Gov unit 1 vocab

Has textbook definitions of vocab words used for MCQs and FRQs

Natural Rights

Men were entitled to “life, liberty, and property”, and that these cannot be taken away except under laws created through the consent of the governed.

Social Contract

The agreement of free and equal people to abandon certain natural rights in order to find secure protections for society and to find freedom in a single body politic committed to the general good.

Popular Sovereignty

The people are the ultimate authority with government officials carrying out the laws.

Republicanism

In a republic, citizens elect leaders for a limited period of time; the leaders’ job is to make and execute laws in the public interest.

Participatory Democracy

The direct participation of many, if not most, people in a society, not only in government but in public life as well.

Pluralist Theory

People with widely varying interests find others who share their interests and organize and unite into non governmental groups to exert influence on political decision making.

Elitist Theory

Elected representatives make decisions and act as trustees for the people who elected them.

Articles of Confederation

Document laying out the first form of government for the new nation. It redefined the former colonies as states and loosely united them as a confederation or alliance under one governing authority.

Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention worked to design a stronger national government.A meeting held in 1978 to create a stronger national government.

Virginia Plan

Called for a three branch system with a national executive, a judiciary, and a bicameral-or two house-legislature. This plan also made the national government supreme over the states and set clear limits for each of the branches. (House of Representatives)

New Jersey Plan

assured states retained their sovereignty through a national government with limited and defined powers. No national court system, state based legislation, and each state would have one representative by giving each state one vote in the legislature. (Equal Representation) (Senate)

Bicameral

Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph proposed the Virginia Plan which called for a three-branch system with a national executive, a judiciary, and a bicameral - or two house - legislature.

Three fifths compromise

An agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention that established a formula for counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation in Congress and taxation.

Compromise of Importation

Congress could not stop the importation of slaves for 20 years after ratification. The importation of slaves did not stop after 20 years. To reduce the amount of slave importation, they started taxing slaves as property.

Separation of Powers

The assignment of different roles, responsibilities, and powers to different branches of government; being legislative, judicial, and executive.

Expressed or Enumerated Powers

The Constitution delegates to the federal government listed in Article I, Section 8, and the job descriptions for the president and the courts in Articles II and III, respectively.

The powers granted in the branches to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution

Necessary and Proper or Elastic Clause

The Congress shall have power… to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.

Implied Powers

Powers not explicit in the constitution but are necessary for Congress to fulfill their duties.

Supremacy Clause

Constitutional Provisions Article VI, which includes the supremacy clause, places national law, treaties, and presidential action above state authority. National law, however, is limited by the Constitution. So unless federal actions or policies violate the Constitution, states cannot disregard them. (Federal laws > State laws)

Federalists

A person who supports a system of government in which several states unite under a central authority.

Antifederalists

Those who opposed the consolidation of the states under a federal government.

Federalist No.51

In Federalist No. 51, Publius writes, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” He points to the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution as a guard against tyranny.

Faction

Madison, in Federalist No. 10, addressed the concern that a few powerful individuals might unite into a faction, or interest group to dominate political decisions.

Federalist No.10

speaks of the ‘mischiefs of faction,’ or interest groups in government, whether a majority or a minority, ‘united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens. An essay written that focused on the role of a strong central government in limiting the power of factions. (James Madison)

Brutus No.1

a series of essays written by Robert Yates, disagreeing with the United States constitution, he believed the constitution would lead to an overpowered central government.

Federalism

The U.S. Constitution establishes a system of checks and balances among branches of government and allocates power between federal and state governments. This system is based on the rule of law and the balance between majority rule and minority rights.

Distribution of power between the national and state governments

Commerce Clause

The commerce clause empowers the Congress to “regulate commerce with other nations, and among the several states”.

Necessary and Proper Clause

This provision states, “The Congress shall have power… to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.”

Tenth Amendment

Any powers that are not given to the federal government can be reserved by the states.

Reserved Powers

The reserved powers are not specifically listed, and thus any powers not mentioned remain with the states.

Concurrent Powers

Power held by authorities at both levels, state and federal.

Full Faith and Credit Clause

The article requires each state to give full faith and credit “to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state”. In other words, states must regard and honor the laws in other states.

Extradition

The extradition clause obligates states to deliver captured fugitive criminals back to the state where they committed the original crime.

Fourteenth Amendment

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United states. (Equal protection)

Selective Incorporation

The process of declaring only certain, or selected, provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states rather than all of them at once is known as selective incorporation.

Categorical Grants

Grants with particular congressional guidelines or requirements.

Unfunded Mandate

Mandates that require states to comply with federal directive, sometimes with the reward of funds and sometimes - in unfunded mandates - without.

Block Grants

Federal money given to states for broadly defined reasons, differs from categorical grants in that they offer larger sums of money to the states without the strings of the categorical grants.

Revenue Sharing

Congress collects federal tax revenues and distributes these funds to the states to take care of particular national concerns.