American Government - Unit 1 Test Review

Chapters 1-3 (Know Romans 13:1-7 for the essay question)

Righteousness

• exalts a nation

• the reason for the US’s greatness over the past 200 years

Culture

• the way of life for a group of people

• includes language, religion, ethics, laws, and arts

Judeo-Christian heritage

the primary cultural influence on America, which is rooted in Judaism and Christianity

Puritan (or Protestant) work ethic

the idea that work is a gift from God and a means of glorifying him

Free enterprise

• the government leaves people free to own businesses and make a living based on their own enterprise (initiative)

• the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated.

Limited government

a government that exercises its powers under constraints, usually by means of a constitution

Memorials

anything that helps people remember past events

Heraldry

a system of colors and designs that was devised during the Middle Ages

Pledge

a solemn promise

Allegiance

our loyalty, our support, and out devotion to duty

Francis Bellamy

wrote the original pledge of allegiance for the US

National anthem

the official patriotic song or hymn of a country

Francis Scott Key

wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner”

Patriotism

• a love for one’s country and a loyalty to that country

• a willingness to serve and sacrifice for one’s country

Americanism

the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood, which made America

Heritage

the characteristics and traditions that have been handed down to us by our ancestors

Nationalism

the promotion of one’s own nation and government regardless of moral considerations

Chappie James

the first black American in the history of the US to achieve the rank of four-star general

John F. Kennedy

said “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

Government

• the authority and power to control, to direct, and to rule the actions and affairs of powers

• their job is to bring order and defend their country

• their job is to protect the innocent by punishing the guilty

Sovereign

God has both the supreme power and the right to govern all nations and their rulers

Capital punishment

• the death penalty

• the first foundational civil ordinance

• taught man the sanctity of human life

Laws

rules for human action or conduct

Revealed law

law that is given by God explicitly in the Holy Scripture

Natural law

law that is written in the hearts of men (our consciousness)

Commandments

orders from God telling men what to do and what not to do

Great Commandment

we are to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind

Ten Commandments

• also called the Decalogue

• states how the Great Commandment is to be fulfilled

Positive law

• there is no “higher law,” a law of God on which man’s law must rest

• tldr: Human law > God’s law

Code of Hammurabi

• law code named after Hammurabi, a Babylonian king

• written in cuneiform

• made personal property more important than human life

Theocracy

• a government where God rules directly

• only Israel has been able to achieve this kind of government

Rule by Clerics

• the modern form of “theocracy”

• Iran uses this kind of government

Council of Guardians

a 12 number council of clerics that can decide whether to reject or accept laws that have been passed through the president/legislature

Ayatollah

the supreme religious leader of the council of guardians who is appointed for life

Sharia

Islamic law

Secularism

the belief that government should remove everything religious from its domain

Autocracy

the rule by one whose will is supreme

Democracy

the people rule, either directly by popular vote or indirectly through elected representatives

Dynasty

• rule by a single family

• Ex: Romanovs (Russia), Tudors (England), and Saud (Saudi Arabia)

Monarch

a ruler who receives his position by inheritance

Absolute monarchy

• a system of government in which the monarch has unlimited power

• Ex: King David of Israel; King John of England

Constitutional monarchy

• system of government in which the monarch’s power is limited by a constitution and is equal to or subservient to an elected representative assembly

• Ex: Queen Victoria

Dictatorship

• system of government in which the ruler acquires his power by some means other than inheritance and rules with absolute authority

• Ex: Francisco Franco of Spain

Junta

a military cabinet used in a militaristic dictatorship

Totalitarian

a type of dictatorship that controls all aspects of society

Facism

a totalitarian dictatorship in which all power is vested in one ruler

Nazism

a form of racist facism that dominated Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party

Communism

• a totalitarian dictatorship by one or more persons that advocates the violent, revolutionary overthrow of the existing economic, political, and social order and sets up a tyrannical state that dominates the person, property, and thought of all the citizens by means of physical and psychological force and terror

• tldr: A totalitarian dictatorship led by one or more people that violently overthrows the existing system to establish complete, forceful control over citizens' lives, property, and thoughts.

• Aka: Marxism-Leninism after Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin

140 million people

the amount of people that have been murdered in the Soviet Union and Red China by Marxist totalitarianism

Socialism

• a system of government control over the economy of a nation

• mainly an economic system

• the government has complete control over a nation’s resources and its means of production

Charles B. Shuman

said that the price for socialism is freedom

Direct democracy

the people rule directly by popular vote

New England town meeting

citizens govern their local community through regular meetings and vote on important decisions

Indirect democracy

• the people rule indirectly through elected representatives

• Ex: Parliamentary democracy in the British system, Democratic Republic (USA)

Constitutional republic

a form of government in which the people and their representatives are limited by a constitution

Two specific commandments to Christians of all nations and times concerning their response to civil government

1. pray for those in authority

2. respect and submit to their authority

Separation of church and state

the idea that the church and the government are to remain institutionally separate

The First Amendment

states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

The cornerstone of the American government

the character of the American people

the Bible

the greatest influence on the development of English law and government

William Tyndale/John Wycliffe

translated the scriptures into the English language

Common law

a non-codified form of law based on long-accepted customs and traditions

Alfred the Great

a Saxon king who prefaced his edition of the English law code with the Ten Commandments

Henry de Bracton

• Father of the Common Law

• rule of law > rule of man

Sir Edward Coke

• wrote Institutes of the Common Law

• “the law of nature was before any judicial or municipal law”

Sir William Blackstone

• distinguished between the natural law of God, written on the heart of man and known by human reason, and the revealed law of God as penned in Holy Scripture

• Law of God > Man-made law

• wrote Commentaries on the Laws of England, which was the preferred legal text in the US until the 20th century

King Henry II

• strengthened the common law in England when he created a system of royal courts to administer the law

• laid the foundation for the right to trial by jury

Trial by Jury

a man is judged guilty or not guilty by a group of his peers

Trial by Ordeal

a man’s innocence was determined by his surviving some dangerous ritual

Trial by Combat

a man fought his accuser in order to determine guilt or innocence

Limited representative government

the king’s power over his people was often limited because the king was either checked by rival powers or he ruled along with an advisory council

Witan

a council of wise men who aided the king in making important decisions

Great Council

consisted of the king’s vassals

King’s Court

a much smaller body of semiprofessional advisers to the king

1265

meetings of the Great Council were also being referred to as Parliament

Simon de Montfort

called the first meeting of Parliament, the beginning of representative government in England

King Edward I

• convened the Model Parliament in 1295

  • eventually became the model for the colonial legislatures in America and for U.S. Congress

House of Lords

the upper house of Parliament, which consisted of the nobility and clergy

House of Commons

the lower house of Parliament, which consisted of the common-people

Magna Carta

• the first document to place the king under the law of the land

• was signed by King John in 1215

Petition of Right

reaffirmed certain English liberties

English Bill of Rights of 1689

limited the English monarch’s power even further

Royal colony

a colony that was directly under the king’s control

Proprietary colony

a colony in which the king granted land to one of his subjects, called a proprietor

Self-governing colony

a colony that ruled over themselves

Charter

a document issued by the crown which established the relationship between the king and his subjects

Massachusetts Body of Liberties

a document that lists several capital offenses and Scripture references for verses that state the infraction and the punishment

The New Haven Colony Laws

laws that made attempts to conform the civil law to biblical law

Higher law

a law above the law (God’s law)

House of Burgesses

• the first representative assembly in the colonies

• established in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619

Unicameral

• one-house legislature

• Pennsylvania

Bicameral

two-house legislature, resembling the British Parliament

Upper house (bicameral)

usually small, with 12-18 members

Lower house (bicameral)

• more powerful within a bicameral legislature, modeled after the British House of Commons

• “Controlled the purse strings”

Town

the main unit of local government where farms were small and people lived close together

Town meeting system

local citizens assembled periodically to become the chief lawmaking body for their town

County

the local unit of government in the southern colonies

Great Awakening

the spiritual revival which swept the American colonies between 1730 and 1760

Jonathan Edwards & George Whitfield

• great preachers/orators during the Great Awakening

• was responsible for the conversion of thousands of souls

New England Confederation

the frist significant attempt at political unity among the colonies