Chapter 2 Flashcards
Natural Rights
Rights held to be inherent in natural law, not dependent on governments. John Locke stated that natural law, being superior to human law specifies certain rights of Life, Liberty, and Property. These rights altered to become Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, are asserted in the Declaration of Independence.
Representative Assembly
A legislature composed of individuals who represent the population.
Social Contract
A voluntary association among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by cresting a government and abiding by its rules.
Unicameral Legislature
A legislature with only one legislative chamber, as opposed to a bicameral (two-chambered) legislature, such as the US Congress. Today, Nebraska is the only state in the Union with a unicameral legislature.
Confederation
A political system in which states or regional governments retain ultimate authority except for those powers they expressly delegate to a central government. A voluntary association of independent states, in which the member states agree to limited restraints on their freedom of action.
State
A group of people occupying a specific area and organized under one government; may either be a nation or some other sub unit of a nation.
Bicameral Legislature
A legislature made up of two parts, called chambers. The US Congress, composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate, is a bicameral legislature.
Supremacy Doctorine
A doctrine that asserts the priority of national law over state laws. This principle is rooted in Article VI of the Constitution, which provides that the Constitution, the laws passed by the national government, and all treaties constitute the supreme law of the land.
Great Compromise
The compromise between the New Jersey and Virginia plans that created one chamber of Congress based on population and one chamber representing each state equally; also called the Connecticut Compromise.
Separation of Powers
The principle of dividing governmental powers among different branches of government.
Madisonian Model
A structure of government proposed by James Madison in which the powers of the government are separated into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.
Checks and Balances
A major principle of the American system o governmental whereby each branch of the others
Electoral College
A group of persons called electors selected by the voters on each state and the District of Columbia (D.C.); this group officially elects the president and Vice President of te United States. The number of electors in each state is equal to the number of each state’s representatives in both chambers of Congress. The twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution grants D.C. As many electors as the stare with the smallest population.
Federal System
A system of government in which power is divided between a central government and regional, or subdivisional, governments. Each level must have some domain in which it’s policies are dominant and some genuine political or constitutional guarantee of its authority.
Federalist
The name given to one who was in favor of the adoption of the US Constitution and the creation of a federal union with a strong central government.
