News and Public Affairs

Crash Course Government and Politics

Welcome to school without the classroom! Host Craig Benzine takes you through a tour of US government and politics.

Foreign Policy: Crash Course Government and Politics #50

9m 30s

Today Craig finishes up our series on U.S. Government and Politics by talking about both the least and most important aspect of government: foreign policy. Foreign policy is important because it has the potential to affect the largest number of people, but at the same time, it tends to play a minimal role in our perception of the government (unless we’re at war).

Episodes

  • Foreign Policy: Crash Course Government and Politics #50: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Foreign Policy: Crash Course Government and Politics #50

    S1 E50 - 9m 30s

    Today Craig finishes up our series on U.S. Government and Politics by talking about both the least and most important aspect of government: foreign policy. Foreign policy is important because it has the potential to affect the largest number of people, but at the same time, it tends to play a minimal role in our perception of the government (unless we’re at war).

  • Monetary and Fiscal Policy: Crash Course Government #48: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Monetary and Fiscal Policy: Crash Course Government #48

    S1 E48 - 9m 18s

    Craig is going to dive into the controversy of monetary and fiscal policy. Monetary and fiscal policy are ways the government, and most notably the Federal Reserve, influences the economy - for better or for worse.

  • Government Regulation: Crash Course Government #47: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Government Regulation: Crash Course Government #47

    S1 E47 - 9m 46s

    Today, we're going to wrap up our discussion of economic policy by looking at government regulation. We're going to talk about the government's goals for the U.S. economy and the policies it employs to achieve those goals. Ever since the New Deal, we've seen an increased role of the government within the economy - even with the deregulation initiatives of President Carter and Reagan in the 80's.

  • Media Regulation: Crash Course Government #45: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Media Regulation: Crash Course Government #45

    S1 E45 - 9m 13s

    Today we wrap up our discussion of the media by talking about how the government interacts with and influences the content we see. Now it may be easy to assume that because we live in a free-market capitalist society, the only real regulation of the media is determined by the consumers, but this isn’t necessarily true.

  • Media Institution: Crash Course Government #44: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Media Institution: Crash Course Government #44

    S1 E44 - 8m 40s

    So today we're going to look at the rather thorny issue of the media and its role in politics. Wether you're talking about older forms of media like newspapers and radio or newer forms like television and the Internet, all media serves the same purpose - to provide information to the public.

  • Interest Group Formation: Crash Course Government #43: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Interest Group Formation: Crash Course Government #43

    S1 E43 - 8m 53s

    So last week we talked about what special interest groups are and how they influence the political system, and today we're going to focus on why we even have them in the first place. As to avoid getting too cynical, we're going to focus on five benefits of special interest groups and look at how these factor weigh in a group's formation and size.

  • Interest Groups: Crash Course Government #42: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Interest Groups: Crash Course Government #42

    S1 E42 - 8m 10s

    Craig is going to talk about something you fans out there have been demanding for months - money in politics. Specifically, we're going to talk about special interest groups and their role in the U.S. political system.

  • Party Systems: Crash Course Government #41: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Party Systems: Crash Course Government #41

    S1 E41 - 10m 47s

    Let's dive into the history of American political parties. So throughout most of United States history our political system has been dominated by a two-party system, but the policies and the groups that support these parties have changed drastically throughout history. There have been five, arguably six, party systems since the election of John Adams in 1796.

  • Political Parties: Crash Course Government #40: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Political Parties: Crash Course Government #40

    S1 E40 - 9m 22s

    Today, Craig is going to talk about political parties and their role in American politics. When most people think about political parties they associate them with the common ideologies of the voters and representatives within that party, but the goal of a party is NOT to influence policies. The role of political parties is much simpler: to win control of the government.

  • Political Campaigns: Crash Course Government #39: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Political Campaigns: Crash Course Government #39

    S1 E39 - 9m 35s

    Political campaigns are a pretty big deal in the United States. For instance the 2012 presidential election clocked in at the most expensive ever - at around $6 billion dollars! Needless to say, money plays a very big role in American elections.

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