Rights, Rules & "We the People"
You have these simply because you are human; no government needs to hand them to you.
What are natural rights?
Town halls, community meetings, and neighbors organizing together fit this model of democracy.
What is participatory democracy?
“Approve the Constitution and strengthen the national government,” says this side.
Who were the Federalists?
Before the Constitution, this document supplied the nation’s first framework of government.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
Big states wanted population-based representation; small states wanted equality. This compromise gave Congress one chamber of each.
What is the Great Connecticut Compromise?
In this principle, the people are the source of the government’s authority.
What is popular sovereignty?
Competing organizations try to shape a bill. This model says groups are major players in politics.
What is pluralist democracy?
“Keep more power close to the states,” replies this side.
Who were the Anti-Federalists?
The Articles had no national leader heading this branch to enforce laws.
What is an executive branch?
The delegates chose state electors, creating this system for selecting a president.
What is the Electoral College?
A government claiming it can do anything has forgotten this founding principle.
What is limited government?
A small circle of influential people makes most political decisions in this model.
What is elite democracy?
Madison made the case that a large republic could better manage factions in this essay.
What is Federalist No. 10?
When states disagreed, the Articles provided no national version of this institution to settle the dispute.
What is a national court system?
This compromise counted a fraction of enslaved people for a state’s representation and taxation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
People accept some rules in exchange for social order. Political thinkers give that arrangement this name.
What is the social contract?
Students and parents pack a school board meeting and speak for themselves. Of the three models, this one is most visible.
What is participatory democracy?
This Anti-Federalist essay warned that a large republic could put liberty in danger.
What is Brutus No. 1?
Conflicting state trade rules exposed Congress’s inability to regulate commerce of this kind.
What is interstate commerce?
Promising to add this collection of protections helped win over Constitution skeptics concerned about individual rights.
What is the Bill of Rights?
Lincoln’s short Civil War speech renewed the promise of equality and government by the people.
What is the Gettysburg Address?
Students and parents pack a school board meeting and speak for themselves. Of the three models, this one is most visible.
What is participatory democracy?
Madison thought a republic could filter public views by having voters choose these decision-makers.
Who are elected representatives?
This Massachusetts uprising made the national government’s lack of centralized military power especially hard to ignore.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
The delegates put off a decision about banning the importation of enslaved persons until this year.
What is 1808?