Chapter 2 Questions

Question 1

What was the primary goal of the American Revolution?

Answer 1

to protect individual libertites

Question 2

Which commonly held colonial belief about politicians was a major guiding force in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 2

a belief in politicians’ tendency towards corrpution

Question 3

What key belief, a belief that John Adams referred to as the “radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people,” is essential to the vision laid down in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?

Answer 3

Because rights are unalienable, the government’s job is not to grant them, but to protect them. Therefore, legitimate government is possible only with the consent of the governed.

Question 4

Which branch did colonists believe should be the superior force in government?

Answer 4

the legislative branch

Question 5

What requirement had to be met in order to amend the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 5

Amendments had to be supported by all thirteen states

Question 6

Given conditions in the new nation under the Articles of Confederation, which of the following best describes the importance of individual gun ownership to citizens of the thirteen states?

Answer 6

The national army was small and depended on support from independent state militias.

Question 7

What lesson did those familiar with the Pennsylvania constitution take with them into the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia?

Answer 7

There is a danger, even in a democracy, of concentrating too much power in the hands of too few.

Question 8

Why did Shays’ Rebellion galvanize delegates to the Constitutional Convention?

Answer 8

Massachusetts’s relatively weak response to the rebellion suggested that a stronger, better-organized national government might be needed.

Question 9

What proposal was at the heart of the Virginia Plan?

Answer 9

Establishing three branches of government, with the strongest being the legislative branch, which would consist of two houses and would choose the executive and judicial branches

Question 10

What problem did the Great Compromise address?

Answer 10

Equitable representation in Congress

Question 11

Why did the Framers favor a republic over a direct democracy?

Answer 11

They believed that the government should mediate rather than mirror popular views.

Question 12

What aspect of American government, in addition to the moderate republic the Framers attempted to create, is a way of limiting the power of popular majorities?

Answer 12

judicial review

Question 13

What term describes systems where national and state governments share power?

Answer 13

federalism

Question 14

What term is used to describe those powers that are given exclusively to the states?

Answer 14

reserved

Question 15

What name is given to powers, like collecting taxes, building roads, borrowing money, and maintaining courts, that are shared by national and state governments?

Answer 15

concurrent

Question 16

What aspect of the government prescribed by the Constitution was intended to be effective not in spite of the imperfections of human nature, like the tendency to act in one’s own best interests, but because of them?

Answer 16

separation of powers

Question 17

What allows multiple branches of government to limit each other’s power?

Answer 17

checks and balances

Question 18

When the Constitution was presented for ratification, what position did Antifederalists take?

Answer 18

They wanted a weaker national government.

Question 19

The population of the United States is very diverse, with people of different races, classes, religious beliefs, and cultural traditions dispersed in different regions around the country. What aspect of the government system prescribed in the Constitution would James Madison say is designed to ensure that no one element or interest in this diverse population dominates all the others?

Answer 19

Checks and balances

Question 20

Suppose a politically radical Latino student is trying to decide where to move after graduation. If Madison were alive today, how might he advise this student, based on his writings in Federalist No. 10 and No. 15?

Answer 20

He would advise the student to move to a large urban area where people of many different views and experiences live in close proximity.

Question 21

What effect did the three-fifths compromise have on antebellum American national government?

Answer 21

It is the primary reason why Southern-born presidents, House leaders, and Supreme Court justices often dominated antebellum American national government.

Question 22

What did the Federalists believe was required to ensure a reasonable balance of liberty, order, and progress?

Answer 22

a strong national government

Question 23

What most influenced the Framers regarding economic matters?

Answer 23

Their states’ economic interests

Question 24

What did the Framers of the Constitution believe regarding the ideal size of government for preventing what they viewed as the worst inequality?

Answer 24

The Framers believed it was important to limit the size and scope of the government in order to prevent political privilege.

Question 25

How did the arguments of eighteenth-century critics of the Constitution who believed it prescribed too weak a national government differ from those of the colonists who influenced the drafting of the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 25

Eighteenth-century critics of the Constitution who believed it prescribed too weak a national government wanted to give more power to the president, but the colonists believed that the legislature should be the most powerful branch of government.