Waples, American Government: Stories of a Nation for the AP® Course, 2E, Chapter 2

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.

Shays'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; a document setting out the reasons for an arrest or detention.

bills of attainder

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

ex post facto laws

laws that punish 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

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

Three-Fifth Compromise

an agreement reached by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that an enslaved person 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.

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 or enumerated powers

authority specifically granted to the national government through the Constitution.

necessary and proper or elastic clause

clause that grants the federal government the authority to pass laws required to carry out its enumerated powers; language in Article I, Section 8 granting Congress the power necessary to carry out its enumerated powers.

implied powers

powers not granted specifically to the national government but implied from the necessary and proper clause to carry out the enumerated 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

clause or constitutional provision that establishes the Constitution and the laws and treaties of the federal government passed under its authority as the highest laws of the land.

amendment

a formal change made to the Constitution.

Federalists

supporters 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.

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.

Federalist No. 51

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