AP GOV Unit 1 Vocab

Politics

The process of influencing the actions and policies of government.

Government

The institutions that make up the system of policymaking.

Democracy

A system of government where power is held by the people, including free and fair elections and civil rights and liberties.

Natural Rights

The right to life, liberty, and property, which government cannot take away.

Social Contract

An agreement between the people and the government where the people give up some freedoms and allow their government to rule over them to ensure an orderly and functioning society.

Popular Soverignty

The idea that the government's right to rule comes from the consent of the people.

Limited Government

A system in which the authority of the government is not absolute.

Inalienable Rights

Rights the government cannot take away.

Liberty

Social, political, and economic freedoms.

Participatory Democracy

A theory that widespread participation in politics and civil society is essential for democratic government.

Civil Society Groups

Independent associations outside the government's control; associated with participatory democracy.

Elite Theory

A theory of democracy that participation in politics and civil society is limited because the elites have a disproportionate amount of influence in the policymaking process.

Political Institutions

The structure of government, including the executive branch, the legislature, and the judiciary.

Constitution

A document that sets out the fundamental principles of governance and establishes the institutions of government.

Republic

A government in which people elect representatives to carry out their wishes.

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union

A governing document that created a union of thirteen sovereign states in which the states, not the national government, were supreme.

Unicameral

Having a one-house legislature.

Shay's Rebellion

An uprising by debtors against the government of Massachusetts.

Constitutional Convention

A meeting attended by state delegates in 1787 to fix the Articles of Confederation

Writ of Habeas Corpus

The right of people detained by the government to know the charges against them.

Bills of Attainder

Legislative acts that declare people guilty and impose punishment on those people without a fair trial.

Ex Post Facto Laws

Laws punishing people for acts that were not crimes at the time they were committed.

Bicameral

Having a two-house legislature.

Grand Committee

A committee at the Constitutional Convention that worked out the compromise on representation.

Great (Connecticut) Compromise

The agreement to create a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives apportioned proportionately and a Senate apportioned equally.

Three-Fifths Compromise

An agreement reached by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a slave would count as three-fifths of a person in calculating a state's representation.

Compromise on Importation

An agreement that Congress could not restrict the slave trade until 1808.

Separation of Powers

A design of government that distributes powers across institutions in order to avoid making one branch too powerful on its own.

Checks and Balances

A design of government in which each branch has powers that can prevent the other branches from making policy.

Federalism

The sharing of power between the national government and the states.

Legislative Branch

The institution responsible for making laws

Expressed/Enumerated Powers

Authority specifically granted to a branch of the government in the Constitution.

Necessary and Proper (Elastic) Clause

Language in Article I, Section 8, granting Congress the powers necessary to carry out its enumerated powers; McCulloch v. Maryland (national bank in 1819).

Implied Powers

Authority of the federal government that goes beyond its expressed powers.

Executive Branch

The institution responsible for carrying out laws passed by the legislative branch.

Judicial Branch

The institution responsible for hearing and deciding cases through the federal courts.

Supremacy Clause

Constitutional provision declaring that the Constitution and all national laws and treaties are the supreme law of the land (McCulloch v. Maryland).

Amendment

A formal change made to the Constitution.

Federalists

Supports of the proposed Constitution, who called for a strong national government.

Antifederalists

Those opposed to the proposed Constitution, who favored stronger state governments.

Federalist Papers

A series of eighty-five essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay and published between 1787 and 1788, that lay out the theory behind the Constitution.

Federalist No. 51

An essay in which Madison argues that separation of powers and federalism will prevent tyranny.

Faction

A group of self-interested people who use the government to get what they want, trampling the rights of others in the process.

Federalist No. 10

An essay in which Madison argues that the dangers of faction can be mitigated by a large republic and republican government.

Brutus No. 1

An Antifederalist Paper arguing that the country was too large to be governed as a republic and that the Constitution gave too much power to the national government.

Due Process Clause

The clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that restricts state governments from denying persons their life, liberty, or property without legal safeguards (Plessy v. Ferguson).

Equal Protection Clause

The clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that requires the states to treat all persons alike with regard to the application of the law (Plessy v. Ferguson).

Unitary System

A system where the central government has all of the power over subnational governments.

Confederal System

A system where the subnational governments have most of the power.

Exclusive Powers

Powers that only the national government may exercise.

Commerce Clause

Grants Congress the authority to regulate interstate business and commercial activity (U.S. v. Lopez).

Tenth Amendment

It says that powers not delegated to the national government belong to the states and the people; this is the basis of federalism.

Reserved Powers

Powers not given to the national government, which are retained by the states and the people.

Concurrent Powers

Powers granted to both the states and the federal government in the Constitution.

Full Faith and Credit Clause (Article IV)

Constitutional clause requiring states to recognize the public acts, records, and civil court proceedings from another state.

Extradition

The requirement that officials in one state return a defendant to another state where the defendant allegedly has committed a crime.

Privileges and Immunities Clause

Constitutional clause that prevents states from discriminating against people from out of state.

Thirteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that outlaws slavery.

Fifteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that prohibits the denial of voting rights on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, which gave Black male citizens the right to vote.

Selective Incorporation

The process through which the Supreme Court applies fundamental rights in the Bill of Rights to the states on a case-by-case basis.

Grants-in-Aid

Federal money provided to states to implement public policy objectives.

Ex. Medicare and Medicaid

Categorical Grants

National funding to the states where spending is specifically restricted to certain categories.

Ex. Highway Construction grants

Mandate

Federal requirements that states must follow.

Block Grant

A type of grant-in-aid favored by the states that gives state officials more authority in the disbursement of the federal funds.

Revenue Sharing

When the federal government apportions tax money to the states with no strings attached.

Federalist 51

Focuses on checks and balances & separation of powers: Government must be designed so that no person or group can gain too much power.

Federalist 10

Focuses on factions, large republic, and representative government: A large republic with a representative government can control factions and protect individual rights.

Brutus 1

Focuses on strong central government, necessary and proper clause, states rights: The Constitution creates a federal government that is too strong and could threaten states’ authority and individual freedoms.

Congress cannot use the Commerce Clause to regulate activities that only have a weak connection to interstate commerce.

US v. Lopez main idea

The federal government has implied powers, and states cannot interfere with valid federal actions.

McCulloch v. Maryland main idea

Legislative, executive, judicial, state powers and relations, amendments, supremacy clause, ratification

LEJSASR

State of nature

No established political authority.

Does Congress have the power to create a Bank? & Did the Maryland law that attempted to tax the US Bank unconstitutionally interfere with congressional powers?

McCulloch v. Maryland Constitutional Questions

Is the Gun-Free School Zone Act unconstitutional because it exceeds the power of Congress to legislate the Commerce Clause?

US v. Lopez constitutional question.

Judicial Review

The Supreme Court’s power to interpret whether laws or executive action are constitutional or not

Layer Cake Federalism

Definite barriers between federal and state governments.

Marble Cake Federalism

Cooperative: categorical and block grants.

Federalism Que

Map with color coded states