AP Government and Politics

Constitution

The supreme set of rules and principles that established how the country is governed.

Unitary System

A system where the central government has all of the power over the subnational governments.

Mandate

A federal requirement that the states must follow.

Supremacy Clause

constitutional provision declaring that the constitution and all national laws and treaties are the supreme law of the land.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

The right of people detained by the government to know the charges against them.

Bills of Attainer

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

Necessary and Proper / Elastic clause

Language in Article 1, section 8 granting congress the powers necessary to carry out its enumerated powers.

Implied powers

Authority of the federal government that goes beyond its expressed powers.

Expressed or Enumerated powers

Authority specifically granted to a branch of government in the constitution.

Three-fifths 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.

Federal system

A system where power is divided between the national and state governments

Reserved powers

Powers not given to the national government, which are retained by the states and the people.

Federalist No.51

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

Confederal system

A system where the subnational governments have most of the power.

Revenue Sharing

When the federal government apportions tax money to the states with no strings attached.

Grand Committee

A committee at the constitutional convention that worked out the compromise on representation.

Concurrent Powers

Powers granted to both states and the federal government in the constitution.

Due process clause

Clause in the fourteenth amendment that restricts state governments from denying persons their life, liberty, or property without legal safeguards.

Privileges and immunities clause

Constitutional clause that prevents states from discriminating against people from out of state.

ex post facto laws

Laws that punish people for acts that were not crimes at the time they were committed.

Extradition

The requirement that officials in one state return a defendant to another state where the defendant allegedly has committed a crime.

Unicameral

Having a one house legislature.

Bicameral

Having a two house legislature.

Grants-in-Aid

Federal money given to states to implement public policy objectives.

Selective incorporation

The process through which the Supreme Court applies fundamental rights in the Bill of Rights to the states on a case-by-case basis.

Block grant

A type of grant preferred by states that gives state officials more authority over how federal funds are spent.

Categorical grants

National funding to the states where spending is specifically restricted to certain categories.

Brutus No.1

An anti federalist 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.

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.

Constitutional convention

A meeting attended by state delegates in 1787 to fix the articles of confederation.

Federalist No.10

An essay in which Madison argues that the dangers of factions can be mitigated by a large republic and republican government.

Great (Connecticut) Compromise

An agreement to create a bicameral legislature with a house of representatives apportioned proportionately and a Senate apportioned equally.

Exclusive powers

Powers that only the national government may exercise.

Shay’s Rebellion

An uprising by debtors against the government of Massachusetts.

Amendment

A formal change made to the constitution.

Equal protection clause

Clause in the fourteenth amendment that requires states to treat all persons alike with regard to the application of the laws.

Full faith and Credit clause

Constitutional clause requiring states to recognize the public acts, records, and civil court proceedings of another state.

Commerce Clause

Clause that grants congress the authority to regulate interstate business and commercial activity.

Fourteenth amendment

Constitutional amendment that provides that persons born in the United States are citizens and prohibits states from denying persons due process or equal protection under the law.

Thirteenth amendment

Constitutional amendment that outlaws slavery.

Fifteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that prohibits the denial of voting rights on the basis of race, color, or previous condition or servitude, which gave black male citizens the right to vote.

Tenth amendment

Clause that reserves powers not delegated to the national government to the states and the people; the basis of federalism.

Federalist papers

A series of eighth-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.

Separation of Powers

A design of government that distributes powers across institutions in order to avoid making one branch too powerful.

Executive branch

The institution responsible for carrying out laws passed by the legislative branch.

Legislative branch

The institution responsible for making laws.

Judicial branch

The institution responsible for hearing and deciding cases through the federal courts.

Checks and balances

A design of government in which each branch has powers that can prevent the other branches from making policy.

Faction

A group of self interested people who use the government to get what they want, trampling over the rights of others in the process.

Anti federalists

Those opposed to the proposed Constitution, who feared stronger state governments.

Federalists

Supporters of the proposed Constitution, who called for a strong national government

Republic

A government in which people elect representatives to carry out their wishes.

Federalism

The sharing of power between the national government and the states.