Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy

23 terms. Say what each one means, then open the card to check.

• Natural rights

  Rights people hold simply by being human, such as life, liberty and property, which exist before any government and do not come from it.

  Example. The Declaration of Independence says people have rights to life and liberty that no king can rightfully take away.

• Popular sovereignty

  The idea that a government's authority comes from the people, who are the final source of political power.

  Example. The Constitution opens with the words We the People, signaling that the people, not the states or a ruler, create the government.

• Social contract

  The idea that people agree to form a government and obey it so it will protect their rights, and may change it if it fails.

  Example. The colonists argued that the king broke his side of the bargain, so they were free to form a new government.

• Limited government

  The principle that government has only the powers the people grant it and must respect limits on what it may do.

  Example. The First Amendment bars Congress from making a law that abridges freedom of speech, a firm limit on national power.

• Republicanism

  A system in which citizens elect representatives to make laws for them, instead of voting on every law directly.

  Example. Voters in a district elect one member of the House, who then votes on national laws on their behalf.

• Participatory democracy

  A model of democracy that stresses broad, direct involvement of citizens in politics and civic life.

  Example. A town holds a yearly meeting where any resident may speak and vote directly on the town budget.

• Pluralist democracy

  A model of democracy in which many organized groups compete to influence policy, and no one group controls it.

  Example. Farm groups, unions and environmental clubs each lobby a state legislature over a new water law.

• Elite democracy

  A model of democracy in which a small, educated or wealthy group has the most influence over decisions.

  Example. Under the original Constitution, state legislatures, not voters, chose United States senators.

• Articles of Confederation

  The first national plan of government, in force from 1781 to 1789, which left most power with the states and made the central government weak.

  Example. Under this plan, Congress could ask states for money but could not tax anyone directly.

• Shays' Rebellion

  An uprising of indebted farmers in Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787 that showed how weak the national government was.

  Example. Armed farmers closed courts to stop foreclosures, and Congress had no national army ready to respond.

• Great Compromise

  The Convention agreement that created a two-chamber Congress: a House based on population and a Senate with equal seats for each state.

  Example. A large state has many House members, but it has two senators, the same as the smallest state.

• Three-Fifths Compromise

  The Convention agreement to count three-fifths of a state's enslaved population when setting House seats and direct taxes.

  Example. A Southern state with many enslaved people gained extra House seats, though the enslaved people themselves had no vote.

• Anti-Federalists

  Opponents of ratifying the Constitution, who feared a strong national government would crush the states and individual liberty.

  Example. Essays signed Brutus warned that a republic as large as the United States could not stay close to its people.

• Federalist No. 10

  Madison's essay arguing that a large republic controls the harm of factions because many competing groups make a single oppressive majority unlikely.

  Example. A farm faction in one state cannot easily take over national policy when it must compete with many other interests.

• Separation of powers

  The division of government into legislative, executive and judicial branches, each with its own job and its own people.

  Example. Congress writes the laws, the President carries them out, and the courts decide cases under them.

• Checks and balances

  Powers that let each branch limit the others, so no single branch can act without some response from the rest.

  Example. The President can veto a bill, and Congress can override that veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

• Enumerated powers

  Powers the Constitution lists for the national government, mostly for Congress in Article I.

  Example. Congress may coin money, declare war and regulate commerce among the states because the Constitution says so.

• Reserved powers

  Powers kept by the states or the people because the Constitution neither gives them to the national government nor denies them to the states.

  Example. States set the rules for marriage licenses and run their own public school systems.

• Necessary and proper clause

  The part of Article I that lets Congress make laws needed to carry out its listed powers, the source of implied powers.

  Example. Congress created a national bank as a means to borrow money and collect taxes, though no clause names a bank.

• Supremacy clause

  The part of Article VI that makes the Constitution and national laws made under it the supreme law of the land.

  Example. When a valid federal law and a state law conflict, a court must follow the federal law.

• Categorical grant

  Federal money given to states for a narrow purpose, with detailed rules on how it must be spent.

  Example. A federal grant that may be spent only on school lunches, under federal nutrition rules, is this kind of grant.

• Block grant

  Federal money given to states for a broad area of policy, which leaves states room to decide how to spend it.

  Example. A state receives community-development money and chooses to spend it on housing in one city and roads in another.

• Unfunded mandate

  A federal requirement that states must meet without receiving federal money to pay for it.

  Example. A federal rule orders states to make polling places accessible but sends no money to cover the cost.