9433804162 | John Locke | 1632-1704. English philosopher whose Treatises of Government espousing natural rights, consent of the governed, and social compacts greatly influenced the Founding Fathers | 0 | |
9433804163 | Social Contract | A voluntary agreement among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by creating a government and abiding by its rules. | 1 | |
9433804164 | Natural Rights | ... Inalienable rights that government can't take away - main reason for D.O.I Life, Liberty, and Property (Pursuit of Happiness) | 2 | |
9433804165 | Consent of the governed | the idea that government derives its authority by the sanction of the people | 3 | |
9433804166 | Direct democracy | A form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives | 4 | |
9433804167 | Representative democracy (democratic republic) | A system of government in which citizens elect representatives, or leaders, to make decisions about the laws for all the people. America's system of government. | 5 | |
9433804168 | Articles of Confederation | 1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788 (weaknesses -no executive, no judicial, no power to tax, no power to regulate trade). Essentially no national unity/weak central government - power was too fragmented. | 6 | |
9433804169 | Shay's Rebellion | A Series of attacks on courthouses by a small band of farmers led by Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays to block foreclosure proceedings. Led to the Constitutional convention | 7 | |
9433804170 | Elite/Class Theory | A theory of government and politics contending that societies are divided along class lines and that an upper-class elite will rule, regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization. | 8 | |
9433804171 | Pluralist theory | A theory of government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies | 9 | |
9433804172 | Great Compromise | 1787; This compromise was between the large and small states of the colonies. The Great Compromise resolved that there would be representation by population in the House of Representatives, and equal representation would exist in the Senate. Each state, regardless of size, would have 2 senators. All tax bills and revenues would originate in the House. This compromise combined the needs of both large and small states and formed a fair and sensible resolution to their problems. | 10 | |
9433804173 | 3/5 Ccompromise | settled debate over how slaves would be counted in regards to representation | 11 | |
9433804174 | Confederate system | A system consisting of a league of independent states, each having essentially sovereign powers. The central government created by such a league has only limited powers over the states. | 12 | |
9433804175 | Federal system (Federalism) | A government that divides the powers of government between the national government and state or provincial governments | 13 | |
9433804176 | Unitary system | A government that gives all key powers to the national or central government | 14 | |
9433804177 | Gibson V. Ogden (1824) | a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the power to regulate interstate commerce was granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Defined commerce very broadly, thereby expanding federal power. | 15 | |
9433804178 | Marbury V. Madison (1803) | Under Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court of the United States held that ONLY the Supreme Court of the United States has the power to declare laws unconstitutional. Established judicial review. | 16 | |
9433804179 | McCulloch V. Maryland (1819) | In establishing a national bank, Congress was legally exercising its enumerated powers not sepcifically mentioned in the Constitution. Established Implied Powers under the "Necessary and Proper" or "Elastic" Clause. Also reiterated the idea of national supremacy found in the Supremacy Clause (federal power/authority was supreme to/above the states' authority). | 17 | |
9433804180 | Supremacy Clause | Article VI of the Constitution, which makes the Constitution, national laws, and treaties supreme over state laws when the national government is acting within its constitutional limits. Verified by McCullough V. Maryland (1819) | 18 | |
9433804181 | Grants in Aid | money given by the national government to the states | 19 | |
9433804182 | Categorical Grants | Federal grants that can be used only for specific purposes or "categories," of state and local spending. They come with strings attached, such as nondiscrimination provisions. Gives federal government more power. Compare to block grants. | 20 | |
9433804183 | Block Grants | Federal grants given more or less automatically to states or communities to support broad programs in areas such as community development and social services. Give states more authority and power/discretion in how to spend grant money. | 21 | |
9433804184 | Federalist # 10 | Madison's warning on factions. Solution = larger republic to keep factions/majority from voting away the rights of the minority. | 22 | |
9433804185 | Constitutional Amendment process | Proposal either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. | 23 | |
9433804186 | Cooperative Federalism (Marble Cake) | State and federal government work together to improve the lives of citizens (since New Deal) | 24 | |
9433804187 | Fiscal Federalism 1937-present | A form of federalism in which the federal government pressures the states to change their policies by using regulations, mandates, and conditions (often involving threats to withdraw federal funding). | 25 | |
9433804188 | Dual Federalism (Layer Cake) 1789-1937 | A system of government in which both the states and the national government remain supreme within their own spheres, each responsible for some policies. | 26 | |
9433804189 | Unfunded Mandate | actions imposed by the federal or state government on lower levels of government which are not accompanied by the money needed to fund the action required. | 27 | |
9433804190 | Checks and Balances | A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power | ![]() | 28 |
9433804192 | Implied Powers | Powers inferred from the enumerated powers that allow Congress to carry out its functions. Justified via Necessary and Proper/Elastic clause. Eg. Military draft, interstate highways, etc. | 29 | |
9433804193 | Reserved Powers | Powers not specifically granted to the federal government or denied to the states belong to the states and the people - Authority for these is found mainly in the 10th Amendment | 30 | |
9433804194 | Enumerated Powers | Powers specifically given to the federal government by the US Constitution, for example, the authority to print money, declare War or regulate commerce | 31 | |
9433804195 | Prohibited Powers | the powers that are denied to the federal government, the state government, or both; also called restricted powers | 32 | |
9433804196 | New Federalism (Devolution) | A policy in 1969, that turned over powers and responsibilities of some U.S. federal programs to state and local governments and reduced the role of national government in domestic affairs (states are closer to the people and problems) | 33 | |
9433804197 | Concurrent Powers | Powers held jointly by the national and state governments. | 34 | |
9433804198 | New Jersey Plan | A constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new congress | 35 | |
9433804199 | Virginia Plan | "Large state" proposal for the new constitution, calling for proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress. The plan favored larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for apportioning representation. | 36 | |
9433804200 | Federalists | Favored ratification of the constitution (Madison) | 37 | |
9433804201 | Anti-Federalists | Anti-Federalists rose up as the opponents of the Constitution during the period of ratification. They opposed the Constitution's powerful centralized government, arguing that the Constitution gave too much political, economic, and military control. They instead advocated a decentralized governmental structure that granted most power to the states | 38 | |
9433804202 | Amending the Constitution | Needs approval of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states | 39 | |
9433804203 | Political Socialization | Complex process by which people get their sense of political identity, beliefs, and values. Four sources: Family and community, Events, Group Identity, Politicians and other actors | 40 | |
9433804204 | Sample | A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole population | 41 | |
9433804205 | Population | the group of people a researcher wants to study such as Americans, Students, Senior citizens | 42 | |
9433804206 | Sampling error | A calculation that describes what percentage of the people surveyed may not accurately represent the population being studied. Increasing the number of respondents lowers the sampling error. | 43 | |
9433804207 | Ideological polarization | The effect on public opinion when many citizens move away from moderate positions and toward either end of the political spectrum, identifying themselves as either liberals or conservatives. | 44 | |
9433804208 | Mass media | Forms of communication designed to reach large numbers of people. | 45 | |
9433804209 | Federal Communications Commission | A government agency created in 1934 to regulate American radio stations, and later expanded to regulate television, wireless communications technologies, and other broadcast media. | 46 | |
9433804212 | Party as an organization | the formal structure and leadership of a political party; including election committees; local, state, and national executives; and paid professional staff - National Committee is the main org. | 47 | |
9433804213 | Party in government | Elected officials who call themselves members of the party. | 48 | |
9433804214 | Party in electorate | Ordinary citizens who identify with the party. The people who elect the party into office. The citizens support the party's basic ideology and policy principles. | 49 | |
9433804215 | Party Era | A period in which the names of the major political parties, their supporters, and the issues dividing them remain relatively stable. | 50 | |
9433804216 | Realignment | A change in the size or composition of the party coalitions or in the nature of the issues that divide the parties. Realignments typically occur within an election cycle or two, but they can also occur gradually over the course of a decade or longer. | 51 | |
9433804217 | National Committee | An American political party's principal organization, comprised of party representatives from each state. | 52 | |
9433804218 | Political action committee (PAC) | A committee set up by a corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises and spends campaign money from voluntary donations. Gives directly to candidates, but must follow FEC limits (whereas SuperPACs can spend unlimitedly, but it must be independent of the candidate). | 53 | |
9433804219 | Primary election | A ballot vote in which citizens select a party's nominee for the general election. | 54 | |
9433804220 | Caucus | A meeting of local party members to choose a parties nominee for the general election | 55 | |
9433804221 | Closed primary | A primary election in which a voter is allowed to obtain only a ballot of the party in which they are registered. | 56 | |
9433804223 | Open primary | A primary election in which voters may choose in which party to vote as they enter the polling place. | 57 | |
9433804224 | Plurality voting | A voting system in which the candidate who receives the most votes within a geographic area wins the election, regardless of whether that candidates wins a majority (more than half) of the votes. | 58 | |
9433804225 | Majority voting | A voting system in which a candidate must win more than 50 percent of votes in order to win the election. If no candidate wins enough votes to take office, a runoff election is held between the top two vote-getters. | 59 | |
9433804226 | Electoral College | A group selected by the states to elect the president and the vice-president, in which each state's number of electors is equal to the number of its senators and representatives in Congress. Candidates usually want to focus on populous swing states to win the 270 votes needed to become president. | 60 | |
9433804227 | Coattails | the idea that a weaker or less-known candidates to profit in an election by the presence on the ticket of a more popular candidate | 61 | |
9433804228 | Realigning election | Showing a lasting shift in fundamental party loyalities among a large portion of voters | 62 | |
9433804229 | Split-ticket (ticket-splitting) | Voting for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election | 63 | |
9433804230 | Bicameralism | a two-house legislature | 64 |
AP Government Midterm Review Flashcards
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