Chapter 2 - Constructing a Government: The Founding and the Constitution

Question 1

What was the Commerce Clause?

Answer 1

It gave the government the right to discuss commerce treaties with other countries.

Question 2

What was the Great Compromise?

Answer 2

An agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that gave each state an equal number of senators regardless of its population but linked representation in the House of Representatives to population.

Question 3

What was the Three-Fifth Compromise?

Answer 3

An agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 stipulating that for purposes of the apportionment of congressional seats, every slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person.

Question 4

What is bicameralism?

Answer 4

The division of a legislative assembly into two chambers or houses. (House and Senate that make up Congress)

Question 5

What was the Supremacy Clause?

Answer 5

A clause of Article VI of the Constitution that states that all laws passed by the national government and all treaties are the supreme laws of the land and superior to all laws adopted by any state or any subdivision.

Question 6

What is separation of powers?

Answer 6

The division of governmental power among several institutions that must cooperate in decision making.

Question 7

What is federalism?

Answer 7

The system of government in which a constitution divides power between a central government and regional governments.

Question 8

What are checks and balances?

Answer 8

The mechanisms through which each branch of government is able to participate in and influence the activities of other branches.

Question 9

What is the Bill of Rights?

Answer 9

The first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, adopted in 1791. The Bill of Rights ensures certain rights and liberties to the people.

Question 10

What was the First Founding?

Answer 10

The first government of the colonies - period under British rule.

Question 11

What were the conflicts in the colonies leading up to the Revolutionary War?

Answer 11

1. Large States vs Small States
2. North vs South states - different beliefs over the economy and slavery.
3. Federalists vs Anti-Federalists – different beliefs in how much power the federal government and states should have

Question 12

Who were the colonial elite?

Answer 12

1. New England Merchants,
2. Southern Plantation Owners
3. Royalists

Question 13

Who were the radical groups?

Answer 13

1. Shopkeepers, Artisans, and Laborers

2. Small farmers

Question 14

What were the main conflicts between the colonial elite and the radical groups?

Answer 14

1. Taxation
2. Trade
3. Commerce

Question 15

What did the British do to increase colonial taxes? What did this result in?

Answer 15

Sugar Act (1764)
Stamp Act (1765)

1. Taxes split colonial elite: merchants and Planters against Royalists
2. Merchants and Planters engage in collective action to organize opposition to new taxes

Question 16

What was the Sugar Act?

Answer 16

Sugar Act (1764)
Taxed sugar, molasses, and other commodities, which heavily affected merchants and southern planters as they relied on those commodities.

Question 17

What was the Stamp Act?

Answer 17

Stamp Act (1765)
Required colonials to pay tax on every piece of printed paper they used. (e.g. ship papers, licenses, cards, etc)

Question 18

When was the Continental Congress and what was it?

Answer 18

1774-1781
First Congress pre-independence.
Council of independent state governments.
Central government for the Revolutionary war.
Issued Declaration of Independence.

Question 19

When were the Articles of Confederation and what were they?

Answer 19

1777-1789

1. Created the first Constitution.
2. States had most power - decentralized government.
3. Congress is only a national institution - states enforce national laws.
4. State had one vote in Congress - chosen by state legislature.
5. No executive or judiciary
6. Articles could only be amended with unanimous votes.

Question 20

How did the Constitution attempt to solve problems of the AoC?

Answer 20

Created a central government - designated clear powers to individual institutions.

Question 21

The Constitution: Article 1

Answer 21

Created the Legislative Branch

1. Longest part of Constitution
2. Enumerates powers of Congress
3. Doctrine of expressed powers - any powers not listed aren’t granted at all to Congress. No new powers can be seized without an amendment.
4. Necessary and Proper Clause - enumerates powers and provides Congress with the authority to make all laws “necessary and proper” to carry them out.

Question 22

The Constitution: Article 2

Answer 22

Created the Executive Branch
Framers hoped to create a presidency that would make the federal government (rather than the states) the agency capable of timely and decisive action to deal with public issues and problems.

Question 23

The Constitution: Article 3

Answer 23

Created the Judiciary Branch

1. SCOTUS rulings are superior to laws adopted by the states. As the Court is SUPREME.
2. Supremacy Clause - All laws passed by the national government and all treaties are superior to all laws adopted by any state.
3. No mention of judicial review - scholars say it’s implicit. Judicial review = the power of the courts to declare actions of the legislative executive branches invalid or unconstitutional.

Question 24

The Constitution: Article 4

Answer 24

The states

1. States are prohibited from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of their own.
2. State laws are superseded by “the law of the land”

Question 25

The Constitution: Article 5

Answer 25

Amendment Process
(Only had 17 amendments since 1791 after Bill of Rights (27 total) because the process is so difficult)
1. Requires 2/3 vote in Congress.
2. Adoption by 3/4 of states.

Question 26

What did the Federalists believe and want?

Answer 26

1. Elites are best fit to govern and “excessive democracy” is dangerous.
2. They believed we should have a strong national government - believed in filtration so only elites would obtain governmental power.

Question 27

Who were the Federalists?

Answer 27

Property owners, creditors, merchants.

Question 28

Who were the Anti-Federalists?

Answer 28

Small farmers, frontiersman, debtors, shopkeepers

Question 29

What did the Anti-Federalists believe and want?

Answer 29

1. Government should be close to the people and the concentration of power in the hands of the elites is dangerous.
2. Retention of power by state governments and protection of individual rights.

Question 30

What is Federalist No. 10 about?

Answer 30

1. James Madison on the value of a large republic

2. Multiple interest groups will compete for power, preventing any one interest from dominating.

Question 31

What is Federalist No. 51 about?

Answer 31

1. Argues for the separation of powers

2. “Ambition must be made to counter ambition”

Question 32

What is Anti-Federalist No. 1 about?

Answer 32

1. Constitution gives too much power to national government.
2. Necessary and proper clause will allow national government to expand and power to dominate the states and oppress the people.

Question 33

What are the three limits on national power?

Answer 33

1. Separation of powers
2. Checks and balances
3. Federalism

Question 34

What is Dahl’s definition of undemocratic?

Answer 34

Violates national majority rule.

Question 35

What does Dahl think is undemocratic about the Constitution?

Answer 35

1. Slavery
2. Suffrage
3. Election of the President
4. Choosing senators
5. Equal representation in the Senate
6. Judicial Power
   ♣ Judges can interpret law and make policy
7. Congressional power
   ♣ Congress did not have enough power to “achieve efficiency, fairness and security in a complex post-agrarian society”

Question 36

What is the faction problem that Madison discusses in Federalist No. 10?

Answer 36

He thinks factions are danger, but we can’t eliminate them. Each faction will want to always promote their own political and economical interests, not the best for the whole country.
(This is why we should have a national government)