Government

Most adults agree that one goal of social studies education is to build better citizens. Chester can help! The four chapters in this graphic novel turn political theory into funny and active visual examples, from forming a new government on an alien planet to passing a law to power bicycles with solar energy. This colorful graphic novel will excite reluctant readers, prepare students for standardized tests in history and help homeschooling parents!

Comic sample page #1: Who runs an Aristocracy?
Comic sample page #2: Who goes to Electoral College?
Topics covered in this comic book
View a teacher’s guide for this comic

Who runs an aristocracy

who goes to electoral college?

CHAPTER 1
KINDS OF GOVERNMENT

English thinker John Locke said we have a right to protect the rights we are born with. The American Revolution acted on that idea by arguing that people as a group can choose whatever government they think will best protect those rights. But what are the choices? What are the ways that people have organized themselves to make their own rules and protections? Chester and his friends get a chance to try different governments on a distant planet with an unfriendly alien . . .

Kinds of Government answers the following topics:
What does government do?
Why is dictatorship a bad government?
Who runs an aristocracy?
What is socialist government?
What is representative democracy?

CHAPTER 2 THE LAWMAKERS

The government of the United States has three branches: the legislative to make the laws, the executive to enforce the laws, and the judicial to review how those laws are working. The way the legislative branch works an idea into a law can be long and confusing. Our governments have a lot of checks and balances to keep bad ideas from becoming laws . . .

The Lawmakers answers the following topics:
Who makes the rules?
What gets committed in committee?
Who can amend what they meant?
How do solar cells really work?
Who can drop the veto hammer?

CHAPTER 3 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

One of the most important things a United States citizen can do to help run the government is to vote in elections at the local, state, and national level. The election that everyone can vote on is the race for president. Every four years men and women compete to see who will lead our executive branch. But this is no simple popularity contest. The Founding Fathers put in an important twist: the electoral college . . .

Presidential Election answers the following topics:
Who represents in America?
Who throws political parties?
How do parties pick candidates?
Who goes to electoral college?
What does “mudslinging” mean?

CHAPTER 4 PRESIDENTIAL CABINET

One of the most dramatic changes in the United States government over the past 200 years is the growth of the executive branch. The number of people who help the president enact the laws and run the day-to-day operations of the federal government has grown from a few thousand to millions because Americans expect more and more services from their government. Here is how a president organizes all his workers . . .

Presidential Cabinet answers the following topics:
Who is in the president’s cabinet?
Who promotes the general welfare?
Who plays defense for state?
Who guards our trees and corn?
Who watches big (and small) business?

Government

View the GOVERNMENT Teacher’s Guide