Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Leise Section 1
Early American Government
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Anti-Federalist | Opponents to the ratification of the constitution who valued liberty above all else and believed it could be protected only in a small republic. They emphasized states' rights and worried that the new central government was too strong. |
| Articles of confederation | the document establishing a "league of friendship" among the American states in 1781. The govenment proved too weak to rule effectively and was replaced by the current Constitution. |
| Bill of Attainder | A law that declares a person, without trial, to be guilty of a crime. The state legislatures and Congress are forbidden to pass such acts. Article 1, Sections 9 and 10, of the COnstitution. |
| Coalition | Part of a theory espoused by James Madison that hypothesized that different interests must come together to form an alliance in order for republican government to work. |
| Constitutional Convention | A meeting of delegates in 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation, which produced a totally new constitution still in use today. |
| Democracy | A word used to describe at least three different political systems that each embody the principle of popular rule, if only in the intersts of the people. |
| Electoral College | A body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the President and Vice President of the U.S. |
| Ex Post Facto Law | A law which makes criminal an act that was legal when it was commited, or that increases the penalty for a crime after it has been committed, or that changes the rules of evidence to make conviction easier. |
| Faction | A term employed by James Madison to refer to interests that exist in society, such as farmers and merchants, northerners and southerners, debtors and creditors. Madison believed the competition between interests would promote political stabilty nationally |
| Federalism | A political system in which ultimate authority is shared between a central government and state or regional governments. |
| Federalist | A term used to describe supporters of the COnstitution during ratifivation debates in state legislatures. |
| Federalist Paper #10 | An essay composed by James Madison which argues that liberty is safest in a large republic because many interests exist. Such diversity makes tyranny by the majority more difficult since ruling coalitions will always be unstable. |
| Federalist Paper #51 | An essay composed by James Masdison which addresses means by which appropriate checks and balances can be created in government and advocates a seperation of powers within the national government. |
| Federalist Papers | A series of 85 article advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. |
| The Great (Conneticut) Compromise | The agreement that prevented the collapse of the Constitutional COnvention because of friction between large and small states. It reconciled interests by basing representation in the Senate on equality and population in the House. |
| James Madison | Considered to be the "Father of the COnstitution", he was pricipal author of the document. Wrote over 1/3 of the federalist papers. As a leader in the first Congress he drafeted bills and amendments. Known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights". |
| John Locke | is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally imprortant to sociall contract theory. |
| Judicial Review | The power of the courts to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. It is also a way of limiting the power of popular majorities. |
| Natural Rights | A philisophical belief expressed in the Declaration of Independence that certain rights are ordained by God, are dicoverable in nature and history, and are essential to human progress. |
| Necessary and Proper Clause | refers to a provision in Article 1 of the Constitution in section 8, clause 18, which addresses implied powers of Congress. |
| New Jersey Plan | Plan of governement proposed by William Patterson to replace the VA plan to protect the small states. It recommended ammending the Articles with a unicameral Congress, in which each state had an equal vote. |
| Republic | A state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. |
| Separation of Powers | An element of the Constitution in which political power is shared among the branches of government to allow self-interest to check self-interest. |
| Shay's Rebellion | A rebellion in 1787 by ex-revolutionary war soldiers who feared losing their lands to debt. Mobs prevented courts in southern Mass. from sitting. This proved the inability of the Articles to deal with problems and led to support for revision. |
| Social Contract | desribes a broad class of philisophical theories whose subject is the implied agreements by which people form nations and maintain social order. |
| State of Nature | A term in political philosophy used in social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition of humanity before the state's foundation and its monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. |
| Supremacy Clause | A clause in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution that declares the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the federal government to be the supreme law of the land to which judges of every state are bound regardless of state law to the contrary. |
| Unalienable Rights | These were thought to be based on nature and providence rather than on the preferences of people. |
| Virginia Plan | A plan submitted to the Constitutional Convention that proposed a new form of government, not a revision of the Articles. The plan envisioned a much stronger national government structured around three branches. James Madison prepared the initial draft. |
| Alexander Hamilton | Federalist. Helped write the Federalist Papers and was the first Secretay of Treasury and was very good at it. |
| Appellate Jurisdiction | The jurisdiction which a superior court has to bear appeals of cases which have been tried in inferior courts. |
| Apportionment | To divide and share out accourding to a plan. |
| Bill of Rights | The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. |
| Charles Beard | Historian who published An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution in 1913. He argued that the better-off urban and commercial classes favored the new Constitution because they stood to benefit from it. |
| Electoral College | Established by the Founding Fathers as a compromise between election of the President by Congress or by popular vote. People vote for electors who vote for the President. |
| Enumerated Powers | Powers given to the federal government by the terms of the U.S. Constitution. |
| Fugitive Slave Clause | Provided that runaway slaves could not be emancipated in the state to which they escaped but were to "be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." |
| Mixed Government | A government composed of some of the powers of a monarchial, aristocratic, and democratic government. |
| Monarchy | A form of government in which a King or Queen is in charge of the country. |
| Northwest Ordinance | Passed by the Articles of Confederation, this law opened up the west to development, acclerating the country's westward expansion. |
| Oligarchy | A government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. |
| Original Jurisdiction | That which is given to take responsibility for cases which may be instituted in those courts in the first place . |
| popular Sovereighnty | Political doctrine which allowed the settlers of territories to decide slave or free status when they became a state. |
| Proportional Representation | Representatives are elceted from multi-seat districts in proportion to the number of votes recieved. |
| Separated Powers | Separation of Powers |
| Thomas Hobbes | Thought people were essentially evil. Supported strong central government. |
| Treason | The offesnse of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes alligence or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family. |
| Veto | A power vested in a chief executive to prevent permantly or temporalily the enactment of measures passed by a legislature. Also an implied power of the President. |
Created by:
jmarient
Popular AP Comparative Gov. sets