Exam prep · Free college course
A complete introductory course on American national government, built from the 17 chapters of OpenStax American Government 4e plus the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Federalist 10 and 51. It starts with what government is and who governs, then the founding: the Articles of Confederation, the Convention's compromises, ratification and the amendment process. Federalism, civil liberties and civil rights follow, and two recall units gather the landmark Supreme Court cases (case to holding and back) and the Constitution's articles and amendments in one place. The rest covers public opinion, voting and elections, the media, parties and interest groups, Congress, the presidency, the courts, state and local government as a general survey, and the bureaucracy and public policy. This is the federal course only: it is not a substitute for a course on your own state's government. Each chapter starts with a short notes card and then mixes recall, multiple choice, cloze, true or false, and sequence cards for processes such as how a bill becomes law. Cards state rules and holdings rather than who currently holds an office, and rulings that were later overturned say so. The cards are text only, with no diagrams.
Copied straight from the course. In the app, each wrong option also gets its own explanation.
Card 1What does Madison conclude about the causes of faction in Federalist 10?
They cannot be removed, only their effects controlled. Removing the causes would mean destroying liberty or giving everyone the same opinions, so he looks to controlling the effects.
Card 2Which 1962 case held that official, school-sponsored prayer in public schools violates the Establishment Clause?
Engel v. Vitale. Official prayer led by teachers, coaches or school officials is barred; voluntary, non-disruptive student prayer stays protected.
Card 3A representative spends a week helping constituents sort out Social Security problems with a federal agency. Which incumbency advantage is this?
Casework. Helping constituents with federal agencies builds goodwill that helps an incumbent at election time.
Yes. Create a free Encodr account and all 17 units and 1,224 cards are yours to study, with spaced repetition scheduling your reviews.
OpenStax American Government 4e (all 17 chapters, CC BY-NC-SA) plus its appendices on the Declaration, the Constitution and Federalist 10 and 51. Case holdings were checked against the Court opinions and Oyez. The cards are rewritten, not copied.
No. This is a federal course. The state and local unit is a general survey of how state governments work, not a substitute for a course on any one state's constitution and government.
Yes. Unit 6 gathers the landmark cases the book names, with the facts, the question, the holding and the significance on separate cards, and cards say when a later ruling overturned or limited an older one.
Cards state institutional rules and the year of a figure instead of naming the current office-holder, so they do not quietly go out of date.
No. Cards are text only, so maps, charts and the text of documents are described in words.