Chapter 2 Vocab Flashcards
Articles of Confederation
These were the first attempt at a New American government. It was later decided that the Articles restricted national government too much, and they were replaced by the Constitution.
Limited Government
A political system in which the powers of the government are restricted to prevent tyranny by protecting property and individual rights.
Monarchy
A form of government in which power is held by a single person, or monarch, who comes to power through inheritance rather than election.
Republicanism
The belief that a form of government in which the interests of the people are represented through elected leaders is the best form of government.
Consent of the Governed
The idea that government gains its legitimacy through regular elections in which the people living under that government participate to elect their leaders.
Natural Rights
Rights that you are endowed with at birth.
Federalists
Those at the Constitutional Convention who favored a strong national government and a system of separated powers.
Anti-Federalists
Those at the Constitutional Convention who favored strong state governments and feared that a strong national government would be a threat to individual rights.
Pluralism
The idea that having a variety of parties and interests within a government will strengthen the system, ensuring no one group possesses total control.
Virginia Plan
A plan proposed by the larger states during the Constitutional Convention that based representation in national legislature on population.
New Jersey Plan
A plan that was in response to the Virginia Plan, in which the smaller states at the Constitutional Convention proposed that each state should receive equal representation in legislature regardless of size.
Great Compromise
A compromise between the large and small states in which legislature would have two houses: one with equal representation and one with representation based on population.
Reserved Powers
Powers that are not given directly or implicitly to the national government are remanded to the states, per the Tenth Amendment.
National Supremacy Clause
States that the laws put forth by the national government supersede state and local laws.
Three-Fifths Compromise
The states’ decision during the Constitutional Convention to count each slave as three-fifths of a person for taxation and representation purposes.
