Exam 1: Chapters 1-3

Question 1

What is democracy’s central idea?

Answer 1

Ordinary people want to rule themselves and are capable of doing so

Question 2

Define democracy. Where did this idea originate?

Answer 2

A system of government in which the people rule; rule by the many. Originated in ancient Greece

Question 3

Compare and contrast direct and representative democracies. What are New England town meetings an example?

Answer 3

Direct democracies, such as NE town meetings, involve people, not elected representatives, making decisions. These work for small populations.
In representative democracies, such as the US federal government, people rule through elected representatives

Question 4

Be able to thoroughly describe the fundamental principles of representative democracy.

Answer 4

Popular sovereignty: The basic principle of democracy that people are the ultimate source of government authority. Gov must serve the interest of the people.
Political equality: The principle that each person carries equal weight in the conduct of the public business
Political liberty: The principle that citizens in a democracy have basic freedoms that are protected from government interference

Question 5

Know examples of political liberties.

Answer 5

1st amendment rights, right to vote, right to run for public office

Question 6

Understand the significance of majority tyranny. Why was it feared?

Answer 6

Feared because it was bound to undermine freedom and threaten the rights of the individual.
There have been instances when the majority threatened the minority’s rights.

Question 7

Understand how your textbook uses an analytical framework.

Answer 7

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Question 8

Know examples of a political-linkage actor and a structural-level actor.

Answer 8

Political linkage actors shape what government officials do by transmitting the people’s wants. Examples: Public opinion, Political parties, Interest Groups, News Media, Elections
Structural level actors are enduring factors that shape what issues are important. Examples: Economy, constitutional rules, political culture, international system

Question 9

Know why the American Revolution was fought.

Answer 9

For colonists to preserve rights as British citizens

Question 10

Understand the significance of Common Sense.

Answer 10

Pushed leaders decide to declare independence

Question 11

What are the key ideas of the Declaration of Independence? What influence did Locke & Jefferson have on the document? What did the document leave unsettled?

Answer 11

Key ideas: humans have inalienable rights, people create government to protect these rights, and if the government fails to protect them, people can withdraw consent and make a new government
Locke and Jefferson: 1. legitimate government can only be established by the people 2. government is created to protect inalienable rights. 3. can govern only with the people’s consent
Unsettled: slavery, native americans, womens, blacks

Question 12

Describe the Articles of Confederation. How many states did it take for actions to occur under the Articles of Confederation and was it considered the first constitution?

Answer 12

• Created a loose coalition of states under a weak federal government that could make war or peace but couldn’t levy taxes, couldn’t regulate commerce, has no chief executive, no national court, and no money system.
• 9/13, yes first written constitution.

Question 13

Describe the Republican Beliefs of the Founders.

Answer 13

Seeking a government that would be based on consent of the governed and avoid tyranny
thought public affairs should be left to men from “better” society
representatives should use their judgement to decide how to best serve the people, rather than letting the people vote on every single issue
did not believe people could or should rule directly

Question 14

Why were the Founders worried?

Answer 14

“too much participation by the people would be bad”

untamed Democracy

Question 15

Describe Shay’s Rebellion and understand its significance.

Answer 15

Armed farmers seized courthouses to prevent them from foreclosing on farms. State put it down with much effort. This showed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and sparked the constitutional convention.

Question 16

Describe the delegates that attended the Constitutional Convention.

Answer 16

Mostly wealthy, educated, NOT common men

Question 17

Understand the argument Charles Beard made regarding the Constitution.

Answer 17

the framers were engaged in a conspiracy to protect their immediate personal and economic interests.
he was correct that broad economic and social class motives were present

Question 18

Describe the plans proposed at the Constitutional Convention.

Answer 18

VA Plan: Determine a state’s representation in congress by its population, national sovereignty is superior to state, and single executive
NJ Plan: Give each state equal representation in congress, each state remains sovereign and equal, and there should be multiple executives

Question 19

Understand the Great (Connecticut) Compromise & the 3/5 Compromise.

Answer 19

Great Compromise: Makes VA Plan the House and NJ Plan the Senate
3/5 Compromise: Counts 3/5 of a state’s slave population towards their representation in Congress.

Question 20

Define federalism. What are the powers of the national government under this model?

Answer 20

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Question 21

Know the significance of both the supremacy and the elastic clause.

Answer 21

Supremacy: Provision in constitution that states that the constitution and the laws and treaties of the US take precedence over state laws and constitutions
elastic clause: necessary and proper clause. gives congress the authority to make whatever laws are necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated responsibilities

Question 22

Understand the significance of the Bill of Rights.

Answer 22

lists specific powers of the national government and specifically denies others

Question 23

Which branch of government has always been selected by a direct vote from the people?

Answer 23

House of Representatives

Question 24

Understand how the framers expected to prevent tyranny with the separation of power.

Answer 24

concentrated power of any kind is dangerous and the way to prevent tyranny is first to fragment governmental power into its constituent parts, then place each into a separate branch

Question 25

Where did the Framers’ derive their ideas about balanced government?

Answer 25

Ancient notion of balanced government popularized by French philosopher Montesquieu

Question 26

Describe checks and balances.

Answer 26

prevents any of the branches of government from governing on its own without the cooperation of the others

Question 27

Know what Art. I, Sec. 10 & Art. IV, Sec. I include.

Answer 27

Article 1, section 10: orbids the states to impair the obligation of contracts, to coin money, or to make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts
Article 4, section 1: further guarantees contracts by establishing that the states must give “full faith and credit” to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state, which means that one could no longer escape legal/financial obligations by moving to another state

Question 28

Describe Article VII (how the constitution would be ratified).

Answer 28

approval by 9 states meeting in constitutional conventions

Question 29

Know who the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists were and what they were arguing about.

Answer 29

The Federalists supported ratification of the constitution and the Anti-Federalists were opposed because they were afraid of a strong central government. They wanted a Bill of Rights.

Question 30

Describe how constitutional changes are made.

Answer 30

1. formal amendment
2. judicial interpretation (judicial review) - the right to declare actions of the other branches of government null and void if they are contrary to the constitution
3. political practices: a product of social and cultural change from american people. political parties, party primaries, presidential nominating conventions, the importance of presidency today, and signing statements weren’t specifically mentioned in the constitution

Question 31

Define federalism.

Answer 31

a system in which governmental powers are divided between a central government and smaller units, such as states

Question 32

Know what confederate and unitary forms of government are. Which type of political system is most numerous?

Answer 32

confederation: A loose association of states or territorial divisions in which very little power or no power at all is lodged in a central government (like the UN, or the US under the Articles of
Confederation)
unitary system: A system in which the central government has all the power and can change its constituent units (states) or tell them what to do (a majority of nations around the world has this)

Question 33

What does size and diversity have to do with federalism?

.

Answer 33

Federalism tends to be found in nations that are large in territory and in which various geographic regions are fairly distinctive from one another in religion, ethnicity, language, and economic activities

Question 34

Know what the Supremacy Clause and the Reservation Clause are.

Answer 34

Supremacy Clause: States that the constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land
Reservation Clause: Part of the 10th amendment that reserves powers not given to congress to the states or to the people

Question 35

What powers does the Constitution grant to the states?

Answer 35

licensing lawyers and doctors, regulating businesses within their boundaries, chartering banks and corporations, providing a system of family law, providing a system of public education, assuming the responsibility for building roads, licensing drivers, registering cars, police powers

Question 36

What are concurrent powers?

Answer 36

powers under the constitution that are shared by the federal government and the states, i.e., levying taxes, borrowing and spending money

Question 37

Define horizontal federalism.

Answer 37

term used to refer to relationships among the states (article IV regulates this)

Question 38

Understand Article IV.

Answer 38

each state is required to give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other states
this means people in one state can’t avoid financial obligations by moving to another

Question 39

Understand the nationalist and states’ rights position.

Answer 39

nationalist: the view of American Federalism that holds that the Constitution created a system in which the national government is supreme, relative to the states, and that it granted that government a broad range of powers and responsibilities
states rights: The view of American Federalism that holds that the Constitution created a system of dual sovereignty in which the national government and the state governments are sovereign in their own spheres

Question 40

Understand dual federalism and how the metaphor of layer cake is associated with this.

Answer 40

An interpretation of federalism in which the states and national government have separate jurisdictions and responsibilities (distinct, non-overlapping areas, just like a layer cake)

Question 41

Define nullification.

Answer 41

an attempt by states to declare national laws or actions null and void

Question 42

Who is Chief Justice Marshall? What is his correlation with judicial review?

Answer 42

established judicial review, the supreme court’s authority to declare national laws unconstitutional
laid the foundation for an expansion of what the national government could do in the years ahead

Question 43

Understand the significance of both Fletcher v. Peck & McCulloch v. Maryland.

Answer 43

Fletcher v. Peck: established judicial review over the states, but Justice Marshall cleverly avoided discussion over whether judicial review applied to the states
McCulloch v. Maryland: affirmed the supremacy clause and declared that congress had broad powers under the necessary and proper clause (Maryland tried to impose a tax on the bank of the US)

Question 44

What does the doctrine of preemption include?

Answer 44

says that federal treaties, statutes, and rules must prevail over state statutes and rules when the two are in conflict

Question 45

Define devolution.

Answer 45

the delegation of power over and responsibilities for federal programs to state/local governments
the idea that some of the powers and responsibilities of the federal government ought to be distributed back to the states

Question 46

What did President Bush sponsor that led to the national government having more power?

Answer 46

the No Child Left Behind educational reform, which imposed testing mandates on the states
a prescription drug benefit under Medicare, which substantially increased the cost of the program

Question 47

Understand cooperative federalism and how the marble cake metaphor is associated with this.

Answer 47

federalism in which the powers and responsibilities of the states and the national government are intertwined, and in which they work together to solve common problems (said to have characterized in the 60s and 70s)
today’s federal system is a marble cake (but not cooperative federalism)

Question 48

Compare and contrast categorical and block grants.

Answer 48

categorical: federal aids to states and localities clearly specifying what the money can be used for
block: federal grants to the states to be used for general activities
(more on notes)

Question 49

Know the difference between conditions on aid and mandates.

Answer 49

conditional grants: federal grants with provisions requiring that state and local governments follow certain policies in order to obtain funds
mandate: a formal order from the national government that the states carry out certain policies

Question 50

Understand the significance of the Contract with America in terms of unfunded mandates.

Answer 50

The Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America promised to cut down on unfunded mandates, but their law didn’t apply to past mandates, and it didn’t ban unfunded mandates, just regulated them.

Question 51

Know the arguments both for and against federalism

Answer 51

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