Ch2 Terms
The state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.
Define equality.
The rights and powers held by individual US states rather than by the federal government.
Define states' rights.
Judicial, Executive, and Legislative
What the 3 branches of government?
America's first attempt at a government. It gave very little power to a central government. State governments had too much power and made it hard for Americas as a whole country to cooperate together.
What was the Articles of Confederation?
A form of government that divides sovereign power across at least two political units.
What is Federalism?
A voluntary agreement among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by creating a government and abiding by its rules.
Define Social Contract.
Powers held jointly by the national and state governments.
Define concurrent powers.
Impeachment and power of the purse, where they can cut funding to or holding hearings on, investigations of, or audits of their operations, to make sure money is being spent properly.
What are the 2 checks congress has on the other branches of government?
Daniel Shays led a force of a thousand farmers in an attempt to make take over the Massachusetts government arsenal.
What was the Shays's Rebellion?
They have the power to choose electors for the electoral college.
The States
The influence that legislatures have over public policy because of their power to vote money for public purposes.
Define Power of the Purse.
A system of government in which powers and policy assignments are shared between states and the national government. They may also share costs, administration, and even blame for programs that work poorly.
Define Cooperative Federalism.
The president has the power of veto and the ability to appoint judges in the Court.
What are the Presidential Checks?
A group of people who supported strong state government and a weak national government.
Who were the Anti-Federalists?
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved for the states respectively, or to the people.
What is the Tenth Amendment?
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.
What was the Great Compromise?
A Case where Congress had overstepped its powers when they had tried to pass a legislation using the powers from the commerce clause. However, congress had lost because the law was considered unconstitutional and that the carrying of a gun in school could not be regulated as interstate commerce.
What was the United States v. Lopez Case?
The Court has the ability to strike down a law or an executive branch action as unconstitutional.
What is Judicial Review?
A group of people that favored empowering a central government.
Who were the Federalists?
Gave the national government broad control over the potentially discriminatory laws of the southern states after the Civil War.
What the Fourteenth Amendment?
The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.
What was the Commerce Clause?
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).
Define Coercive Federalism.
Powers explicitly given to congress, the president, our supreme court.
What are enumerated powers?
This person said protection from majority tyranny would come from the "size principle," and that since America was a such a large and diverse nation, majority interests would become harder to organize and dominate.
James Madison
States can be laboratories of democracy, state and local government is closer to the people, states provide more access to the political system, states provide and important check on national power.
What are the advantages of strong role for states.