Chapter 5 Flashcards
According to your text, since the adoption of the Constitution, the most persistent source of political conflict has been between who and who?
Federal and state governments
Sovereignty
Supreme or ultimate political authority
A sovereign government is legally and politically independent of any other government or subunit of government.
What must be true about state and local units of a nation’s government in order for the central government to be considered FEDERAL?
You don’t have a federal system unless the local units have power to make laws
List at least three countries in addition to the United States which have federal systems today?
Canada, Australia, India, Germany, and Switzerland
Your text states that one of the things that has kept local governments independent of the national government in the U.S. Is what?
Commitment of the local government to the concept of federalism and actual distribution of political power
How has Congress played a major part in preserving federalism?
They represent the local interests.
Congress consists of people selected and responsive to the local interests
Although the central government has acquired more power over the years, how ah e the states managed to maintain a large role in governing?
The states receive a majority of the central government’s resources
For the Framers, federalism was a method or device created to protect something. What was federalism created to protect?
Personal liberty
What type of government system existed among states from 1776 to 1787?
Confederation
From whom or what does a federal republic directly derive its power?
From the people
Write a sentence that describes the authority left to the states under the Tenth Ammendment
The power is reserved especially for the states or to their people
What do we call the clause added to the Constitution because the framers realized they couldn’t possibly create a Constitution that contained an exact and exhaustive list of powers?
Elastic language
What issue did the Civil War settle?
Nullification
Established that the nullification theory was unconstitutional
Whose power expanded as a result of the Civil War
Congress
What was the Supreme Court case that established national supremacy?
McCulloch v. Maryland
Why did the federal government shift toward block grants?
Makes easier to give money and let local governments use it for their city’s needs
According to your text, what does the author believe Americans have made clear regarding police and schools?
They want control over police and schools
What is the purpose of the intergovernmental lobby?
To get more money with fewer strings attached
What do we call a federal grant designed for a specific purpose defined by a federal law?
Categorical grant
Lost five of the largest programs that account for the change in federal policy priorities and are the source for more than half of the money spent for cash grants-in-aid?
Housing assistance Medicaid Highway construction Services for the unemployed Welfare programs for mothers with children and disabled
A political system in which the ultimate authority is shared between a central government and state, region, or local governments is called what?
Federalism
Federal rules attached to the grants that states receive are called ________. States must agree to abide by these rules in order to receive the grants.
Conditions of aid
What is a mandate?
A set of rules or regulations that states must follow even if they are not receiving money for doing so.
A grant from the federal government to states for programs in a general area rather than for specific kinds of programs is called what?
Block grants
A constitutional theory that the national government and the state governments each have sovereignty in defined areas of authority, especially over commerce.
Dual federalism
To what does the term Fiscal Federalism refer?
The pattern of spending, taxing, and providing grants in the federal system; cornerstone of the government’s relations with state and local governments
Which Founding brother favored strong state’s rights and limited national government because he believed that the principal threat to the people’s liberties was likely to come from the national government?
Thomas Jefferson
Which Founding Brother favored national supremacy, with powers broadly defined because the pressing needs if the U.S. were to develop the national economy and conduct foreign affairs?
Alexander Hamilton
Which theory claimed that states had the right to declare null and void a federal law is the state believes it violated the constitution? Jefferson and Madison supported this theory first
State’s rights
Unitary System of government
Central government
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states
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CitizensFederal System
State or regional gov. Central gov. State or regional gov.
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Citizens. Citizens
Confederal system
State or regional gov. - central gov.———state or regional
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Citizens. Citizens
