Chapter 2 vocabulary for AP Government Wilson textbook
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| 606670976 | Constitution | a set of principles, either written or unwritten, that makes up the fundamental law of the state | |
| 606670977 | Natural Rights | rights of all human beings that are ordained by God, discoverable in nature and history, and essential to human progress | |
| 606807982 | Declaration of Independence | a document written in 1776 declaring the colonists' intention to throw off British rule | |
| 606807983 | Articles of Confederation | the government charter of the states from 1776 until the Constitution of 1787 | |
| 607104756 | Constitutional Convention 1 | A meeting of delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 charged with drawing up amendments to the Articles of Confederation | |
| 607104757 | Pennsylvania Constitution | A governing document considered to be highly democratic yet with a tendency toward tyranny as the result of concentrating all powers in one set of hands | |
| 607104758 | Massachusetts Constitution | A state constitution with clear separation of powers but considered to have produced too weak a government | |
| 607104759 | Shay's Rebellion | An armed attempt by Revolutionary War veterans to avoid losing their property by preventing the courts in western Massachusetts from meeting | |
| 607104760 | John Locke | A British philosopher whose ideas on civil government greatly influenced the Founders | |
| 607104761 | Federalist papers 1 | A series of political tracts that explained many of the ideas of the Founders | |
| 607104762 | Virginia Plan | A constitutional proposal that the smaller states' representatives feared would give permanent supremacy to the larger states | |
| 607104763 | New Jersey Plan | A constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new congress | |
| 607104764 | Great Compromise | A constitutional proposal that made membership in on house of Congress proportional to each state's population and membership in the other equal for all states | |
| 607104765 | separation of powers | A constitutional principle separating the personnel of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government | |
| 607104766 | federalism | A constitutional principle reserving separate powers to the national and state levels of government | |
| 607104767 | James Madison | A principal architect of the Constitution who felt that a government powerful enough to encourage virtue in its citizens was too powerful | |
| 607104768 | Charles A. Beard | A historian that argued that the Founders were largely motivated by the economic advantage of their class in writing the Constitution | |
| 607104769 | Constitutional Convention 2 | A meeting of delegates in 1878 to revise the Articles of Confederation | |
| 607104770 | checks and balances | The power of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government to block some acts by the other two branches | |
| 607104771 | republic | A form of democracy in which leaders and representatives are selected by means of popular competitive elections | |
| 607104772 | coalition | An alliance between different interest groups or parties to achieve some political goal | |
| 607104773 | unalienable rights | Rights thought to be based on nature and providence rather that on the preferences of people | |
| 607104774 | amendment | Change in, or addition to, a constitution | |
| 607104775 | faction | A group of people sharing a common interest who seek to influence public policy for their collective benefit | |
| 607104776 | judicial review | The power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive unconstitutional and therefore null and void | |
| 607104777 | Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution | |
| 607104778 | Federalist papers 2 | A series of eighty-five essays published in New York newspapers to convince New Yorkers to adopt the newly proposed Constitution | |
| 607104779 | Federalists | Supports of a stronger central government who advocated ratification of the Constitution and then founded a political party | |
| 607104780 | line-item veto | The power of an executive to veto some provisions in an appropriations bill while approving others | |
| 607104781 | Antifederalists | Those who opposed giving as much power to the national government as the Constitution did, favoring instead stronger states' rights | |
| 607104782 | bill of attainder | A law that would declare a person guilty of a crime without trial | |
| 607104783 | ex post facto law | A law that would declare an act criminal after the act was committed | |
| 607104784 | Madison view of | A philosophy holding that accommodating individual self-interest provided a more practical solution to the problem of government than aiming to cultivate virtue | |
| 607104785 | confederation | An agreement among sovereign states that delegates certain powers to a national government | |
| 607104786 | writ of habeas corpus | A court order requiring police officials to produce an individual held in custody and show sufficient cause for that person's detention |
