Articles of Confederation

Which of the following excerpts from Article 1 of the United States Constitution resolves a problem described by the author?

A) “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;”

Which of the following experiences most likely influenced the perspective conveyed in the passage?

B) Shay’s Rebellion, which was an armed response to the inability of the national government to address unjust economic state policies.

Which of the following is a difference between the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution that is a response to a problem expressed in the passage?

B) The Articles of Confederation allowed for the federal government to request revenues from states but did not permit it to tax citizens directly, whereas under the United States Constitution the federal government could tax citizens directly.

Which of the following is commonly identified as a failure of the Articles of Confederation?

A) The national government lacked an effective power to raise revenue.

All of the following were concerns about the Articles of Confederation that led to the calling of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 EXCEPT

(A) dissatisfaction over safeguards of individual rights and liberties

Under the Articles of Confederation, which of the following were true?

I. Congress could not tax the states directly.

II. The executive branch of government exercised more power than Congress.

III. Congress was a unicameral body.

IV. States were represented in Congress proportionally according to population.

(B) I and III

Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution does which of the following?

(E) Emphasizes both national sovereignty and federalism.

Which of the following accurately compares the formal and informal powers of the president?

(C) C (president)

Which of the following is the correct pairing of powers found in the Articles of Confederation and powers found in the Constitution?

(C) C

Which of the following is a correct comparison between the United States Constitution and the Articles of Confederation?

(B) B

As originally ratified, the United States Constitution included provisions designed to

(C) increase the economic powers of the central government

Of the following, the most significant difference between the Constitution of 1787 and the Articles of Confederation was that the Constitution

E) provided for a strong national government with many powers, while the Articles created a weak central government with few independent powers

Which of the following was the most important effect of replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution of 1787?

(D) The creation of a strong national government

Based on The Federalist 21, which of the following arguments about government would Hamilton likely agree with?

(D) As a practical matter, the laws of the national government ought to have supremacy over state laws.

In the passage, Hamilton is concerned that under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government does not have sufficient constitutional powers to gain compliance from state governments. Which of the following is a way that the Constitution allows the federal government to address this problem?

(C) The federal government can pass laws that allow it to fine or tax individuals directly.

Which of the following scenarios illustrates a solution for the problem of getting states to comply with federal government policies, as described in the passage?

(A) The federal government can withhold highway funds from states that do not raise the age to drink alcohol to 21.

The Articles of Confederation implemented the principle of

(E) state sovereignty

In the 1780s, proponents of the new Constitution cited Shays’ Rebellion as an example in support of which of the following criticisms of the national government under the Articles of Confederation?

(D) There was a lack of a national military power to address security concerns.

The importance of Shays' Rebellion to the development of the United States Constitution was that it

C) indicated that a strong, constitutionally designed national government was needed to protect property and maintain order