Political Beginnings

Question 1

Government

Answer 1

Organization that controls and directs the making and administration of a society’s policies.

Question 2

Democracy

Answer 2

Government in which power is held by the people and exercised either directly or through representation, usually determined by elections.

Question 3

Monarchy

Answer 3

Government in which the ruler is a hereditary head of state who rules for life.

Question 4

Republic

Answer 4

Forms of government run by elected representatives; it does not have a king or queen.

Question 5

Natural Rights

Answer 5

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Question 6

Common Law

Answer 6

Law based on custom and usage. British common law is the basis of much American law.

Question 7

Direct Democracy

Answer 7

System of government in which citizens vote directly for the laws by which they will be ruled, as opposed to a representative democracy in which laws are made by elected representatives.

Question 8

Enlightenment

Answer 8

Philisophical movement in 18th-century Europe that stressed individualism, questioned traditional values, and argued that humans could use reason to solve problems.

Question 9

Parliament

Answer 9

Bicameral (two-chamber) national legislature of Great Britain, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Question 10

Sovereignty

Answer 10

Power of a government to make decisions for itself within its own territory or jurisdiction; freedom from foreign control.

Question 11

Social Contract Theory

Answer 11

Unspoken agreement by which people are joined to their government. People agree to give up rights and powers to the government in exchange for security, law, and order.

Question 12

Popular Sovereignty

Answer 12

Consent of the govere ned; power to govern comes from the people.

Question 13

Stamp Act

Answer 13

1765 British tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies.

Question 14

Separation of Powers

Answer 14

To prevent any group in government from gaining too much authority, the Constitution divides the federal government into three branches.

Question 15

John Locke

Answer 15

An Enlightenment thinker that stressed the rights of the individual and natural rights.

Question 16

Constitution

Answer 16

Plan of government. In the United States, the Constitution is the supreme law and plan of the national government, adopted in 1789.

Question 17

Bill of Rights

Answer 17

First 10 amendments to the Constitution.

Question 18

Jury

Answer 18

Group of ordinary citizens chosen to decide the guilt or innocence of the person accused in a trial.

Question 19

Thomas Jefferson

Answer 19

The writer of the Declaration of Independence.

Question 20

Articles of Confederation

Answer 20

Plan for government approved by the states in 1781. It proved to be too weak and was replaced by the U.S. Constitution.

Question 21

Boston Massacre

Answer 21

Was the killing of five colonists by British soldiers on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts.

Question 22

Quartering Act

Answer 22

Forced the colonists to house British soldiers in their barns and houses

Question 23

Limited Government

Answer 23

In the Constitution, the people grant the government limited powers to act on their behalf.

Question 24

Declaration of Independence

Answer 24

Written to announce that the United States was a free and separate country, no longer subject to the restraints of the British government.

Question 25

Shays’s Rebellion

Answer 25

In 1786, Shays and his neighbors were about to lose their farms because they couldn’t afford to pay their taxes. In protest, Shays and a group of farmers took over the Massachusetts courthouse at gunpoint. The states and the Congress saw that their government was too weak. Turning point to Constitutional Convention.

Question 26

3/5th’s Compromise

Answer 26

The number of representatives elected to the House from each state be based pn the total free population plus three-fifths of the number of slaves in the state.

Question 27

Taxes

Answer 27

In this country, you must pay your taxes-or risk fines and possibly imprisonment. The government uses taxes to raise money to provide services for the good of the people.

Question 28

Magna Carta

Answer 28

First document to limit the kings power. Gave the wealthy right to a jury trial and a say in taxation.

Question 29

State

Answer 29

A defined territory, people, government and sovereignty (final say) create a state.