Chapter 2 Flashcards
John Locke
Idea that people are naturally good and that we don’t need a national government to regulate us
Social Contract
an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. Theories of a social contract became popular in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as a means of explaining the origin of government and the obligations of subjects.
Natural Rights
Rights that people supposedly have under natural law. The Declaration of Independence of the United States lists life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as natural rights.
State of Nature
Discussion of are humans naturally good or bad
Unalienable Rights
based on nature and providence rather than on the preferences of the people
Thomas Hobbes
Idea that people are naturally bad and need a government
Oligarchy
Eilet people lead
Monarcy
one person rules
Mixed Government
defines a constitution in which the form of government is a combination of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, making impossible their respective degenerations
Shay’s Rebellion
An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786. Shays’s followers protested the foreclosures of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system.
Northwest Ordinance
for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance or The Ordinance of 1787) was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States
Factions
a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics.
Virginia Plan
a plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a legislature of two houses with proportional representation in each house and executive and judicial branches to be chosen by the legislature.
New Jersey Plan
a plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a single legislative house with equal representation for each state.
The Great Compromise
The Great Compromise saved the Constitutional Convention, and, probably, the Union. Authored by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, it called for proportional representation in the House, and one representative per state in the Senate (this was later changed to two.)
