AP Gov Foundational Documents

declaration of independence

• natural rights: people are born with unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, government is there to protect them

• popular sovereignty: people are the source of power, having the ability to abolish unjust government

• social contract: governments derive power from the consent of the governed. when they fail to protect rights, citizen have a right to revolt

• embodied the ideological foundation of American democracy

• justified rebellion not just as a right - but a duty in the face of tyranny

• inspired other revolutionary and anti-colonial movements globally

• not just a break-up letter with Britain - it was a philosophical blueprint for self-governance grounded in popular sovereignty

Articles of Confederation

• states were sovereign

• each state had 1 vote

• unicameral congress

• congress could declare war, make treaties, borrow money, maintain an army/navy

• congress couldn’t tax, regulate interstate commerce, enforce laws of court rulings, draft soldiers, needed 9/13 states to pass major legislation

• no executive or judicial branches

• amendments required unanimous approval

• states basically did what they wanted

• the AoC prioritized state sovereignty over national unity. Its weaknesses demonstrated the need for a stronger federal structure

why it collapsed:

• economic chaos: inflation, trade wars between states

• no military response to uprisings (Shays’ Rebellion)

• foreign policy failure: no unified diplomatic voice

• led directly to the Constitutional Convention of 1787

Constitution

• replaced the articles and established a more robust federal system with three co-equal branches. The Bill of Rights, added later, placated Anti-Federalist concerns by protecting individual liberties

• Articles I-VII:

  • I: Legislative Branch (Congress)

    • Congress makes laws, split into House and Senate

  • II: Executive Branch (President)

    • president, vice-president, cabinet, and departments under cabinet secretaries carry out laws made by Congress

  • III: Judicial Branch (Supreme Court

    • Supreme Court decides court cases according to US Constitution. Courts under the Supreme Court decide criminal and civil court cases according to the correct federal, state, and local laws.

  • IV: States’ powers:

    • states have the power to make and carry out their own laws. State laws that are related to the people and problems of their area. States respect other state laws and work together with other states to fix regional problems

  • V: Amendments:

    • Constitution can be changed. New amendments can be added US Constitution with the approval by a 2/3 vote in each house of congress and ¾ vote by states

  • VI: Federal powers: The Constitution and federal laws are higher than state and local laws. All laws must agree with the US Constitution

  • VII: Ratification

• popular sovereignty

• separation of powers

• checks and balances

• federalism

• republican form of government

• limited government

• power derived from the people, not monarchs or states

• a living document, amendable and open to interpretation, that balances order and liberty through institutional design

Federalist 10

• factions (groups with a common political interest) are inevitable in a free society - and dangerous

• don’t suppress liberty (that would be tyranny). Instead, control the effects of factions via a large republic.

• a representative democracy refines and enlarges public views

• a large republic dilutes factional influence across many interests and regions

• justifies pluralism and a late federal system

• supports the constitutional structure: federalism + a bicameral legislature

• contrasts directly with brutus 1, which feared big government

• Madison wasn’t saying factions were good - just that controlling their effects, not eliminating them, was the best strategy

Brutus 1

• Anti-Federalist paper opposed the new Constitution, warning that centralized power would erode state authority and threaten liberty

• Constitutions gives too much power to the federal government

  • supremacy clause: federal law > state law

  • necessary and proper clause: Congress can do anything it claims is “necessary”

• fears an elite ruling class: too far removed from the people

• large republics lead to corruption, distant government, and loss of liberty

• standing armies = instruments of oppression

• advocates for small, decentralized government

• believed only a confederation could preserve liberty

• warns that if you give up power, you will never get it back

• elastic clause is fearful because it gives government absolute power

• power to tax leads to tyrannical government

• federal government would destroy the states

• argued for decentralized democracy - small republics where leaders stay closely accountable to their constituents

federalist 51

• structural protections against tyranny, Constitution’s checks and balances preserves liberty (how do you prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful?)

• since men aren’t angels, there is a need for government to limit the ambition of men

• encourages federalismL power further divided between state and national governments

• separation of powers: divide power amongst the 3 branches to counteract ambition

• checks and balances: each branch will guard its own power and keep the other branches in check

• congress has the most power of the 3 hence it’s divided into 2 houses so they can check each other’s powers

• directly supports ideas like judicial review, bicameralism, veto power, and impeachment - all mechanisms to avoid tyranny

Bill of Rights

• 1st ten amendments

• anti-federalists demanded protections for individual rights

• 1st: speech, religion, press, assembly

• 2nd: right to bear arms

• 4th: protection against unreasonable searches

• 5th/6th: rights of the accused

• 10th: powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states