AP Gov Ch. 1 and 2

From American Government: Stories of a Nation (Presidential Election Update) by Scott F. Abernathy and Karen Waples

Chapter 1

• John Locke - Enlightenment philosopher who argued that everyone is born with natural rights

• Natural rights - the right to life, liberty, and property, which government cannot take away

• Social contract - people allow their governments to rule over them to ensure an orderly and functioning society

• Montesquieu - French philosopher who advocated for separation of powers within government, to prevent tyranny and protect individual freedoms

• Declaration of Independence - a document written by Thomas Jefferson, outlining grievances against King George III and affirming the American colonies’ right to self-governance

  • Significance: established the basic principles for American democracy

• Popular sovereignty - the idea that the government’s right to rule comes from the people

• Direct democracy - citizens hold the power and make governmental decisions

• Inalienable rights - rights that the government cannot take away

• Civil society - independent associations outside the government’s control

Chapter 2

• Republic - a government ruled by representatives of the people

• Articles of Confederation - a governing document that created a union of thirteen sovereign states in which the states, not the union, were supreme

• Shay’s Rebellion - a popular uprising against the government of Massachusetts

  • Significance: Made leaders realize the need for a strong central government

• 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

• Bills of attainder - when the legislature declares someone guilty without a trial

• Ex post facto laws - laws punishing people for acts that were not crimes at the time they were committed

• Virginia Plan - a plan of government calling for a three-branch government with a bicameral legislature, where more populous states would have more representation in Congress

• New Jersey Plan - a plan of government that provided for a unicameral legislature with equal votes for each state

• Great Compromise - an agreement for a plan of compromise that drew upon both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans; it settled issues of state representation by calling for a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives apportioned proportionally and a Senate apportioned equally

• 3/5ths Compromise - an agreement reached by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a slave would count as three-fifths of a person in calculating a state’s representation

• Compromise on Importation - Congress could not restrict the slave trade until 1808

• Separation of powers - a design of government that distributes power across institutions in order to avoid making one branch too powerful on its own

• Checks and balances - a design of government in which each branch has powers that can prevent the other branches from making policy

  • Ex. Presidential veto power - prevents Congress from passing any law it wants

• Federalism - the sharing of power between the national government and the states

• Federalists - supporters of the proposed Constitution, who called for a strong national government

• Anti-Federalists - 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 10 - an essay in which Madison argues that the dangers of faction can by mitigated by a large republic and republican government

• Brutus I - 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 51 - an essay in which Madison argues that separation of powers and federalism will prevent tyranny

• Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments to the Constitution, written by James Madison and ratified in 1791

• Charles Beard - an American historian known for his work on the Constitution and American history, specifically his economic interpretation of the Constitution’s creation

Concepts:

• Articles of Confederation: its weaknesses and how they helped shape the Constitution

  • There was no central authority

  • All 13 states needed to agree on laws, which made it hard to pass meaningful legislation

  • Each state had their own currency and commerce/trade laws, and the government could not tax states, instead relying on contributions

• Methods of amending the Constitution outlined in Article V of the Constitution

  • Amendments need to be proposed first, either by a 2/3rds vote in both Congressional chambers or a national convention called by 2/3rds of state legislatures

  • Then, the proposed amendment needs to be ratified by 3/4ths of states legislatures or by conventions of 3/4ths of the states

• Arguments made during the ratification debate: Brutus I vs Federalist 10 & 51

  • Brutus I believed that America was too large to be governed by a republic, but Fed 10 specifically recommended a large republic for America

  • Brutus I advocated for decentralized government, while Fed 10 and 51 advocated for the strong central government promised by the Constitution

• Why the founders distrusted pure democracy and ways the Constitution reflected this view

  • The founding fathers believed that the common man was uneducated and could not make the right decisions for government that a pure democracy would require

  • This is why the ideas of the Electoral College and a republic/representative democracy were set up by the Constitution