Study Guide 3

The Anti federalists argued that the powers of the national government should be limited by

Adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution

The issue of representation was addressed in the Great Compromise by giving each state

An equal number of senators but linking representation in the House of Representatives to population.

The United States' first written constitution was called the

Articles of Confederation

Which of the following was NOT one of the reprisals enacted by the British in response to the Boston Tea Party?

Restricting movement of the colonists to the West.

The framers designed the Senate to be a check against excessive democracy by doing which of the following?

Senators are directly elected by the people

The president's power to veto a bill passed by Congress is a good example of

Separation of powers.

What does the supremacy clause assert?

State laws are superior to any federal laws

During the national debate over ratification to the new Constitution, the Federalists

Supported the Constitution and preferred a strong national government.

The Articles of Confederation were concerned primarily with

limiting the powers of the central government.

Colonial protesters of the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act rallied around which slogan?

"No taxation without representation"

Which office did the framers design to be directly elected by the people?

A U.S. president

The First Continental Congress was

A group of colonial delegates assembled in 1774 that called for a total boycott of all British goods.

Bicameralism is a constitutional principle that represents the division of

The legislature into two chambers

The Boston Tea Party was largely a response to the

British government's decision to tax the colonists' personal incomes.

Which of the following is the president NOT given the unconditional right to do under the Constitution?

Convene Congress in special session

Shays's Rebellion was significant because it

Convinced many observers that the government under the Articles of Confederation had become dangerously inefficient and indecisive.

The electoral college is

Designed to select the president of the United States

The Three-Fifths Compromise

Determined that three out of every five slaves would be counted for purposes of representation

How was political power in Continental Congress divided under the Articles of Confederation?

Each state's power depended on its geographic size.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 was significant because it

Established the principles of land surveying and landownership that governed America's westward expansion

The three branches of government created by the Constitution are

Executive, legislative, and judicial

The system of shared powers, divided between a central government and the state governments, is called

Federalism

Successful amendments to the Constitution

Have often been used to restrict the rights of citizens

The three political philosophers whose ideas exerted the greatest influence on the Founders were

Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu

A _________ is a system of government in which member states retain almost all of their sovereign authority and delegate limited powers to a weak central body.

Republic

Compared with the Articles of Confederation, federalism under the Constitution has led to

Increase state autonomy

Which of the following was a ramification of the Three-Fifths Compromise?

It allowed for a political agreement between the North and the South.

Why was the Declaration of Independence a remarkable philosophical statement for its time?

It asserted that laissez-faire capitalism would be the "supreme law of the land" in America

Why was the Declaration of Independence a remarkable political statement for its time?

It helped unify colonial groups that were divided along economic, regional, and philosophical lines by identifying shared problems, grievances, and principles.

Why was the decision to assign jurisdiction of controversies between citizens of different states to the Supreme Court significant?

It meant that the state courts, rather than the federal judiciary, would ultimately become the primary venue for resolving disputes.

The most important political value for the framers of the Constitution was

Political Equality

The framers employed the separation of powers and federalism in order to

Prevent the new government from abusing its power.

The "comity" provision of Article IV of the Constitution was designed to promote national unity by

Prohibiting state governments from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of their own citizens.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution intended to create a presidency capable of

Regulating all forms of commerce

What was the most common form of taxation during the colonial era?

Taxes on commercial products and activities

Which two constitutional provisions have been at the heart of constitutional struggles between federal and state powers throughout American history?

The Eighteenth Amendment and the Twentieth Amendment

Which of the following possesses the sole power to create revenue bills?

The House of Representatives

Antifederalists bitterly attacked which two parts of the constitution as unlimited and dangerous grants of power to the national government?

The Tenth Amendment and the elastic clause

Which of the following is true about the U.S. Constitution?

The president is elected directly by the people.

Why did the delegates at the Philadelphia Convention turn down the idea of including a list of citizens' rights in the Constitution?

They believed that since the federal government was already limited to its expressed powers, further protection of citizens was not needed.

Only one-third of the Senate is up for re-election during any single election year because the framers believed that

This was a way to make the Senate resistant to popular pressure.

During the ratification debates, who were the Antifederalists?

Those who opposed the new Constitution because they wanted a weaker central government .

During the ratification debates, who were the Federalists?

Those who supported the Constitution because it contained a strong national government

Antifederalists were sharply critical of the structure of the Senate, the executive, and the federal judiciary under the Constitution because they

Worried these undemocratic institutions would lead those in power tyrannize the public.