Chapter 2

Question 1

What is mercantilism?

Answer 1

An economic system that sees trade as the basis of the accumulation of wealth.

Question 2

What is the divine right of kings?

Answer 2

The political culture that understood power to be vested in the king because he was God’s representative on earth.

Question 3

What is a social contract?

Answer 3

The idea that power is not derived from God but instead comes from and is limited by the consent of the governed, who can revolt against the government they contract with if their rights are not protected

Question 4

Who is John Locke?

Answer 4

The British philosopher who introduced the idea that the social contract was conditional on the government’s protection of rights and could be revoked if the government failed to protect those rights.

Question 5

What is the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 5

The political document that dissolved the colonial ties between the United States and Britain.

Question 6

What are Inalienable rights?

Answer 6

Rights that we are born with, that cannot be taken away from us, and that we cannot sell.

Question 7

What is republican virtue?

Answer 7

The idea that citizens would act in the public interest without coercion by a strong government.

Question 8

What is compromise?

Answer 8

The act of giving up something you want in order to get something else you want more; an exercise in determining and trading off priorities.

Question 8

What are Articles of Confederation?

Answer 8

The first constitution of the United States, ratified in 1781, creating an association of states with a weak central government.

Question 9

What is a confederation?

Answer 9

A form of government in which all the power lies with the local units; in the American case, that’s the states.

Question 10

What is the Constitutional Convention?

Answer 10

The assembly of 55 delegates in the summer of 1787 to recast the Articles of Confederation; the result was the U.S. Constitution.

Question 11

What are Federalists?

Answer 11

Supporters of the Constitution who favored a strong central government.

Question 12

What are Anti-Federalists?

Answer 12

Advocated of states’ rights who oppose the Constitution.

Question 13

What is the Virginia Plan?

Answer 13

A proposal at the Constitutional Convention that congressional representation be based on population, thus favoring larger states.

Question 14

What is bicameral legislature?

Answer 14

A lawmaking body with 2 chambers.

Question 15

What is the New Jersey Plan?

Answer 15

A proposal at the Constitutional Convention that congressional representation be equal, thus favoring small states.

Question 16

What is the Great Compromise?

Answer 16

The constitutional solution to congressional representation: equal votes in the Senate, votes by population in the House.

Question 17

What is the Three-Fifths compramise?

Answer 17

The formula for counting every enslaved person as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation; reconciled northern and southern factions at the Constitutional Convention.

Question 18

What is ratification?

Answer 18

The process through which a proposal (such as the Constitution) is formally approved and adopted by vote.

Question 19

What are the Federalist Papers?

Answer 19

A collection of 85 newspaper editorials written in support of the Constitution under the pseudonym Publius, whose real identity was 3 Federalists: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Question 20

What are factions?

Answer 20

Groups of citizens united by some common passion or interest and opposed to the rights of other citizens or to the interests of the whole community.

Question 21

Who is James Madison?

Answer 21

One of the founders whose key insight was to design a system that takes human nature as it is (self-interested, greedy, and ambitious), not as you want it to be.

Question 22

What is the separation of powers?

Answer 22

The division of the government vertically into branches:
1. Legislative
2. Executive
3. Judicial

Question 23

What are checks and balances?

Answer 23

The idea that each branch of government has just enough power over the others that their jealousy will guard against the overreach of others.

Question 24

What is federalism?

Answer 24

The horizontal division of government into layers:
1. National (also called federal)
2. State

Question 25

What is the legislative branch?

Answer 25

The lawmaking component of the federal government.

Question 26

What is the executive branch?

Answer 26

The law-enforcing component of the federal government.

Question 27

What is the judicial branch?

Answer 27

The law-interpreting component of the federal government.

Question 28

What is the parliamentary system?

Answer 28

Government in which the executive is chosen by the legislature from among its members and the two branches are merged.

Question 29

What is the presidential system?

Answer 29

Government in which the executive is chose independently of the legislature and the two branches are separate.

Question 30

What are political norms?

Answer 30

the unwritten rules and principles that underlie the Constitution and make it work when they are followed.

Question 31

What is the amendment process?

Answer 31

The process by which the Constitution may be changed.

Question 32

What are concurrent powers?

Answer 32

Powers that are shared by the federal and state governments.

Question 33

What are enumerated powers?

Answer 33

Congressional powers specifically named in the Constitution.

Question 34

What is the necessary and proper clause?

Answer 34

The constitutional authorization for Congress to make any law required to carry out its powers.

Question 35

What is the Tenth Amendment?

Answer 35

The amendment that stipulates that any powers not explicitly given to the national government are reserved to the states.

Question 36

What is the supremacy clause?

Answer 36

A constitutional clause that says the Constitution itself and national laws made under it are the law of the land.

Question 37

Who is John Marshall?

Answer 37

The third chief justice of the Supreme Court; believed in the Federalist vision of a strong national government.

Question 38

What is Marbury v. Madison?

Answer 38

The 1803 Supreme Court ruling holding that the Court had the power of judicial review.

Question 39

What is McCulloch v. Maryland?

Answer 39

The 1819 Suprem Court ruling holding that the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution could be interpreted broadly to include many powers that are not among the enumerated powers of Congress.

Question 40

What is Gibbons v. Ogden?

Answer 40

The 1824 Supreme Court decision that opened the door to federal regulation of commerce, broadly understood to mean most forms of business.

Question 41

What is judicial review?

Answer 41

The Supreme Court’s power to determine if congressional laws, state laws, or executive actions are constitutional.

Question 42

What is nullification?

Answer 42

Declaration by a state that a federal law is void within its borders.

Question 43

What are block grants?

Answer 43

Funds that come with flexibility for the states to spend the money as they wish within broad parameters.

Question 44

What are categorical grants?

Answer 44

Grants of money with specific instructions on how it is to be spent.

Question 45

What are unfunded mandates?

Answer 45

Policies requiring states to do something but without any funds provided to offset the costs of administering the policy.