers

34. IV. Deficit Spending and the Public Debt
The government funds its deficit primarily by selling U.S. Treasury bonds. Twenty years ago, only 15 percent of these bonds were held abroad. Today the figure is 40 percent.
15%
40%

35. Deficit Spending and the Public Debt (cont)
B. The Public Debt in Perspective
Net public debt, the accumulation of all past federal government deficits; the total amount owed by the federal government to individuals, businesses, and foreigners.
Gross domestic product (GDP), the dollar value of all final goods and services produced in a one-year period.
C. Are We Always in Debt?

36. The Growth
of the
Net Public
Debt of the
Federal
Government

37. Net Public Debt as a Percentage of GDP

38. V. Monetary Policy
Monetary policy, the utilization of changes in the amount of money in circulation to alter credit markets, employment, and the rate of inflation.
Organization of the Federal Reserve System
Loose and Tight Monetary Policies. The Fed implements policy by increasing or reducing the rate of growth of the money supply.
Increasing the rate of growth is loose monetary policy.
Reducing the rate is tight monetary policy.

39. Monetary Policy (cont.)
Monetary policy has a problem with time lags, but the Fed can make a policy change more quickly than Congress.
The Fed announces changes to monetary policy by raising or lowering the federal funds rate, a government-controlled interest rate for funds that banks borrow from each other.

40. Monetary Policy (cont.)
F. The Fed Tackles Inflation
Volkernomics
Monetary Policy versus Fiscal Policy. If interest rates go high enough, people will stop borrowing and inflation will subside. Monetary policy cannot force people to borrow money in a recession. While monetary policy is more powerful against inflation, fiscal policy is more effective against recessions, because the government does the borrowing itself.

41. VI. World Trade Imports and Exports
Imports, goods and services produced outside a country but sold within its borders.
Exports, goods and services produced domestically for sale abroad.
The Impact of Import Restrictions on Exports
Protecting American Jobs
Quotas and Tariffs
Free Trade Areas and Common Markets

42. World Trade Keeps Growing

43. VII. The World Trade Organization
The WTO seeks to lower trade barriers worldwide.
What the WTO Does: The WTO also has a dispute-resolution mechanism that nations may use.
The WTO and Globalization.
The WTO has become the focus of those who fear the supposed dangers of globalization. Neither the United States nor any other country has a veto power within the WTO.

44. VIII. The Balance of Trade and the Current Account Balance
The balance of trade, or the difference between the value of a nation’s exports of goods and its imports of goods. The U.S. balance of trade has been significantly negative for many years.
The current account balance includes the balance of trade in services, unilateral transfers, and other items. It is also negative and has been growing more so.
Are we borrowing too much from other countries?

46. Taxes as a Percentage of GDP

47. IX. The Politics of Taxes
Currently, Americans pay taxes that total somewhat less than 30 percent of the GDP.
Federal Income Tax Rates
Loopholes and Lowered Taxes
Progressive and Regressive Taxation
Who Pays?
Liberals tend to favor progressive taxes.
Conservatives either favor taxes that are less progressive, or even flat or regressive.

48. Marginal Tax Rates

49. X. The Social Security Problem
Social Security was established in 1935 with the intent of providing a type of insurance for a large segment of the public.
Social Security is not a pension fund.
Workers Per Retiree
Initially for every recipient of Social Security there were forty workers paying into the general fund—a one-to-forty ratio. Today, the ratio is more like one-to-three, and it will get worse in future years.

50. XI. What Will it Take to Salvage Social Security?
Raising taxes
Reducing benefits payouts
What do you think will happen to Social Security in 30 years? 60 years? 100 years?

51. A comparison of
the number of
active workers
per
retirees.

52. Possible FRQ Questions
Why are the public and the economics profession on such different wavelengths when it comes to world trade?
How much of a problem is it that the United Sates has become so dependent on money borrowed from foreign countries? What might happen if foreigners stopped lending?

53. Possible FRQ Questions
Is progressive taxation “fair”? Support your argument that this form of taxation is either fair or unfair.
Which of the proposals to “fix” Social Security have the most merit? Which do you think would cause the most problems?

54. Ch 17 Foreign Policy

55. Facing the World: Foreign and Defense Policy
Foreign policy includes the techniques and strategies used to achieve external goals, as well as the goals themselves. Some of the techniques used in carrying out foreign policy include: diplomacy—the total process by which states carry on political relations, economic aid—assistance to other nations in the form of grants, loans, or credits to purchase goods, and technical assistance—sending experts with technical skills in agriculture, engineering, or business to aid other nations

56. II. National Security and Diplomacy
National security: the protection of the independence and political and economic integrity of the United States.
Defense policy includes the directing of the scale and size of the American armed forces and considers the types of armed forces we need, how many wars we need to be prepared to fight simultaneously, and the type of weaponry that will be required.
Diplomacy is the total process by which states carry on political relations with each other.

57. III. Morality Versus Reality in Foreign Policy
Moral Idealism
This view of the world sees nations as normally willing to cooperate and agree on moral standards.
Political Realism
This principle supports a strong military and a willingness to make deals with dictators.
American Foreign Policy—A Mixture of Both
Every president has based his foreign policy on both of these principles, though some have tended to stress one or the other of the two

58. IV. Challenges in World Politics
The Emergence of Terrorism
Terrorism and Regional Strife
Terrorist Attacks against Foreign Civilians
September 11
The War on Terrorism
Military Responses
A New Kind of War
Bush has enunciated a new doctrine of “preemptive war” to deal with terrorism.

59. V. Wars in Iraq
Saddam Hussein’s annexation of Kuwait in August 1990 was the most clear-cut case of aggression against an independent nation since World War II.
The Persian Gulf—The First Gulf War
The Persian Gulf—The Second Gulf War
Occupied Iraq
Uprisings: Spring 2004

61. Ethnic/
Religious
Groups in
Iraq

62. VI. Nuclear Weapons
America gained nuclear weapons in 1945, the Soviet Union in 1949, Britain in 1952, France in 1960, and China in These powers remained the only ones with open nuclear weapons programs until 1998, when Pakistan and India tested nuclear weapons.
The U.S. and the Soviet Union
Nuclear Proliferation

63. VII. The New Power: China
American policy has been to engage the Chinese in diplomatic and economic relationships in the hope of turning the nation in a more pro-Western direction.
Chinese-American Trade Ties
Chinese-American Tensions

64. VIII. Regional Conflicts
Cuba
Israel and the Palestinians
The collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
The Israeli-Hezbollah (Lebanon) War
AIDS in South Africa
African Civil War

65. IX. Who Makes Foreign Policy?
Constitutional Powers of the President
War Powers
Treaties and Executive Agreements
The president appoints ambassadors and decides whether to recognize other governments as legitimate.

66. B. Informal Techniques of Presidential Leadership
1. These include: accessing information from within the executive branch, influencing the budgetary constraints in all areas of appropriations, economic aid, military aid, and humanitarian aid, using the “bully pulpit” to build public support for programs, committing the nation to courses of action from which it would be very difficult to back down even if Congress wished to.

67. C. Other Sources of Foreign Policymaking
The Department of State
The National Security Council
The Intelligence Community
Covert Actions
Criticisms of the Intelligence Community
4. The Department of Defense

68. 5. Congress Balances the President
After the War in Vietnam ( ), Congress sought to restrain the president’s ability to unilaterally commit forces to combat with the War Powers Resolution (1973). Presidents since, however, have often not consulted Congress before committing troops, and that can create a situation in which Congress does not dare recall them. Congress can sometimes take the lead, for example by voting sanctions on South Africa to oppose that nation’s former policy of racial discrimination known as apartheid.

69. X. Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy
Elite and Mass Opinion
Both presidents and elites try to influence that subset of the public that has a strong interest in foreign policy, the attentive public.
The Military-Industrial Complex
The military-industrial complex is the term that describes the mutually beneficial relationship between the armed forces and defense contractors.

70. XI. The Major Foreign Policy Themes
The Formative Years: Avoiding Entanglements
The Monroe Doctrine
The Spanish-American War and World War I
The Era of Internationalism
The Cold War
Containment Policy

71. Europe During the Cold War

72. XII. Superpower Relations
The Cuban Missile Crisis
A Period of Détente
The Reagan-Bush Years
The Dissolution of the Soviet Union

73. Europe After the Fall of the Soviet Union

74. Possible FRQ Question Ideas
How strong militarily was the United States in the 1790s? Could the U.S. have been very active in world affairs? What was the major goal of U.S. policy then?
Is it easy for the president and Congress to set a course for foreign policy? What kinds of measures can the U.S. use to combat terrorism?

75. Possible FRQ Question Ideas
Why will relations with China prove important in the years to come?