AP Government Unit 1

Government

procedures and institutions by which a group of people organize and control themselves.

National Governments throughout the world agree on these 5 functions

• Maintain a national defense

• Provide public goods and services

• Preserve order

• Socialize the young

• Collect taxes

Politics

Who we select as our leaders and what policies they pursue

Single issue groups

Groups who base their political view on the politicians they choose

Policymaking system

How the government responds to peoples wants

Policymaking insitiutions

Branches of government charged with taking action on a political issue (Congress, the president, and the courts)

Public policy

A choice that the government makes in response to a political issue

Policy impacts

The effects a policy has on its people

What is a Democracy?

rule by the people, government decided by the peopale

The Unites States is a _______ Democracy

Representative

What is a representative democracy

Our government is elected by citizens

Traditional Democratic Theory

Key principals that specify how governmental decisions are made

5 Traditional Democratic Traits

• Equality in voting

• Effective participation

• Enlightened understanding

• Citizen control of the agenda

• Inclusion

Direct Democracy

People themselves, rather than elected officials, determine the laws and policies

Popular sovereignty

The power to govern is in the hands of the people

Republicanism

People elect leaders to represent them

Limited government

A government that is prevented from tyranny through a system of checks and balances and distribution of power

Participatory Democracy

Broad participation in political process by most, if not all, people in a society

Pluralist Democracy

Groups with shared interests compete to influence policymaking

Elitist Democracy

More limited participation on policymaking and upper-class elite need to run it.

Hyperpluralism

Groups are so strong that the government is weakened, this leads to public interest not being served

Under the Articles of Confederation. . .

The national government was weak while the state governments were disproportionately strong

What was wrong with the Articles?

• Only one branch of federal government

• No president or federal court

• Congress had no power to generate wealth

• No power to raise army

Declaration of Independence

• Breaking free from Britain

• unalienable rights/natural rights

• consent of the governed

• right to abolish/alter government

Aborted Annapolis Meeting

Leaders assembled in Annapolis to discuss conflicts under Articles. Only 5 states attended so they proposed a longer meeting later.

Constitutional Convention

May 1787, Original idea was to revise Articles but they wrote a new constitution

Great Compromise

Bicameral Congress

• House: People represented by population

• Senate: Two votes per state

The Constitution is able to be ______

Amendable when proposed by Congress or States

• Needs 2/3 vote

• Then 3/4 of state legislators need to agree

Legislative branch

Congress

• Able to propose and make laws

Executive Branch

President

• Execute and enforce laws

Judicial Branch

Determines constitutionality of laws

Judicial Review

The courts (Judicial Branch) has the ability to examine the laws set by the executive and legislative and deem then unconstitutional

The Constitution works so well because…

Its distribution of power and its checks and balances

Federalist

Supporter of the U.S Constitution

Anti-Federalist

Opposer of U.S Constitution

Bill of Rights

Guarantees civil liberty protections against a tyrannical government

Devolution

Scaling back the size and activities of the national government and shifting it to the states

Cooperative Federalism

An interconnected relationship between national, state, and local governments

Tenth Amendment

Reserves rights to the state

Unitary government

All power is resided with central government

Confederation

All power is with the states, national government is weak

Federalism

The sharing of power between national and state governments

Exclusive (Enumerated) powers

Power stated in the Constitution to the federal government

• Making treaties with other nations

• Create/Maintain armed forces

• Declare war

Reserves power

Power belonging to the state (10th Amendment)

• Conduct elections

• Police power, education, hospitals

• Issue licenses/certificates

Concurrent powers

Shared by both the federal and state governments

• Income tax

• Establish courts

• Make and enforce laws

Fiscal Federalism

Congress can create national standards and give funds to states who comply with those standards

Categorical grants

Grants given by the federal government that can only be used for a specific purpose

Block grants

Grants given by federal government for a broader purpose, states have choice on what to do with money

Mandates

Government requirements but they give states money

Commerce clause

Allows Congress to regulate commerce among the states

Necessary and Proper clause (Elastic clause)

Allows Congress to create laws needed to carry out its Enumerated powers effectively

Implied powers

Power to federal government not directly stated in the Constitution

McCulloch v Maryland

Ruled that elastic clause implied certain powers to the federal government even if they weren’t stated in constitution

• Federal government could establish a national bank and state governments couldn’t tax federal institutions.

United States v Lopez

Congress used commerce clause to ban guns on school property

• Court decided that Congress overstepped its bounds into state authority

• Win for states

full faith and credit

Requires each state to recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of all other states.

Supremacy clause

The Constitution, national laws, and treaties supreme over state laws if there is conflict

Gibbons v Ogden

Gibbons granted federal license to operate steamboats while Ogden had a state license (NY) granted to operate a steamboat. Gibbons ran competing services in the same waters as Ogden.

• Ruled in favor of Gibbons

• Power to interstate trade was vested with the Commerce Clause

• Federal government has supremacy when dealing with interstate commerce (Supremacy clause)

Federalist #10

• Dangers of factions

• A large, diverse republic = no faction can gain power

If we create a large republic it will be safer/ better for peoples’ civil liberaties

Brutus #1

• Creating a central government would dissolve state power due to Necessary and Proper.

• No Bill of Rights

• Against U.S Constitution

• Republics are best when they are in a smaller country

Federalist #51

• Separation of Powers

• Checks and Balances

• Government depends on the people

Federalist #70

• Single executive is the best for republic

• Energetic, quick thinking is better than legislative

• People know who to blame if it becomes tyrannical

Federalist #78

• Needed a judicial court system

• Judges would be in office for lifetime

• Judicial review

• Not overpowered

Dual federalism

Power is defined clearly between state and national government