Political Culture
This core American value is defined as the principle that individuals should be free to act as they choose, provided they do not unreasonably infringe upon others.
What is liberty?
This 1786 armed rebellion by Massachusetts farmers exposed the fundamental weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and spurred calls for a constitutional convention.
Shay's Rebellion
In this system of government, sovereignty is shared between the national government and the states.
What is Federalism?
These first 10 amendments to the Constitution identify individual rights that the federal government is obligated to protect.
What is the Bill of Rights?
Empathy, critical thinking, and collaboration are examples of these human abilities that employers increasingly value alongside technical knowledge.
What are power skills?
Alexis de Tocqueville observed that Americans' chief aim regarding this core value "is to remain their own masters".
What is individualism?
Proposed during the Philadelphia Convention, this agreement resolved the debate between large and small states by creating a bicameral Congress with proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Senate.
What is the Great Compromise?
These are powers specifically granted to the national government in the Constitution.
What are enumerated (expressed) powers?
This process uses the Fourteenth Amendment to extend protections in the Bill of Rights to actions by state governments.
What is selective incorporation?
This amendment provides the constitutional basis for the argument that powers not given to the federal government—and not prohibited to the states—are reserved to the states or the people.
What is the 10th Amendment?
This value was a perplexing ideal in early America when some people were free while others were enslaved.
What is equality?
While members of the U.S. House of Representatives are elected to serve terms of this length, U.S. Senators serve for this longer duration.
What are 2 years and 6 years?
Also known as the elastic clause, this constitutional provision allows Congress to make laws needed to carry out its enumerated powers.
What is the necessary and proper clause?
This term describes government action that prevents speech or publication before it occurs.
What is prior restraint?
According to Mark Cuban, if he were 12 years old today, he would concentrate on these two activities to prepare himself for the future.
Who is Mark Cuban?
The idea that there are lawful restrictions placed on a government's power is known as this.
What is constitutionalism?
Under this compromise reached in 1787, each enslaved person was counted as a fraction of a person for the purposes of both taxation and legislative representation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
This clause establishes that national laws are the supreme law of the land.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
This amendment protects individuals against unreasonable searches and seizures.
What is the 4th Amendment?
A student argues that each state should set its own minimum wage because living costs differ across the country. But without this, a state could legally establish a very low wage - or no state minimum wage at all - leaving workers protected only by whatever national standard exists.
What is a federal minimum wage?
The systematic study of government and politics that provides analytical tools to increase critical thinking.
What is political science?
The U.S. Constitution contains exactly this number of specific powers granted directly to the national government.
What is 17?
This 1819 Supreme Court case provided a major early victory for national power over state power.
What is McCullouch v. Maryland?
Police illegally search a home and discover evidence of a crime. Under this rule, that evidence generally cannot be introduced at trial.
What is the exclusionary rule?
If a right is considered fundamental enough that it should not depend upon whether a person lives in Missouri, Kansas, California, or Texas, supporters are likely to argue that protection should occur at this level of government.
What is the federal/national government?
This ideology explicitly seeks to move beyond capitalism through the fundamental democratization of economic ownership.
What is democratic socialism?
This political term, popularized by Montesquieu and adapted by James Madison, describes dividing government into separate branches that interlock through checks and balances.
What is separated institutions sharing power (or separation of powers)?
This term describes the system in which national and state governments have relatively distinct and separate areas of authority.
What is dual federalism?
Police arrest a suspect and begin questioning without first informing the person of the right to remain silent or speak with an attorney. This landmark Supreme Court decision says that is a problem.
What is Miranda v. Arizona?
A public high school football coach prayed on the field after games. The Supreme Court concluded that his personal prayer was protected by these two First Amendment freedoms.
What are freedom of speech and free exercise of religion?
This cognitive obstacle to critical thinking occurs when individuals prefer to process information that supports what they would already like to believe.
What is confirmation bias?
According to John Locke's philosophy of natural rights, government is responsible for preserving life, liberty, and this third fundamental right—which Thomas Jefferson later adapted to "the pursuit of happiness"
What is property?
Medicaid is an example of this type of federalism, in which national, state, and local governments share responsibility for policies and programs.
What is cooperative federalism?
This Supreme Court case established that Americans have a constitutional “zone of privacy” that government cannot lawfully invade.
What is Griswold v. Connecticut?
A state tuition program helped students attend private schools but excluded schools simply because they were religious. In Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion violated this constitutional protection
What is the Free Exercise Clause?
This concept describes the recognized right of government officials to exercise power.
Championed by the Progressives, this mechanism allowed ordinary voters - rather than party bosses - to select party nominees for office.
What are primary elections?
Unlike categorical grants, these federal grants give states flexibility in deciding how to spend money within a particular policy area.
What are block grants?
A city allows secular organizations to use a public facility but prohibits religious organizations from doing so simply because they are religious. This First Amendment protection would most directly be implicated.
What is the Free Exercise Clause?
Wearing an armband, burning a flag, or engaging in another action intended to communicate a political message can qualify as this type of First Amendment expression.
What is symbolic speech?
According to an analysis of 2024 U.S. Census data, this group had the highest incarceration rate: legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, or native-born Americans.
What are native-born Americans?
Prior to the passage of a constitutional amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators were chosen by this body rather than by direct popular vote.
What are state legislatures?
This term describes the transfer or shift of governmental power from the federal government back to state and local governments.
What is devolution?
Under this three-part test, a government policy must have a nonreligious purpose, must neither advance nor inhibit religion, and must avoid excessive government entanglement with religion.
What is the Lemon Test?
Police entered a woman's home without a valid warrant and discovered evidence of a crime. In this 1961 case, the Supreme Court held that illegally obtained evidence cannot be used in state criminal trials.
What is Mapp v. Ohio?