We the People Essential Study Guide Exam 1

Question 1

Government

Answer 1

describe the formal institutions through which a territory and its people are ruled

Question 2

Three-Fifths Compromise

Answer 2

Said that slavery cannot be abolished until 20 years after the ratification.
Each slave counts as 3/5 of a person…
North doesn’t want them counted, and south does because of House Seats.
Compromise gave south about half of the house seats

Question 3

Concurrent powers

Answer 3

powers that are shared by both the federal government and state governments. This includes the power to tax, build roads, and create lower courts.

Question 4

Virginia Plan

Answer 4

James Madison’s Virginia Plan outlined a strong national government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

The plan called for a legislature divided into two bodies (the Senate and the House of Representatives) with proportional representation.

Question 5

New Jersey Plan

Answer 5

One house of Congress (a unicameral legislature).
Each state has equal representation, regardless of population.
National government with three branches: legislative, executive and judiciary.
Congress has power to tax and regulate interstate commerce.

Question 6

The Great Compromise

Answer 6

took ideals from Virginia and new jersey plan, and provided for a bicameral congress
1. House of Representatives which is Based on Population
2. The Senate which is Based on equal number

Question 7

Popular Sovereignty

Answer 7

Principle of democracy in which political authority rests ultimately in the hands of the people.

Question 8

Politics

Answer 8

refers to conflicts and struggles over the leadership, structure, and policies of governments.

Question 9

New Deal

Answer 9

designed to ease depression hardship, national authority prevails declaring it unconstitutional

Question 10

Shays’s Rebellion

Answer 10

an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts and Worcester in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government’s increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades. The fight took place mostly in and around Springfield during 1786 and 1787.

Question 11

Cooperative federalism (2nd)

Answer 11

national state and local levels work together to solve problems

Question 12

Dual Federalism (1st)

Answer 12

precise separation of national and state power, describes the nature of federalism for the first 150 years of the American republic

Question 13

The differences between unitary, federal, and confederal systems

Answer 13

In a federal system, a national government and the state governments share power.

In a unitary system, all power lies with the national government,

whereas in a confederation, the vast majority of power rests with the states.

Question 14

John Locke

Answer 14

Locke’s theory of government postulates that societies in their original condition comprised only individuals, without government.

Individuals in this “state of nature” possessed certain inherent rights and liberties which existed independently of government. (NATURAL RIGHTS)

Question 15

Unfunded Mandates

Answer 15

federal laws, regulations, or rules that impose demands on the states without including the funding required to comply

Question 16

Categorical Grants

Answer 16

federal grants given to state and local governments to encourage their cooperation in implementing specific purposes and programs.

These grants give less flexibility to state governments than block grants.

Question 17

Block Grants

Answer 17

federal grants given to state and local governments to encourage their cooperation in implementing specific purposes and programs. These grants give less flexibility to state governments than block grants.

Question 18

Devolution

Answer 18

the transfer or delegation of power from a central government to a subnational, local authority.

Question 19

New Federalism

Answer 19

Federal authorities gradually shift power back to the states.

Question 20

Who were the antifederalists

Answer 20

Those who opposed the ratification of the Constitution in favor of small localized government

Many Anti-Federalists preferred a weak central government because they equated a strong government with British tyranny.

John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, and Mercy Otis Warren.

Question 21

What were the Federalist Papers?
Who wrote them?

Answer 21

The Federalist Papers were written and published to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution, which was drafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787.

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, and John Jay

Question 22

Articles of Confederation

Answer 22

The United States first written constitution. Primarily concerned with limiting the powers of the federal government.

Question 23

What were the important compromises from the Constitutional Convention?

Answer 23

The major debates were over representation in Congress, the powers of the president, how to elect the president (Electoral College), slave trade, and a bill of rights.

the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the Electoral College.

Question 24

How did John Marshall’s Supreme Court impact American federalism?

Answer 24

They strengthened the Court’s position as a coequal with the legislative and executive branches of government, and they established the Court’s power of judicial review in the political system.

Question 25

Political Culture

Answer 25

Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system”.

Question 26

Why is the Constitution’s “Necessary and Proper Clause” also called the “Elastic
Clause?

Answer 26

It is called the Elastic Clause because its enables Congress to stretch, or expand, its power of Congress to include situations the founding fathers did not anticipate.

Prior to the adoption of the Constitution, the powers of the Continental Congress were limited to those expressly delegated in the Articles of Confederation.

Question 27

Nullification

Answer 27

the constitutional theory that individual states can invalidate federal laws or judicial decisions they deem unconstitutional

Question 28

John C. Calhoun

Answer 28

Calhoun was the Senate’s most prominent states’ rights advocate, and his doctrine of nullification professed that individual states had a right to reject federal policies that they deemed unconstitutional.

Question 29

Preemption

Answer 29

a legal doctrine that allows a higher level of government to limit or even. eliminate the power of a lower level of government to regulate a specific issue.
Under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, federal law takes precedence over state and. local law.

Question 30

Political Tolerance

Answer 30

Political tolerance is the willingness to extend basic rights and civil liberties to persons and groups whose viewpoints differ from one’s own. It is a central tenet of a liberal democracy.

Question 31

The difference between “expressed powers” and “implied powers?

Answer 31

Expressed powers are those powers directly granted to the federal government found in the Constitution.

implied powers are those powers that can be reasonable assumed through the expressed powers

Inherent powers are the powers granted to the national government, because it is a nation in a world of nations.

Question 32

What two divisions among the delegates at the Constitutional Convention were responsible for most disagreements ?

Answer 32

One of the major compromises in the Constitutional Convention was between the small states and big states. The small states wanted each state to have the same number of representatives in Congress. The big states wanted representation based on population.

Question 33

Home Rule

Answer 33

is granted by state constitution or state statute and allocates some autonomy to a local government, if the local government accepts certain conditions. Home Rule implies that each level of government has a separate realm of authority.

Question 34

Political Powers

Answer 34

the influence over a government’s leadership organization, or policies

Question 35

Pluralism

Answer 35

The pattern of struggles among interests.
Groups and organized interests also participate in politics.
Their political activities include providing funds for candidates, lobbying, and trying to influence public opinion.

Question 36

Southern Manifesto

Answer 36

In 1956, 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives signed the “Southern Manifesto,” a resolution condemning the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The resolution called the decision “a clear abuse of judicial power” and encouraged states to resist implementing its mandates

Question 37

What impact did Congress’s revision of immigration law in the 1960s have?

Answer 37

The act put an end to long-standing national-origin quotas that favored those from northern and western Europe.
It ended an immigration-admissions policy based on race and ethnicity, and gave rise to large-scale immigration, both legal and unauthorized.

Question 38

1. Direct Democracy
2. Representative Democracy

Answer 38

1. System of rule that permits citizens to vote directly on laws and politics.
2. System of government in which the populace selects representatives, who play a significant role in governmental decision making.

Question 39

What are the 3 core values in American politics?

Answer 39

Liberty, Equality, and Democracy.

Question 40

Types of Government:

1. Totalitarian
2. Constitutional
3. Authoritarian

Answer 40

1. Government recognizes no formal limits on its power and seeks to absorb or eliminate other social institutions that might challenge it.
   (Ex) : Nazi Germany under Adolph Hitler and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.
2. System of rule in which formal and effective limits are placed on the powers are placed on the powers of the government.
   (Ex) : United States, France and the United Kingdom
3. Government only imposes few real limits but is never the less kept in check by other political and social institutions that it cannot control—such as self-governing territories, organized religions, business organizations, or labor union,
   (Ex): Latin America, Asia , Eastern Europe and Africa.

Question 41

Who wanted majority rule with minority rights?

Answer 41

James Madison
the democratic principle that a government follows the preferences of the majority of voters but protects the interests of the minority

Question 42

Political Efficacy

Answer 42

Belief that ordinary citizens can affect what government does, that they can take action to make government listen to them

Question 43

Political Efficacy Decline

Answer 43

The feeling that you cannot affect the government decisions can lead to a self-perpetuating cycle of apathy, declining in political participation, and withdrawal from political life.

Question 44

Citizenship

Answer 44

Membership in a political community that provides legal rights and carries participation responsibilities.
Citizens also have responsibilities such as upholding the Constitution; obeying federal state, and local laws . paying taxes. serving on juries when called, and being informed about issues.

Question 45

Obergefell v Hodges

Answer 45

Required that all states offer marriage licenses to two people of the same sex.

Question 46

Windsor v United States

Answer 46

Granted same-sex couples guarantee to equal treatment under law.

Question 47

Police Power

Answer 47

State ability to develop and enforce criminal codes, administer health and safety rules, regulate marriage and divorce laws, and regulate individual livelihoods.

Question 48

The Supremacy Clause

Answer 48

Holds that in a conflict between federal and state laws, the former will override the latter.

Question 49

Reserved Powers

Answer 49

powers granted to the states under the 10th amendment, this protects states’ rights and interests

Question 50

Judicial Review

Answer 50

Allows the court to determine the constitutionality of laws