American Political Institutions will be an introduction to the study of the majthemes and issues funderstanding contemporary American politics, including the most recent 2016 presidential national election. Following the format of the textbook, American Government: Roots and Reform – 2016 Presidential Election by Karen O’Connand Larry J. Sabato, the course will begin in part 1 chapter 1 with a survey of the latest findings on American political culture and the politically relevant characteristics of American society. Chapter 2 continues with a focus on the creation of the United States of America and its Constitution. Chapter 3 delves in-depth into the basic structure and evolution of American federalism as the most basic feature of American national government. Chapter 4 focuses on American civil liberties as protections from the national government as they have evolved from their inclusion in the first amendments to the Constitution: the Bill of Rights. Chapter 5 focuses on the transition to the struggle fincorporation of civil liberties at the national federal level into civil rights fall US individual citizens. Part 2, Chapter 6 begins the study of contemporary American national governmental institutions with its focus on the US Congress. Chapter 7 focuses on the Presidency. Chapter 8 focuses on the less visible but critically important role in American national life of the rest of the executive branch including the federal bureaucracy. Chapter 9 focuses on the third branch of the US national government, the judiciary, a branch which plays an ever more important role in mediating and resolving disputes in an ever more complex American society through applying and adapting US law. The course then shifts to use another book, an edited volume, Campaign of Chaos: Trump, Biden, Harris, and the 2024 American Election edited by Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman (New York, Bloomsbury, 2025), to cover the 2024 US presidential election.