POL Review for Exam 1

  1. What two attributes allow government to function?
    • Means of coercion(force)
    • Collective revenue(taxes)
  2. What does government do?
    • Maintain order
    • Provide goods/services
    • Protect property
  3. What is government?
    A set of institutions that rule a land and it's people.
  4. What is politics?
    • Who gets what/when/how
    • Conflicts/struggles/actions to influence decisions/resources/etc.
  5. Direct democracy
    • All citizens decide on public business in small assemblies
    • Found in small societies
    • Has an assembly and council
  6. Representative democracy
    Indirect democracy in which the people rule through elected officials
  7. Benchmarks of Rep. democracy
    • Popular sovereignty- ppl are source of gov. authority
    • Political Equality- everyone is treated equal(civil rights)
    • Political Liberty- ppl have the right to freedoms(social contract-gov. is the result of an agreement among the ppl)
  8. Key issues in Dec. of Ind.
    • All men are created equal
    • Gov. gets pwr from the ppl
    • If gov. fails, the ppl have the right to set up another one
  9. Who wrote the Dec. of Ind.?
    • Thomas Jefferson
    • Influenced by John Locke's ideas of life, liberty, and property
  10. The Articles of Confederation problems
    • National government could not finance activities
    • Had a very weak central government
    • States has most pwr
    • States could impose taxes on goods from other states
  11. Shay's Rebellion
    • Led by Daniel Shay
    • Went to prevent the courts from working
    • Farmers has unpaid taxes and their farms were going to be taken away
  12. "Who Were the Framers?"
    • Wealthy bankers, lawyers, merchants, plantation owners
    • Well educated- used western philosophy and political science(quote Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Montisque)
  13. Historian Charles Beard
    • Wrote An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution(1913)
    • Constitution is a conspiracy to protect their immediate and personal economic interests
  14. Virginia Plan
    A proposal by the larger states to be represented based on population.
  15. New Jersey Plan
    A proposal by the smaller states to be represented with an equal number of representatives from each state.
  16. Connecticut Compromise
    • Know as the Great Compromise
    • Has 2 chambers
    • The House of Representatives=435 (based on pop.)
    • The Senate=2 each state (=reps)
  17. Article 1
    • Legislature
    • Explains how people would be elected (Congress, H of R, Senate)
    • Make laws
  18. Article 2
    • Executive
    • The President
    • Of lower importance
  19. Article 3
    • Judicial
    • Supreme Court
    • If a law is unconstitutional
  20. Supremacy Clause
    • Article VI
    • Laws and treaties of the National Government are the supreme law and take precedent over state constitutions
  21. Elastic Clause
    • Article 1 section 8
    • Congress can make laws that are necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated responsibilities.
  22. The Bill of Rights
    • The first ten amendments to the Constitution
    • In order to be ratified, the Bill of Rights was made at the first Congress
  23. First Amendment
    The freedom of speech, religion, press, assemble, and petition
  24. Second Amendment
    • The right to bear arms
    • A controversial topic
  25. Fourth Amendment
    Right against unreasonable searches and seizures
  26. Fifth Amendment
    • Criminal proceedings
    • Due process
  27. Sixth Amendment
    Right to a speedy, public, and impartial trial.
  28. Seperation of Powers
    • Madisonian Model
    • Distribution of government btwn the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
  29. Checks and Balances
    Each branch has the pwr to hinder the actions of the other branches as a way to prevent tyranny
  30. 18th Century Republicanism
    • Rule by ppl is indirect through multiple layers of reps.
    • Term "ppl" is narrowly defined
    • Office holding=only privileged
    • Government is limited
  31. Federalist Papers
    • Alexander Hamilton
    • James Madison- #10- Repub. over direct democracy
    • #51- checks & balances/different branches
    • John Jay
    • What the framer's were doing and why:
    • Human nature=selfish
    • an argument in favor of a Republic
  32. McCullock vs. Maryland (1819)
    • Maryland imposed a tax on Bank of U.S.
    • Law was unconstitutional
    • Justice Marshall gave a broad reading of the necessary and proper clause
    • This led to the expansion of what the national government could do
Author
SkyRockIt93
ID
140113
Card Set
POL Review for Exam 1
Description
review for the first of the semester
Updated