Advanced American Government & Economics Syllabus

• Paperback – 70 pages
• by Laura Berquist

We use The Federalists and Anti-Federalists as the main text along with excerpts from the Summa Theologiae and various other works. The course begins with a study of the nature of law using selected articles from the Summa Theologiae by St. Thomas Aquinas. Then the student examines the formation of the American Government by reading not only the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but also many other works from that period that illustrate the political debates of the time such as The American Revolutionaries, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, The Federalists and Antifederalists, and Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. The student also reads Quadragesimo Anno in order to review what the Catholic Church teaches concerning government. The course concludes with an examination of Economics. The student reads Economics in One Lesson which provides a clear account of economic principles. We also include essay and paper topics to give the student practice with writing in variety of styles. The Advanced American Government & Economics Syllabus has a day-by-day breakdown of this course along with paper topics, questions for discussion, and a variety of teaching resources including Twelfth Grade Subject Rubrics, Learning Objectives, and grading charts. This is a 1 year, 1 credit course.