Unit 1 Flashcards
key concepts and documents
What is Power?
Exercised will over others?
What is Authority?
Accepted power
Monarchy
Rule of one; government run by a monarch (royalty), family lineage
Tyranny
Rule of one who seized power
Democracy
Rule of many (citizens/people)
Republic/Representative Democracy
Republic/Representative Democracy: The people elect representatives or officials to make decisions on behalf of the population
Direct Democracy
policies and laws made by majority of citizens, not elected officials.
Oligarchy
rule of few; run by a small, elite group who rose to power because of military or economic mean$.
Theocracy
rule of divine
DIctatorship
The power over government and people held by a single person, who likely obtained power by force.
Social Contract
Sacrificing personal freedoms on behalf of community good.
Liberty
rights and freedoms of individuals
Enlightenment Period
17th century movement focused on reason, thinking, and the separation of church and state.
Rousseau
Social Contract, collective will, inspired Thomas Jefferson with the idea of conventions
Locke
Natural Law and Rights: government operates for the governed. People are generally good, we need ro protect life, liberty and land
Hobbes
State of Nature - submit to a large and strong government (Leviathan). People are bad and need a strong gov’t.
Government
How a society organizes itself and allocates authority to accomplish collective goals that benefits the society. List 5 types of gov’t.
Politics
process of who gets what and how through government
Legislative Branch: _____________ the law
Executive Branch: ______________ the law
Judicial Branch: ________________ the law
Legislative Branch: creates the law
Executive Branch: Enforces the law
Judicial Branch: Interprets the law
Name the 3 branches and uses of gov’t
Legislative Branch: creates the law
Executive Branch: Enforces the law
Judicial Branch: Interprets the law
Congress = _________ + __________
Congress: Senate + House of Representatives
Government Office known as the “upper house” with a 6 year term. Responsible for approving treaties, Supreme Court nominees and passing legislation. Only 2 in each state.
Senate
Government Office known as the “lower house” with 2 year term. Responsible for creating legislation regarding taxes. The amount of persons in this role is determined by the population of the state
House of Representatives
Federalism
Federalism: the division and sharing of governments between national and state governments. National and subnational
Unicameral
single legislative chamber
Bicameral
2 part legislative chamber
Parliament
UK Legislative Branch (sovereign power). Bicameral: House of Lords and elected House of Commons
Colonists
Colonizer; person who claims new land/region
Constitution
establishes government and how it works
Revolution
Revolution: overthrow a government or order for a new system.
Declaration of Independence
This was a document informing the King of England that the colonists were going to form their own country.
natural rights - John Locke
Government gets it power from the consent of the governed- Rousseau
“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”
US Constitution
The document that established the US Government
“We the people”
Magna Carta
- No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
- To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.
Establishes that no human is above the law
Written by King John of England in 1215
English Bill of Rights
That levying money [raising taxes] for or to the use of the Crown [monarchy] by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament…is illegal;
That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;
That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;
The principles of the English Bill of Rights served as a foundational fr
Written in 1688
Mayflower Compact
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour
of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends
aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.
Mayflower Compact, document signed on the English ship Mayflower on Nove
Written in 1620
Coercive/Intolerable Acts
A series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party.
Includes the Quartering Act-an act of the British Parliament that requir
Townshend Act
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1767 that taxed goods imported to the American colonies.
The Acts were named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exche
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was a law passed by the British Parliament in 1765 that required American colonists to pay a tax on legal documents and other paper goods
The Seven Years’ War
A global conflict involving most of the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe and the Americas.
(1756–1763)
Ratify
To sign, give formal agreement to, make official
Sovereign
power and authority to rule itself
Sovereignty: power assigned to the person, body or institution that has
Confederation
The 13 Colonies during the Articles of Confederation
Confederation: self-governing states
Articles of Confederation: First co
Daniel Shay
Shay’s Rebellion, an uprising of Revolutionary War veterans in Massachusetts that both the state and national governments struggled to address due to a lack of centralized military power, illustrated the need to create a stronger governing system.
Constitutional Convention
4 month debate in Philadelphia to recreate the Government of the US.
Delegate
elected representative
Compromise
“meet in the middle” of two arguments, conceding something in order to move together.
Constitution Design
Article I: Legislative Branch
Article II: Executive Branch
Article III: Judicial Branch
Articled IV: States, citizenship, new states.
Article V: Amendment process
Article VI: Debts, supremacy, oaths, religious texts
Article 7: Ratification Process
The Great Compromise
Combined two plans, *Virginia and *-NJ Plan to create a Bicameral Legislature: 2 appointed senators per state, proportional number of representatives for each state.
*-New Jersey Plan: more “equality” one vote to each of the states, unim
Federalists
Wrote this collection of papers
Belief in a central government
John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and wrote the Federalist
Anti-Federalists
Belief that the government should be small, state level and citizens should have more civil liberties
Bill of Rights
First 10 Amendments to the US Constitution
helped secure ratification with approval from Virgina and New York
addressed concerns about individual liberties and government overreach.
Proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1791.
