Constitutional Foundations and Federalism

Question 1

John Locke

Answer 1

Creator of the Social Contract; Popular Sovereignty; Right to change the government by force; Right to Life, Liberty, Property; “Powers of the government are limited by the rights of the people.

Question 2

Social Contract

Answer 2

Voluntary agreement among individuals by which, organized society is brought into being and invested with the right to secure mutual protection and welfare or regulate the relations among its members

Question 3

Natural Rights

Answer 3

Life, liberty and property

Question 4

Unalienable Rights

Answer 4

All men are created equal before God

Question 5

Thomas Hobbes

Answer 5

He argued that the essential nature rights was “to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own Nature; that is to say, of his own life; and consequently, of doing anything, which his own judgement, Reason, he shall conceive to be aptest means thereunto.”

Question 6

Democracy

Answer 6

People govern either directly or through elected representatives

Question 7

Oligarchy

Answer 7

Form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few

Question 8

Monarchy

Answer 8

State or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarchy.

Question 9

Articles of Confederation

Answer 9

First constitution of the 13 American states, adopted in 1781 and replaced in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States

Question 10

Constitutional Convention

Answer 10

Convention in Philadelphia (1787) of representatives from each of the former Colonies, except Rhode Island, at which the Constitution of the United States was framed

Question 11

Shay’s Rebellion

Answer 11

Daniel Shay, 1747-1825 American Revolutionary War soldier; leader of a popular insurrection in Massachusetts 1786-87

Question 12

Faction

Answer 12

Group of clique within a larger group, party, government, organization

Question 13

Federalist Papers

Answer 13

Series of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution

Question 14

Virginia Plan

Answer 14

Unsuccessful plan, proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a legislature of two houses with proportional representation in each house and executive branches to be chosen by the legislature

Question 15

New Jersey Plan

Answer 15

Unsuccessful plan proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a single legislative house with equal representation for each state

Question 16

Great Compromise/ Connecticut Compromise

Answer 16

A compromise adopted at the Constitutional Convention, providing the states with equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives.

Question 17

Judicial Review

Answer 17

Power of a court to adjudicate the constitutionality of the laws of a government or the acts of a government official.

Question 18

Separation of Power

Answer 18

Principle or system of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of a government

Question 19

Popular Sovereignty

Answer 19

When the power of governments is in the hands of the people

Question 20

Republic

Answer 20

State in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by the representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them

Question 21

Federalism

Answer 21

Advocacy of the federal system of government

Question 22

Federalist and Antifederalist

Answer 22

The division of people as the Federalists or Antifederalists when it came time to ratify the constitution

Question 23

James Madison

Answer 23

Federalist author who said that both state and federal governments “are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people constituted with different power”

Question 24

Alexander Hamilition

Answer 24

American statesmen and writer on government: the first Secretary of the Treasury 1789-1797; mortality wounded by Aaron Burr in duel

Question 25

Ex post facto law

Answer 25

a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions that were committed before the enactment of the law

Question 26

Bill of Rights

Answer 26

First ten amendments to the Constitution

Question 27

Enumerated Powers

Answer 27

List of items found in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution that set forth the authoritative capacity of Congress

Question 28

Necessary and Proper Clause

Answer 28

The provision in Article One of the United States Constitution, section 8, clause 18

Question 29

Apportionment

Answer 29

Legislative grant of money to finance a government program

Question 30

Supremacy Clause

Answer 30

Article VI, Clause 2of the United States Constitution, establishes the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes and U.S. Treaties as “the supreme law of the land”

Question 31

Treason

Answer 31

The crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one’s sovereign or nation.

Question 32

Veto

Answer 32

Latin for “I forbid”- the power to unilaterally stop an official action especially the enactment of legislation

Question 33

Electoral College

Answer 33

The institution that officially elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years

Question 34

Original Jurisdiction

Answer 34

Is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction

Question 35

Appellate Jurisdiction

Answer 35

The power of the United States Supreme Court to review decisions and change outcomes of decisions of lower courts

Question 36

Devolution

Answer 36

The statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government of at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level.

Question 37

Elastic Clause

Answer 37

Statement in the U.S. Constitution granting Congress the power to pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying out the enumerated list of powers.

Question 38

Commerce Clause

Answer 38

Describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3)

Question 39

Full Faith and Credit Clause

Answer 39

Obligation under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution for each state to recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.

Question 40

Privileges and Immunities Clause

Answer 40

Is Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. It states: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States

Question 41

Reserved Powers

Answer 41

In comparative federalism and comparative constitutionalism reserved power are those powers which are not written down.

Question 42

Concurrent Powers

Answer 42

Powers in nations with a federal system of government that are shared by both the State and the federal government.

Question 43

Implied Powers

Answer 43

The United States, are those powers authorized by a legal document (from the Constitution) which, while not stated, seem to be implied by powers expressly stated.

Question 44

Denied Powers

Answer 44

The things that the Constitution prohibits the Federal Government from doing.

Question 45

John Marshall

Answer 45

Fourth Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches.

Question 46

Nullification

Answer 46

A doctrine espoused by Calhoun that states could hold certain national policies invalid within their boundaries.

Question 47

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Answer 47

Political statements drafted in 1789 and 1799, in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional.

Question 48

John C. Calhoun

Answer 48

Leading American politician and political theorist from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century.

Question 49

Initiative

Answer 49

Procedure that allows voters to place legislative measures directly on the ballot by getting a specified proportion of voter signatures on a petition

Question 50

Referendum

Answer 50

Procedure that enables voters to reject a measure adopted by the legislature

Question 51

Recall

Answer 51

Procedure whereby voters can remove an elected official from office

Question 52

Grants-in-Aid

Answer 52

Federal funds provided to states and localities

Question 53

Block Grants

Answer 53

Federal grant that could be used for a variety of purposes, usually with few accompanying restrictions

Question 54

Revenue Sharing Grants

Answer 54

Federal grant that requires no matching funds and provides freedom in how to spend it

Question 55

Mandates

Answer 55

Federal rules that states must follow, whether they receive federal grants or not.

Question 56

Unfunded Mandates

Answer 56

Orders that induce “responsibility, action, procedure or anything else that is imposed by constitutional, administrative, executive, or judicial action” for state and local governments and/or the private sector.