AP U.S. Government and Politics · Summary

Unit 1 summary

1. Natural rights, the social contract, popular sovereignty, republicanism and limited government are the core ideals behind the Declaration and the Constitution.
2. Ask who holds the influence: many citizens directly (participatory), many competing groups (pluralist), or a select few (elite).
3. The Articles failed because Congress could not tax, regulate trade among the states or enforce its laws, and it had no executive or national courts.
4. The Great Compromise made a House by population and a Senate with two seats per state; the Three-Fifths Compromise counted three-fifths of the enslaved population for seats and taxes.
5. Federalists, as in Federalist No. 10, said a large republic controls faction; Anti-Federalists, as in Brutus No. 1, feared a national government too strong and too distant.
6. Separation of powers gives each branch its own job, and checks and balances let each branch limit the others, as Federalist No. 51 argues.
7. Congress has enumerated and implied powers, the states keep reserved powers, and the supremacy clause decides conflicts; grants and mandates let Congress steer the states.