Constitution 201 Flashcards
What are the three phases in American history?
The American Founding, the crisis of slavery and the Civil War, and the Progressive Era
The Declaration of Independence refers to the “Laws of Nature and of _____.”
Nature’s God
According to the Declaration of Independence, the primary purpose of government is _____.
To secure natural rights
The three fundamental natural rights listed by the Declaration of Independence are _____.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
During the Civil War, the self-evident truth of _____ was at stake.
Equality
What are the three key structures in the Constitution listed as grievances against the King in the Declaration of Independence?
Limited government, representation, and separation of powers
True or False: The Progressives rejected the idea of a government limited in purpose to the security of individual rights.
True
Which president also served as a university president?
Woodrow Wilson
True or False: Many of the critiques of the King listed in the Declaration of Independence have become features of the modern bureaucratic state.
True
Administrative government contradicts the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution because _____.
- It takes sovereignty away from the people
- It rejects the idea of limited government
- It ignores the doctrine of separation of powers
True or False: Progressivism has some roots in the pro-slavery arguments of the pre-Civil War South, insofar as both believe that modern science renders the principles of the American Founding invalid.
True
Woodrow Wilson rejected the Constitution’s separation of powers because it did not take into account the _____ growth of society.
Darwinian
True or False: Progressives believe that the scientific guidance of government can improve, and even perfect, human nature.
True
The president most successful in institutionalizing a Progressive administrative state was _____.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Progressives understand the word “equality” to mean that _____.
All human beings have the right to possess economic and material equality
True or False: The American Founders and the Progressives would agree that their definitions of equality are mutually compatible.
False
Progressivism is a philosophical movement intent on “progressing” or moving beyond the principles and practices of _____.
The American Founding
The Progressives looked to the _____ of the late nineteenth century to argue that the principles of the American Founding were no longer operative or valid.
- Industrialization
- Immigration
- Economic conditions
Prior to being elected president, Woodrow Wilson was governor of _____.
New Jersey
True or False: Johns Hopkins University was the first American university founded on the German university model explicitly to promote Progressive principles.
True
Before his political career, Woodrow Wilson was an academic, serving as president of _____.
Princeton
True or False: Progressives believe that natural rights exist.
False
Theodore Roosevelt led the _____ during the Election of 1912.
Progressive Party
The core Progressive doctrine of “historical _____” means that there are no permanent or immutable principles, rather, truth is dependent upon the particular circumstances of history.
Contingency
True or False: Progressive philosophy is predicated on the belief that human nature is changeable.
True
In “What is Progress?” Woodrow Wilson states that the Founders’ conception of government and society is mechanistic and “Newtonian,” whereas the Progressive vision is evolutionary and “_____.”
Darwinian
True or False: Woodrow Wilson believed that while the Constitution is insufficient, the principles of the Declaration of Independence remain valid.
False
In “What is Progress?” Woodrow Wilson states, “Some citizens of this country have never got beyond the _____.”
Declaration of Independence
True or False: Woodrow Wilson believed that checks and balances were irrelevant in the modern world because faction, as Publius called it in Federalist 10, was no longer a problem.
True
Woodrow Wilson praised the _____ Constitution because of its lack of separation of powers.
British
True or False: Woodrow Wilson states that each generation should define terms such as liberty, rights, and equality for itself, rather than referring to the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
True
True or False: Woodrow Wilson believed that the separation of powers was a necessary feature of good government.
False
Woodrow Wilson wrote of the separation of powers that “no living thing can have its organs offset against each other and _____.”
Live
Woodrow Wilson referred to the Founders’ Constitution as “Newtonian” and the Progressive Constitution as _____.
- Living
- Darwinian
- Evolutionary
True or False: The Progressives shared the Founders’ fear of direct democracy.
False
True or False: The Progressives wanted government to respond quickly and efficiently to the people’s’ demands.
True
The Progressives believed the old Constitution to be both “irresponsible” and “_____.”
Inefficient
True or False: The Progressives argued that the unelected administrative state should be modified and/or otherwise affected by elections and politics.
False
Woodrow Wilson wrote that public opinion should be “efficient” in establishing the administrative state, but must not be “_____.”
Meddlesome
Woodrow Wilson praised the _____ system of government for its lack of separation of powers and responsiveness to the people’s needs.
British
The American president who caused Woodrow Wilson to turn his attention from Congress to the executive branch as the best means of achieving Progressive policy goals is _____.
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson argued that the president should be able to_______ his office and his power however he saw fit, without any meaningful constitutional limitations.
- Mold
- Shape
- Transform
The Progressives saw the president as not just the leader of the party, but also as the leader of the _______.
Nation
True or False: The concept of a presidential “mandate” arose from the Progressive understanding of the presidency.
True
The Founders defined “equality” as every human being’s possession of equivalent _____.
Natural Rights
The Progressives countered the Founders by claiming that government exists to _____ equality for individuals, particularly economically.
Achieve
True or False: Progressives, including Woodrow Wilson and John Dewey, believe that ideas, rights, and truth are relative to a particular time and place.
True
John Dewey writes that liberty is a “function of the _____ existing at any time.”
Social Conditions
The Virginia Declaration of Rights states, “That no free Government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and _____.”
Virtue
True or False: Progressives viewed private property with suspicion because they feared that it would always be mismanaged or used to harm the poor.
True
The Founders argued that _____ is the federal government’s most important duty.
National Defense
Early Progressive foreign policy was highly _____, leading to the acquisition of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines as American colonies.
Imperialist
True or False: Early Progressives believed that it was the United States’ duty to “civilize” other nations and other peoples, especially those with “inferior” races.
True
The Founders believed in a limited government of limited powers but still believed that the government should be _____ in its ability to use those powers.
Strong
Contrary to the Progressive argument, the Declaration of Independence states that “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the _____.”
Consent of the governed
Woodrow Wilson, in his essay “Socialism and Democracy,” writes that there is no significant difference between socialism and democracy.
True
In the 1960s, Progressivism began to lose many of its core beliefs as it underwent a transformation into modern _____.
Liberalism
Post-sixties Progressives believe in ideas that the early Progressives would have rejected such as _____.
- Multiculturalism
- Sexual Expressionism
- Environmentalism
