Exam 1 Flashcards
Which subjects are addressed in the first three Article of the Constitution?
explain the three branches of government and their powers. It begins with the Legislative Branch in the first article, then the Executive Branch in the second article and the Judicial Branch in the third article.
Where do our rights come from?
Bill of Rights
How does Madison define a Republican Government?
People vote for representatives to have power over them
How does Madison propose to deal with factions?
Very basically, and as a non-exclusive list, Madison suggested: 1) institutional checks and balances, 2) large-scale, nationwide inclusion of diverse state factions, 3) facilitation of “a general intercommunication of sentiments & ideas among the body of the people,” which would serve to enlighten public opinion and create an “equilibrum in the interests & passions of the society itself,” and 4) abolishment of the peculiar institution of slavery, which operates to suppress individual liberty (Madison rhetorically condemned slavery but had a mixed political record on the issue).
3/5 Compromise
A compromise worked out at the 1787 convention between northern states and southern states. Each slave was to be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of federal taxation and confessional apportionment (number of seats in the House of Representatives).
Alexander Hamilton
Chief of Staff to General Washington. Secretary of the Treasury, established the national bank.
Art. 1 Sec 8
Enumerated Powers, Elastic Clause
Block Grants
Grants that may be used for broad purposes that allow local governments greater discretion in how funds are spent.
Categorical Grants
Grants that may be used to fund specific purposes as defined by the federal government
Checks and Balances
The elaborate system of divided spheres of authority provided by the US Constitution as a means of controlling the power of government. The separation of powers among the branches of the national government, federalism, and the different methods of deleting national officers are all part of the system.
Communism
a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property
Connecticut Compromise
an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. Two houses of Congress: states would be represented equally in the Senate, and proportionately in the House of Representatives. Every five slaves would be counted as three persons for purposes of determining population (though this did not give slaves the vote.) All proposed legislation for the purpose of raising money would have to come from the House of Representatives.
Diversity of Faculties
Difference in property, money, power
Elastic Clause
Art 1, Sec 8, par 18 in US Constitution that says Congress can pass any low necessary and proper to carry out other powers.
Electoral College
An unofficial term that refers to the electors who cast the states’ electoral votes.
Enumerated Powers
the seventeen powers granted to the national government under Art 1, sec 8 of Constitution. These powers include taxation and regulation of commerce as well as the authority to provide for the national defense.
Faction
a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, esp. in politics
Federalism
A governmental system in which authority is divided between sovereign levels of government: national and regional.
Good Behavior
Term for Supreme Court Judge
Implied Powers
The federal government’s constitutional authority (through the “necessary and proper” clause) to take action that is not expressly authorized by the Constitution but that supports action that are so authorized
James Madison
Fourth President of US. Father of Constitution. Author of Bill of Rights. Collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to produce the Federalist Papers
John Locke
Philosopher during 1600’s. Enlightened thinker. Social contract theory.
Laboratories of Democracy
The US is the test for how democracy will work
laissez-faire economy
an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough regulations to protect property rights.
Locke’s Apple
Do you really own something?
Marbury v. Madison
Case that forms Judicial Review
McCulloch v Maryland
Although the Constitution does not specifically give Congress the power to establish a bank, it does delegate the ability to tax and spend, and a bank is a proper and suitable instrument to assist the operations of the government in the collection and disbursement of the revenue. Because federal laws have supremacy over state laws, Maryland had no power to interfere with the bank’s operation by taxing it. Maryland Court of Appeals reversed.
Multiplicity of Sects
Different Groups?
Natural Rights
rights that are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable.
Necessary and Proper Clause
Art 1, Sec 8, par 18 in US Constitution that says Congress can pass any low necessary and proper to carry out other powers.
New Jersey Plan
A constitutional proposal for a strengthened Congress but one in which each state would have a single vote, the granting a small state the same legislative power as a larger state.
Plessy v. Ferguson
The “separate but equal” provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause
Separation of Powers
The division of the powers of government among separate institutions or branches
Socialism
a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies
