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ap government > ideals of democracy and creating the constitution > Flashcards

ideals of democracy and creating the constitution Flashcards

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1
Q

Richard Henry Lee of Virginia made an official motion to declare independence from Great Britain at the ________ in Philadelphia in the summer 1776.

A

Second Continental Congress

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1
Q

____ was an Enlightenment philosopher who believed that natural law was the law of God, which should be acknowledged through human sense and reason. According to his Enlightenment ideas, the natural state of mankind was to be free and equal. According to him, natural law not only entitled but obligated people to rebel when the rule of kings did not respect the consent of the governed.

A

John Locke

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2
Q

The idea of counting slaves as 3/5ths of a person was first proffered by James Madison when he was drafting a proposal to ____ the states based on their population.

A

tax

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3
Q

____ ____ was an uprising of Revolutionary War veterans in Massachusetts who had lost their farms to mortgage foreclosures and blamed higher than average state taxes for their misfortune. The inability of the government to organize a military response to quell the rebellion swiftly was one of the final straws that broke the Articles of Confederation because it exposed a national government that was too weak to achieve the objectives demanded by the nation’s citizens.

A

Shays Rebellion

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4
Q

____ was an Enlightenment philosopher who believed that a republican form of government was the best form of government for creating a government with defined and limited power while granting citizens political liberty.

He argued that in order to preserve citizens liberty, the power of the government should be separated into three separate branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.

A

Baron de Montesquieu

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5
Q

The differences between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan for the new Constitution were resolved by the ____ Compromise.
There would be a lower house called the ____ in which representation would be based on ____.

A

Great; House of Representatives; population

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6
Q

The ____ were responsible for making sure that a Bill of Rights would be voted on/added to the Constitution via the amendment process once the states ratified the new U.S. Constitution as a political trade-off to get the support necessary for the Constitution to win ratification votes in 9 of the 13 states.

A

Anti-Federalists

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7
Q

Originally, the Bill of Rights only applied to the ____.

A

federal government

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8
Q

The ____ protects citizens from being forced to incriminate themselves.

A

fifth amendment

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9
Q

The ____ protects the freedom of speech.

A

first amendment

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10
Q

The ____ protects citizens’ right to a fair legal process to determine whether or not they are guilty or liable.

A

fifth amendment

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11
Q

The ____ allows for the freedom of the press.

A

first amendment

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12
Q

The ____ prohibits unreasonable searches or seizures. This means that there must be some reasonable suspicion, which we call probable cause, in order for the government to conduct a search (ideally after getting a warrant.)

A

fourth amendment

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13
Q

The ____ prohibits the government from establishing a religion.

A

first amendment

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14
Q

The ____ prohibits the government from housing troops in your house or on your property.

A

third amendment

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15
Q

The ____ protects citizens from being tried for the same crime twice.

A

fifth amendment

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16
Q

The ____ protects the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances (without being retaliated against.)

A

first amendment

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17
Q

The ____ requires citizens to be indicted for criminal offenses - which means that a grand jury must determine there is enough evidence to proceed to a trial.

A

fifth amendment

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18
Q

The ____ protects the free exercise of religion.

A

first amendment

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19
Q

The ____ prohibits courts from assessing excessive fines and bail.

A

eighth amendment

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20
Q

The ____ protects citizens’ right to a speedy and public trial by a jury of their peers.

A

sixth amendment

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21
Q

The ____ protects the right to keep and bear arms (including firearms.)

A

second amendment

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22
Q

The ____ protects citizens’ rights to confront and cross-examine witnesses who testify against them at trial.

A

sixth amendment

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23
Q

The ____ delegates all powers not given to the federal government or denied to the states to the states and to the people.

A

tenth amendment

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24
Q

The ____ allows parties to a lawsuit to subpoena witnesses - which requires them to testify in court under oath.

A

sixth amendment

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25
Q

The ____ requires citizens to be informed of the crimes of which they are accused of committing.

A

fifth amendment

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26
Q

The ____ prohibits cruel and unusual punishment for crimes.

A

eighth amendment

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27
Q

The ____ protects rights enjoyed by Americans at the time of ratification but that are not explicitly written.

A

ninth amendment

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28
Q

The ____ protects citizens’ rights to have a defense counsel.

A

sixth amendment

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29
Q

The ____ was the governing document drafted by the Pilgrims while they were still British subjects in order to create a “civil body politic” to foster goodwill and cooperation. Consistent with their religious beliefs, it was grounded in Christian notions of morality and a notion regarding a “God-given” right to self rule.

A

Mayflower Compact

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30
Q

During the creation of the U.S. Constitution, the Commerce Compromise allowed the federal/national government to tax ____ but prohibited it from taxing ____.

A

imports; exports

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31
Q

(regarding the two competing plans for the constitution)

The ____ was supported by the most populous states.

A

Virginia Plan

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32
Q

(regarding the two competing plans for the constitution)

The ____ was supported by the smaller states.

A

New Jersey Plan

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33
Q

(regarding the two competing plans for the constitution)

The ____ created three branches of government with clear limits on each branch’s power.

A

Virginia Plan

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34
Q

(regarding the two competing plans for the constitution)

The ____ lacked a judiciary.

A

New Jersey Plan

35
Q

(regarding the two competing plans for the constitution)

The ____ created a unicameral legislative body.

A

New Jersey Plan

36
Q

(regarding the two competing plans for the constitution)

The ____ created a bicameral legislative body composed of a lower house and an upper house.

A

Virginia Plan

37
Q

When creating the new Constitution, the ____ Compromise counted enslaved individuals as less than a whole person for the purposes of determining a state’s population.

A

three-fifths

38
Q

Somewhat paradoxically, ____ states were in favor of counting slaves as a whole person for the purposes of calculating state populations whereas ____ states were opposed since they lacked the full rights of citizenship in those states.

A

slave; abolitionist

39
Q

The resulting compromise was actually pro-____ because it gave more political power to the states that were ____ (for/against) slavery - which enabled them to later advance their cause as the United States expanded westward.

A

abolitionist; against

40
Q

In exchange for counting slaves as less than a whole person for the purposes of determining the state’s official population, slave-holding states extracted the concession from the abolitionist states that once the Constitution was ratified, no laws could be made to restrict the importation of slaves for ____ years.

A

20

41
Q

____ was the lead author of the United States Declaration of Independence.

A

Thomas Jefferson

42
Q

____ was the lead author of the United States Constitution.

A

James Madison

43
Q

Under the Articles of Confederation, ____ votes out of the 13 states were required to pass legislation and ____ votes were required to amend the Articles of Confederation.

A

9; 13

44
Q

Under the Articles of Confederation and under the U.S. Constitution (when originally ratified,) both criminal fugitives and runaway slaves could be ____ which means they had to be sent from one state to another state in order to be processed by the later state’s criminal justice system, in the case of criminal fugitives, or returned to the one who held title to the slave, in the case of runaway slaves.)

A

extradited

45
Q

____ was an Enlightenment philosopher who believed that when humans lived in a “state of nature” instead of in a governed state that the result is anarchy and war as well as a “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” life.

He believed that the remedy for this was to trade rights for peace. Therefore, an absolute sovereign, which he called the ____, was required to hold society together while continuing to honor a social contract so long as the sovereign continued to take the greater good of society into account.

A

Thomas Hobbes; Leviathan

46
Q

In the Electoral College, each state’s electoral votes are equal to the total sum of representatives that they have in ____: the total number of House Representatives, which is different in each state according to the state’s____, plus their ____ Senators.

A

Congress; population; 2

47
Q

The number of electors (and thus electoral power in electing the president) changes every ____ years after the U.S. government conducts the ____
- which is the Constitutionally required official counting of the nation’s population.

A

10; census

48
Q

After the nation’s and each state’s population is determined by this official counting, the number of house representatives each state is allocated changes based on the relative population changes each state experienced over the defined period of time. This process is called ____.

A

reapportionment

49
Q

After the process of allocating house representatives to each of the states is complete, then each state must draw new boundaries to reflect the addition of house representatives, subtraction of house representatives, and/or changes in population within congressional district boundaries over the defined period of time so that each district is as close to the same population as possible. This process is called ____.

A

redistricting

50
Q

Under the Articles of Confederation, some of the few important powers that Congress could theoretically exercise were to:

  1. Engage in ____ ____.
  2. Declare ___
    (although it lacked a military or compulsory revenue stream to follow through).
  3. Acquire ____ (although it lacked a military to conquer or a compulsory revenue stream to fund purchases).
A

international diplomacy; war; territory

51
Q

Two important rights that are protected under the U.S. Constitution that were also protected under the Articles of Confederation concerned ____ and ____.

A

religion; speech

52
Q

The ____
are a series of essays written by the Federalists in support of ratifying the Constitution were published under the pseudonym ____
- an ancient Roman who toppled a king and set up a Republic.

A

Federalist Papers; Plubius

53
Q

The ____
were a series of essays written by the Anti-Federalists in opposition to ratification of the Constitution were published under the pseudonym ____
- a heroic Roman Senator who participated in killing the tyrannical Julius Caesar.

A

Anti-Federalist Papers; Brutus

54
Q

Under the Articles of Confederation, ____ adjudicated disputes between the states.

A

Congress

55
Q

Under the U.S. Constitution, federal ____ adjudicate disputes between the states.

A

courts

56
Q

When it became clear that the Articles of Confederation were proving unworkable, a ____ ____
was called initially for the purpose of revising the Articles - although they subsequently ended up writing a new government document to solve the problems created by a government that was too weak to advance important national objectives of a new and growing country.

A

constitutional convention

57
Q

Regarding the process to amend the Constitution, ____ of the U.S. House of Representatives and ____ of the U.S. Senate must each vote in favor of the proposed amendment.

A

2/3; 2/3

58
Q

The President ____ (does/doesn’t) get to sign or veto a proposed amendment.

A

doesn’t

59
Q

____ of the states must hold votes to affirmatively ratify the proposed Amendment before it is added to the United States Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

A

3/4

60
Q

An alternative way to amend the Constitution - which would open the entire document up for a complete rewrite and could theoretically result with an entirely new Constitution that may or may not look anything like the Constitution we currently have) would be to call for another Constitutional Convention. In order to do this ____ of the state legislatures would have to pass legislation calling for a new Constitutional Convention.

A

2/3

61
Q

There have been over 5,000 constitutional amendments proposed. Of those, ____ have passed through the Congress by the required margins, but only ____ have been ratified by the states and become a part of the U.S. Constitution.

A

33; 27

62
Q

Under the Articles of Confederation, the Confederation Congress met in ____
(city), and although each state could send up to ____ men to represent it, when it came time to vote each state only got ____ vote on national legislation (in the few areas that the national government was empowered to legislate.)

A

New York; 7; 1

63
Q

Although one of the American colonists’ rallying cries during the American Revolution was that there should be no taxation without representation, today the ____ is an area of the United States in which they pay all relevant federal taxes in spite of not having any voting representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives or in the U.S. Senate.

The reason for this is that voting representatives in these legislative bodies is a privilege reserved to ____
- which it is not.

A

District of Columbia; states

64
Q

The ____ officially ended the American Revolution when it was signed by both the United States and the British.

A

Treaty of Paris

65
Q

____ is the idea that ultimate power rests with the people.

A

Popular sovereignty

66
Q

____ is a system of government whereby representatives should make and execute laws on behalf of the people.

A

Republicanism

67
Q

____ is a system of government whereby the people vote to either enact laws themselves or to elect the representatives that make and execute laws on their behalf.

A

Democracy

68
Q

____ ____ ____ ____ is the idea that government exercises of power are only justified and lawful if the people agree abide by them and be held accountable to them.

A

Consent of the governed

69
Q

____ is the idea that power should be disbursed horizontally across multiple branches of government to prevent the power of the government from being too concentrated (based on the theory that concentrated power is more likely to be abused,) while allowing the government to achieve important national interests when the branches exercise their power cooperatively when deemed to be in the best interests of the people they govern.

A

Separation of powers

70
Q

____ is the idea that power should be divided vertically between various levels of government (such as the national government and state governments) in order to prevent the concentration of power (on the theory that concentrated power is more likely to be abused.)

A

Federalism

71
Q

Article I established the ____.

A

Legislative Branch

72
Q

Article II established the ____.

A

Executive Branch

73
Q

Article III established the ____.

A

Judiciary Branch

74
Q

Article IV established the ____.

A

relations among the states

75
Q

Article V established the ____.

A

amendment process

76
Q

Article VI established ____.

A

national supremacy

77
Q

Article VII established the ____.

A

ratification process

78
Q

____ was an Enlightenment philosopher who, in his seminal work The Social Contract, described a social contract in which free and equal people abandoned certain natural rights in order to find secure protections for society and to find freedom in a single body politic committed to the general good. He believed that the people should be the ultimate ruling authority while government officials were required to carry out the laws passed by the people’s elected representatives.

A

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

79
Q

The ____ was written by Thomas Jefferson and applied principles of Enlightenment philosophy to notify the British monarchy that the American colonists no longer wished to remain as subjects of the crown and detailed the reasons why.

A

Declaration of Independence

80
Q

Although he was a Federalist who was initially skeptical-to-hostile of the idea of adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution for a variety of reasons (none of which included opposition to the actual rights that people wanted included in the proposed Bill of Rights,) then-U.S. Rep. ____
of Virginia ended up passing 17 of his proposed Constitutional Amendments out of the House of Representatives, 12 of which garnered the requisite support of the U.S. Senate, and 10 of which were ratified by the requisite number of states which became the American Bill of Rights.

A

James Madison

81
Q

The ____ was the United States’s first governing document that redefined former colonies as states and loosely united them into an alliance under one governing authority - although most of the sovereignty and the power remained with the states and very little was transmuted to the national government.

A

Articles of Confederation

82
Q

In a ____, the people themselves are the ones responsible to making and enforcing laws.

A

participatory democracy

83
Q

In a ____, people with widely varying interests find others who share their interests and organize/unite into nongovernmental groups to exert influence on political decision-making.

A

pluralist democracy

84
Q

In a ____, the people elect government officials that are entrusted to make and enforce laws that address their concerns.

A

representative democracy

85
Q

In a ____, leaders with superior credentials, critical thinking skills, education, and/or knowledge may act to prevent popular but possibly unwise policy positions from being enacted into law.

A

elite democracy

ap government (7 decks)

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