APGOV Key Terms - Unit 1 Constitutional Foundations

Natural Rights

Rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Natural Law

The assertion that standards that govern human behavior are derived from the nature of humans themselves and can be applied universally.

Social Contract Theory

The idea that individuals possess free will, and every individual is equally endowed with the God-given right of self determination and ability to consent to be governed.

Direct Democracy

A structure of government in which citizens discuss and decide policy through majority rule.

Indirect(Representative) Democracy

Sometimes called a representative democracy, a system in which citizens elect representatives who decide policies on behalf of their constituents.

Pluralism

Participatory Democracy

Elite Democracy

Pluralist Democracy

Republic

A government that derives its authority from the people and in which citizens elect government officials to represent them in the processes by which laws are made; a representative democracy.

Oligarchy

Government in which an elite few hold power.

Aristocracy

Elastic Clause

Congress can make all laws it deems necessary and proper to fulfill its responsibilities.

Expressed Powers

Powers that were explicitly granted to the federal government.

• Power to raise money(tax) and to authorize spending it for common defense and general warfare

• To borrow money on national debt

• Regulate commerce with foreign nations

• Establish process of citizenship and bankruptcy

• Make and regulate money, standardize weights/measures

• Copyright laws

• Create federal court system(under the supreme court)

• Establish laws regarding crimes outside borders or with international law

• Declare war, raise armies, maintain navy

• Guarantee states right to maintain and train National Guard

• Govern Washington D.C.

• Make all laws it deems necessary and proper to fulfill its responsibilities(Elastic Clause -> implied powers)

10th Amendment

State governments retain all authority they had before ratification of the Constitution that has not been delegated to the national government by the Constitution.

“No Taxation Without Representation”

Articles of Confederation

First Draft at a Constitution; held the colonies together in fight for independence

• A collaborative governing alliance among the independent sovereign states

• Weak central gov(tax commerce, coinage), No Exec, No judiciary, couldn’t amend AoC Congress was unicameral, no national taxes, state courts primarily unless state v. state, state gov would implement & pay for policies by Congress

Shay’s Rebellion

Constitutional Convention

delegates were sent from each colony to collectively pursue political action

• 1st: aired the Declaration of Rights & Grievances

  2nd: Endorsed Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence & proposed AoC

Constitution

Qualifications for House of Representatives

• Must be at least 25 yrs. old

• Been a U.S. citizen for at least 7 yrs

• Be a resident/live in the state they represent

Qualifications for Senate

• Must be at least 30 yrs old

• Been a U.S. citizen for at least 9 yrs

• Be a resident/live in the state they represent

Qualifications for President

• Must be at least 35 yrs old

• Be a natural-born U.S. citizen

• Been a U.S. resident for at leat 14 years

Veto & Scenarios

After a bill passes both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is sent to the President. The President has the right to veto any bill, which returns the bill to Congress. The bill then needs a ⅔ vote in both chambers to override. If Congress adjourns before the 10-day period is up, and the President does not sign the bill, it does not become a law (pocket veto).

Powers of the President

Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy and the Militia of several states, power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the U.S. except in cases of impeachment. Power to make treaties with advice of the Senate, shall nominate/appoint Ambassadors, public Ministers and Consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, power to fill vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the senate.

Bill of Rights

First 10 amendments in the constitution, which were ratified in 1791, constituting an enumeration of the individual liberties with which the government is forbidden to interfere.

Bill of Attainder

BoA is a law targeting a specific group or individual for punishment or when someone is punished without due process.

Declaration of Independence

stated the grievances the colonists had against King George III; by Thomas Jefferson endorsed by the 2nd Continental Congress

• Provided a rallying point by envisioning a new government built on the consent of the people; liberty & equality

• (1) Established Natural Rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

• (2) guided by social contract theory; government should be based on the consent of the people

• (3) if a government isn’t protecting peoples’ rights the people have the right to abolish it and form a new government

Virginia Plan

The new governmental structure proposed by the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention, which consisted of a bicameral legislature(Congress), an executive elected by the legislature, and a separate national judiciary; state representation in Congress would be proportional, based on state population; the people would elect members to the lower house, and members of the lower house would elect the members of the upper house.

New Jersey Plan

The proposal presented in response to the Virginia Plan by the less populous states at the Constitutional Convention, which called for a unicameral national legislature in which all states would have an equal voice(equal representation), an executive office composed of several people elected by Congress, and a Supreme Court whose members would be appointed by the executive office.

Great Compromise

The compromise between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan that created a bicameral legislature with one chamber’s representation based on population and the other chamber having two members for each state (also known as the Connecticut Compromise).

3/5ths Compromise

The negotiated agreement by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to count each enslaved person as three-fifths of a free person for the purpose of representation and taxes.

Separation of Powers

The Constitution’s delegation of authority for the primary governing functions among three branches of government so that no one group of government officials controls all the governing functions.

Checks & Balances

A system in which each branch of government can monitor and limit the functions of the other branches.

Efficacy

Citizens’ belief that they have the ability to achieve something desirable and that the government listens to people like them

Judicial Review

Court authority to determine whether an action taken by any government official or governing body violates the constitution; established by the Supreme Court in the 1803 Marbury v. Madison case.

Popular Sovereignty

The theory that the government is created by the people and depends on the people for the authority to rule.

Federalism

The constitutional division of powers between state and federal government.

Limited Government

Government that is restricted in what it can do so that the rights of the people are protected.

Linkage Institutions

structure within a society that connects the people to the government or centralized authority

EX: elections, political parties

Federalists

Individuals who supported the new Constitution as presented by the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Anti-Federalists

Individuals who opposed ratification of the Constitution because they were deeply suspicious of the powers it gave to the national government and of the impact those powers would have on states’ authority and individual freedoms.

Federalist Papers

A series of essays, written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, that argued for the ratification of the Constitution.

Brutus No. 1

Federalist 51

The system of checks and balances is necessary for the government to effectively protect individuals' liberties.

Electoral College

The name given to the body of representatives elected by voters in each state to elect the president and the vice president.

Stamp Act

1765; taxed the paper used for all legal documents, advertisements, & newspapers

Unfinished Portions-Committee

Hobbes

He believed in absolute monarchies; argued that strong naturally prey on the weak

• Thought people enter a social contract to have protection from those in power

• social contract w/o a monarch led to chaos

Locke

He argued that people possess natural rights(life, liberty, property

• the government can’t bestow or take them away

• When people enter a social contract they do it knowing the gov. will protect natural rights in exchange for giving up some liberties

• accepting the gov’s authority, have the right to rebel if gov fails to protect

• Inspired Thomas Jefferson & DOI

Rousseau

Idea that govs. formed w/ social contract rely on popular sovereignty - Theory that the government is created by the people and depends on the people for the authority to rule.

• Social Contract Theory

  • Framework for DOI

Principle

Provision

Bicameral Legislature

Legislature comprising two parts, called chambers. The Congress is made of the House of Representatives and the Senate.