Big Ideas
Dietter's Discussion
Connections
Decoding Hofstadter
Vocabulary
100
A central weakness of the Articles of Confederation
What is failure to regulate trade
100
How liberty and democracy are at odds
What is because traditional belief says that democracy and liberty are pretty much the same and usually say that democracy is necessary to liberty but the Founding Fathers thought that liberty threatened democracy. Liberty was linked not to democracy but to property.
100
The reason for checks and balances in our government today
What is because the Founding Fathers did not fully trust the people
100
"At the very beginning contemporary opponents of the Constitution foresaw an apocalyptic destruction of local government and popular institutions, while conservative Europeans of the old regime thought the young American Republic was a dangerous leftist experiment"
What is that people who were against the constitution thought that the constitution was taking away things that were already accepted and going well, while conservatives thought that that the American Republic was a liberal test
100
Define Republicanism
What is the ideology of governing a society or state as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often through elections.
200
The contradictory ideas of those who wrote the constitution
What is that humans are selfish and untrustworthy yet the founding fathers believed in the importance of self-government
200
The Founding Fathers thoughts of the nature of human beings
What is that humans are self-centered and dishonest
200
FREE POINTS!!!
N/A
200
"They thought man was a creature of rapacious self-interest, and yet they wanted him to be free- free, in essence, to contend, to engage in an umpired strife, to use property to get property”
What is that the Founding Fathers thought and knew man was selfish and evil, yet they wanted to set up these creatures to contend, basically play a game to monopolize the world in which they live in
200
Define Plunder
What is to take by force or wrongfully: steal, loot
300
Liberty did not mean...
What is free access to the nations wealth
300
The Founding Fathers belief on what role of government should be
What is that each branch or layer of government or economic class or region would be checked and balanced by the competing interest
300
Hobbe's mentality that the Founding Fathers agreed with
What is that men are selfish and contentious
300
"It is ironical that the Constitution, which Americans venerate so deeply, is based upon a political theory that at one crucial point stands in direct antithesis to the mainstream of American democratic faith"
What is that it's strange that the Constitution, which Americans respect so deeply, may not be what the people really want. → the constitution says that we have the right to bear arms but everyone wants to take that right away.
300
Define Venerate
What is to regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference
400
The reason why the Founding Fathers agreed with James Wilson's idea that ultimate power of government must be with the people
What is the fact that if they didn’t then they would be contradicting everything they said against British rule and would give an idea for extreme concentration of power in the future
400
The meaning of "[the Founding Fathers] did not believe in man, but they did believe in the power of a good political constitution to control him” (Serow 45).
What is that since men are untrustworthy a constitution with laws must be put into effect in order to make sure the nation doesn’t fall apart
400
An idea of Hobbe's that the founding fathers did not want to follow
What is that any government must be accepted in order to avoid utter chaos (anarchy) and terror of a state of nature
400
Those who favored the Federal Constitution believed three things were successful
What is 1. Federal government could maintain order against uprisings or majority rule 2. Small direct democracy, peoples strong and sometimes unstable ideals would overpower and dominate lawmaking but a representative democracy would “refine and enlarge the public views” by passing them through a middle man 3. Each element should be given its own house of the legislature and over both houses there should be someone that has the power to veto → the whole system would be restricted by an independent judiciary, this will help the poor and the rich not try to take over each other
400
Define Axiomatic
What is self-evident or unquestionable
500
A principle belief in the faith of the men who made the Constitution
What is that democracy can never be more than a transitional stage in government
500
The reason why the Founding Fathers feared an urban proletariat
What is because it is the middle class and almost one half of the population
500
Philosopher that would agree with this quote from the reading "among many liberties, therefore, freedom to hold and dispose of property is paramount"
What is John Locke
500
Go to the bottom of page 46 in your books and read what Madison wrote in the Federalist number 51. Decode.
What is that you must have a strong desire to do something in order to counteract those who want to keep doing more, have to put a stop to it- doing this will attempt to control the abuses of government. The government is set up to control people but people are also a part of the government so we need something to control those people in the government.
500
Define Modus Vivendi
What is an arrangement or agreement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully, either indefinitely or until a final settlement is reached.
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