Federalism and the Structure of U.S. Government

Vocabulary flashcards focusing on key concepts, governmental branches, specific legislation, and historical terms related to U.S. federalism.

Federalism

The system of dividing power in the United States between different levels of government: the national level, the state level, and the local level.

Articles of Confederation

A document written during the Revolutionary War outlining a initial governmental structure in which the national government was very weak and most power belonged to the states.

Constitutional Convention

A four-month meeting held in Philadelphia in 1787, led by figures like James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and James Madison, to establish a new system of government under the Constitution.

Legislative Branch

The branch of government responsible for making laws.

Executive Branch

The branch of government responsible for making sure laws are carried out.

Judicial Branch

The branch of government responsible for interpreting laws.

National Government Powers

Exclusive powers dealing with big picture matters that affect the whole country, such as signing treaties, printing or coining money, establishing a system of weights and measures, and declaring war.

State Government Powers

Responsibilities that allow individual states to meet their own values and preferences, including setting education standards and determining driver's license age requirements.

Local Government Bodies

Government entities such as county boards, sheriffs, city councils, town mayors, and school boards that address community needs through policing, littering ordinances, and land zoning.

Laboratories of Democracy

A phrase used by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1932 to describe how state governments lead the way in trying out new laws and policies that can later spread nationwide.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A national law passed to protect citizens from state laws that restricted rights guaranteed under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

Nineteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1920 guaranteeing that no woman can be denied the right to vote based on gender.

Wyoming

The first territory and eventual state to guarantee women's voting rights, doing so in 1869.