AP US Gov & Politics Bayles S ‘14
UNIT I Handout
Edwards Ch. 2 Test Review Questions: The Constitution
Use your own words to answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What were the events that led early Americans to declare independence from Britain?
2. What is the basic philosophy that underlies the Declaration of Independence?
3. Summarize the parallels between Locke's writings and Jefferson's language in the Declaration of Independence.
4. Make a detailed list of the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation and explain how they laid the groundwork for the Constitution.
5. What was Shays’s Rebellion and what role did that play in the push for changing the Articles of Confederation?
6. What was the founders’ solution to the problem that people will pursue their own self- interest? How is that different from what ancient philosophers believed? What did Madison argue and propose in this context?
7. Describe what Madison meant by "factions" and how he proposed to solve the problems presented by factions.
8. Demonstrate what we mean by the "Madisonian model" and how it is incorporated within the Constitution.
9. Explain why critics claim that the Madisonian model actually reduces efficiency in the operations of government.
10. Evaluate how the Constitutional Convention dealt with issues of equality.
11. How were the Virginia and New Jersey Plans transformed via the Great Compromise?
12. What were the other compromises involving the president and the Supreme Court decided at the Convention?
13. Explain why economic issues were high on the agenda at the Constitutional Convention and how the framers tried to strengthen the economic powers of the new national government.
14. In the ratifying conventions, what were the economic divisions of who favored the Constitution?
15. What was Charles Beard’s interpretation of the Framers of the Constitution? What is now known to counter his interpretation?
16. What is the difference between a democracy and a republic and how did the Constitution strike a balance between these two forms of government?
17. List and define the two major principles of American representative democracy?
18. Make a chart showing the Federalist and Anti-federalist arguments about the Constitution.
19. What arguments did the Federalists have against a bill of rights?
20. List the liberties guaranteed in the body of the original Constitution. Learn that list. Define writ of habeas corpus, bill of attainder, and an ex post facto law.
21. Summarize the three provisions in the Constitution regarding slavery. Why didn’t the Founders abolish slavery?
22. Outline how to propose and ratify an amendment. Read over the language in Article V of the Constitution. Memorize these methods.
23. How do constitutional changes--both formal and informal--continue to shape and alter the Madisonian system?
24. What is judicial review?
25. Identify factors that have led to the gradual democratization of the Constitution.
Questions for The Federalist, #10
Use your own words to answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What were the differences between a republic and a pure or direct democracy?
2. What are the dangers of a pure or direct democracy?
3. A well-constructed union should develop what advantageous tendency?
4. What were "our most considerate and virtuous citizens" complaining about?
5. What is Madison's definition of "faction"? Is this today’s dictionary defintion?
6. Madison says that there are two methods for controlling faction: "removing the causes of faction" and "controlling its effects." He then analyzes in detail two methods for "removing causes of faction." What are these two methods, and does he recommend these methods? Why or why not?
7. In the course of answering question #4, Madison identifies the most common source of factions in society. What is it?
8. When a body of men get together to make policy, what often happens? What kinds of issues divide them?
9. In a republican system, how can minority factions be controlled?
10. What can happen if a majority comprises the faction?
11. Madison fears that majority factions could oppress the rights of others when in power. To prevent that from happening, Madison suggests that a republic works better than a pure democracy. Why won't a democracy work to control a majority faction's oppression of the minority?
12. Why will a republic overcome weaknesses associated with pure or direct democracy (for example, control factions)?
13. Madison discusses large republics versus small republics. Which does he prefer, and why?
14. Does Madison's concept of republican government include both majority rule and minority rights? Explain your answer.
15. Is Madison's concept of republican government compatible with today's concept of representative democracy? Explain your answer.
16. Thought question: Given what you know about the struggle over the ratification of the Constitution, why did Madison write this essay? Why is it an argument that supports ratification of the Constitution? After all, the Constitution is not even mentioned once in the entire essay!
Questions for The Federalist, #51
Use your own words to answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Analyze this statement: "It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part." What does this statement have to do with majority rule and minority rights in a free government?
2. Do you agree with Madison's statement? Why?
3. Analyze: Why did Madison believe that a separation of powers was necessary "to be essential to the preservation of liberty?"
4. How does Madison justify selecting members of the judiciary in an undemocratic way?
5. Analyze these sentences:
6. "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."
7. "But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?"
8. What methods are used to check the power of the Congress?
9. According to Madison, ought the president have an absolute negative power (veto) on the Congress? Why or why not?
10. Define: single republic and compound republic
11. What does Madison mean by the phrase: "double security arises to the rights of the people"?
12. Assess: How does Madison believe that our federal system protects the rights of both the majority and the minority?
13. What is the "end (purpose) of government? Assess: In what areas of American life today has this goal been achieved? Not achieved?
Reading Questions on Richard Hofstadter from The American Political Tradition (p. 43-49 in the Readings Book)
Use your own words to answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What was the central dilemma facing the Founders concerning their views of human nature and the type of government they sought to create?
2. Summarize in your own words the quote from Federalist 51 on page 61.
3. What were the three advantages to a federal government?
4. Why did the Founders believe that democracy could conflict with liberty? How did they define liberty 5. What did the Founders believe that democracy would lead to? How can the United States avoid this fate?
Edwards Test Review Ch. 3 Questions: Federalism
Use your own words to answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Define federalism and explain how such a system differs from a unitary or a confederal system.
2. Identify the ways in which the Constitution determines the powers of state and national governments.
3. Evaluate how contrasting interpretations of the supremacy clause and the Tenth Amendment lead to divergent views of the scope of state and national powers.
4. Describe how the Supreme Court set forth the principle of implied powers in the McCulloch v. Maryland case.
5. Explain the relationship of implied powers to enumerated powers.
6. How did the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement contribute to the development of national supremacy over the states?
7. List and analyze the clauses in the Constitution that define the obligations that each state has to every other state.
8. Trace the ways in which American federalism has changed over the past two centuries.
9. Compare the contrasting forms of dual federalism and cooperative federalism.
10. List the elements of the Constitution that 1) restrict the powers of the states 2) protect the powers of the states 3) describe how the states should deal with each other and 4) have been used to expand the power of the federal government.
11. What was the principle of nullification?
12. Why do members of Congress pass laws that cause governors and mayors to complain about the role of the federal government?
Terms to Know for The Constitution Test
Republic Mixed Government Popular Sovereignty John Locke Roger Sherman James Madison Social Contract Constitutional Convention Alexander Hamilton Natural Rights Articles of Confederation Coalition Consent Of The Governed The Great Compromise Equal Rights Amendment Limited Government Virginia Plan Writ of Habeas Corpus State of Nature Checks and balances Bill of Rights Factions Federalist Papers Charles Beard’s Thesis Thomas Hobbes Federalist 10 and 51 Shays' Rebellion Democracy Judicial Review Northwest Ordinance Oligarchy Marbury v. Madison New Jersey Plan Monarchy Separation of Powers Citizenship
Landmark Federalism Supreme Court Cases
o Fletcher v. Peck (1810) o McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) o Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) o National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel (1937) o Wickard v. Filburn (1942) o Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964) o South Dakota v. Dole (1987) o United States v. Lopez (1995) o Printz v. United States (1997) o United States v. Morrison (2000) o Gonzales v. Raich (2005) o Gonzales v. Oregon (2006)