AP American Government Test 1

Add: Federalist (support ratification of Constitution), Anti-Federalist (concerned about Constitution), block grants, categorical grants, federalism (power divided between national and state), fiscal federalism, Commerce Clause , Concurrent Powers, Reserve Powers, Exclusive Powers, Article 10, McCullough v. Maryland, U.S. v. Lopez

Closed/Absolute Autocracy

• Constrained political sphere

• No democratic attributes

• Regime with unchecked and unrestrained powers

Soft Dictatorship

• Decorative democratic attributes

• Some civil liberties

• Regime monopoly over power

Soft democracy

• Free and fair elections

• Basic civil liberties

• Some media censure and suppression of critical voices

Full democracy

• Free and fair elections

• Political Pluralism

• Civil liberties

• Checks and balances

Democracy

A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state.

Democratic Ideals

Personal qualities or standards of government behavior that are felt to be essential for the continuation of a government by the people.

Hobbes/Leviathan (Enlightenment)

Believed that humans living in “state of nature” leads to anarchy.

Ideal society (Enlightenment)

In an ideal society, people would give up some rights and are governed by a leader who considers common good.

Natural Law (Locke/ Second Treatise)

Dictates that humans are born free and equal and should not be ruled without consent.

Social contract (Rousseau/ The Social Contract)

People are equal, but ensure freedom/ security by giving up rights to a government

Popular sovereignty (Rousseau/ The Social Contract)

This government should be ruled by the people.

Separation of Powers (Montesquieu/ Spirit of the Laws)

Government power should be divided among the executive, legislative, and judicial branch

1700s Democratic Ideals

Natural Law, Social Contract, Popular Sovereignty, Separation of Powers

Republicanism

Citizens elect leaders who make and execute laws in public interest.

Limited government

Power must be controlled by law, checks and balances, separation of powers.

Why were the colonists mad?

• Restraining act of 1775

• John Wesley’s 1774 thoughts upon slavery

• Somerset Case (1772)

Elite Democracy

A form of democracy in which a small number of people, usually those who are wealthy and well-educated, influence political decision-making.

Participatory Democracy

A form of democracy that emphasizes broad, direct participation in politics and civil society, in which most or all citizens participate in politics directly.

Pluralist Democracy

A form of democracy in which political power rests with competing interest groups so that no one group dominates political decisions.

Powers of the Articles of Confederation

• States Rights

• Northwest Ordinances

• No slavery

(unicameral legislature)

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• Only had legislative branches

• No federal taxes

• No federal currency

• No federal military

- Shay’s rebellion

Shay’s Rebellion

A turning point for founding fathers because the lack of a strong federal military and the presence of a weak state militia made it difficult to put an end to the rebellion.

Legislature

“Great compromise” creates a bicameral leg with a House of Representative (favored by the people) based on population and a senate (favored by small states) with 2 members from each state.

President

Leads executive branch, chosen by individual electors chosen by the states - aka an electoral college (favored by people like Alexander Hamilton).

3/5’s compromise

Pro-slavery southern states had more seats in the senate

Article I (Constitution)

Creates two chambers, legislative congress: House (based on populations) and senate (two power state).

Expressed Powers (Constitution: Article I)

Powers explicitly granted to congress/ U.S. Government.

Elastic Clause - Section 8 (Constitution: Article I)

Congress can write laws “necessary and Proper” to carrying out it’s expressed powers. (favored by federalists)

Article II (Constitution)

Establishes a president as head of an executive branch (Chosen by electoral college).

Article III (Constitution)

Creates a supreme court as head of the Judicial Branch

*Order of Importance*

1: Legislative

2: Executive

3: Judicial

Article IV (Constitution)

Established full faith and credit.

Full Faith and Credit (Constitution: Article IV)

States must respect the laws of other states. Portability of status.

Article V (Constitution)

Creates difficult process for amending constitution (2/3 of both chambers of congress, ¾ of the states).

Article VI (Constitution)

Established the supremacy clause.

Supremacy Clause (Constitution: Article VI)

Laws passed by the National Government are the supreme laws of land.

Article VII (Constitution)

Established the rules for ratifying the Constitution.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 1)

National counts defeat the purpose of state courts.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 2)

Central Government is too powerful.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 3)

Central Government will just be ruled by elites and they won’t be able to speak for the “common man”.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 4)

Taxes will be used by central government to hurt the states.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 5)

Taxes will be used tyrannically just like the British used them.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 6)

Legislature is too confining for the people and might cause harm.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 7)

Representatives will not allow people to declare their consent.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 8)

Constitution is too restrictive of individual state needs.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 9)

Standing away will … individual rights.

Brutus No.1 (Summary 10)

Country is too big so people’s voices will not be heard by representatives.

Brutus No.1 (Overall Summary)

Overly powerful government will take away your individual rights.

Federalist Papers

85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, under the collective pseudonym “Publius”. This was written in response to Brutus.

Federalist 10

Madison was worried that fractions could cause big problems if they started fighting over power. His biggest concern was that a faction might become so powerful that it could take control of the government and make decisions that only benefit itself, instead of helping everyone. Madison believed that a republic is the best way to manage factions.

Federalist 51

• People are imperfect so we need a government. Government is imperfect so we need to separate powers to control it.

• Legislative branch is by default the strongest branch in a republic so we need to separate powers (two chambers in the legislative branch).

• Separate powers between the branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) to prevent any one branch from abusing its power.

• The people, as much as possible, should determine the members of each branch. One branch should not have too much control over appointments of the other branch.

• There are two ways ways we separate powers in a republic: three branches and state+federal.

• Executive has absolute negative over legislative (veto) but this can be corrected legislative power to override presidential veto.

*Inspired by Montesquieu*

Republic

A government where people elect representatives to make decisions. Elected leaders can consider the needs of all the different groups and make decisions that are good for the whole country, not just one faction.

Federalist

Supports the ratification of the constitution

Anti-Federalist

Concerned about the ratification of the constitution.

Block grants

federal money given to states for broadly defined reasons, offering larger sums of money without strings in comparison to categorical grants.

categorical grants

Grants with particular congressional guidelines or requirements. These grants with conditions of aid or stings were once the norm.

federalism

The sharing of power between the national government and the state governments.

fiscal federalism

Congress collects federal tax revenues and distributes these funds to the states to take care of particular national concerns (aka. revenue sharing).

commerce clause

Empowers the congress to “regulate commerce with other nations, and among the several states”.

concurrent powers

Powers held by authorities at both levels, state and federal (ex. levy and collect taxes, define crimes, run court systems, and improve lands).

reserve powers

governmental authorities not given to the national government by the constitution and not denied to the states, instead belonging to the states or the people.

exclusive powers

Powers that are delegated only to the federal government (ex. declare wars, regulate interstate commerce, define immigration and naturalization).

police powers

powers to create and enforce laws on health, safety, and morals.

article 10

any powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

McCulloch v. Maryland

Maryland didn’t want the federal bank to be located in their states. Therefore the state imposed a tax on the bank. Cashier, James Mcculloch, refused to pay the taxes. Maryland argues that putting a national bank was unconstitutional (article 1 section 8 did not state that congress had the power to create a bank, which was a strict interpretation).

U.S. v. Lopez

Alfonso D. Lopez Jr. brought a firearm into his school and was charged under Texas law with firearm possession on school premises. However the charges were dropped the next day because federal agents charged Lopez with violating a federal law. Lopez wins this case because under the 10th ammendment, gun regulation in school is a state power and gun violence in relation to commerce clause is a weak and tyrannical overview.