AP Government Unit 2 Constitutional Underpinnings
In the case of Marbury v Madison (1803) established which principle?
judicial review
"Enumerated" powers are those given to
the national government
Federalism, or the division of power between a national government and regional units, stands in contrast to
unitary government
The primary source of legitimate political authority in the United States is the
will of the people
The framers of the Constitution intended _______ to be the strongest branch(es) of government
Congress
The method for choosing the president was designed to address which of the following concerns?
Distrust of the judgment of the people and the small states' fears that the large states would dominate the selection process
Which of the following concepts became a major objective of government after industrialization and urbanization?
Equality
The Founding Fathers had successfully rebelled against a unitary form of government. They had tried a confederation which was not working. Thus they developed a _______ form of government.
Federal
Supporters of the Constitution named themselves
Federalists
The Founding Fathers designed a system of checks and balances for the national government. Which of the following best illustrates that concept? I. Congress overrides a presidential veto II. The Supreme Court declares a law unconstitutional. III. The president issues an executive order reducing the size of the bureaucracy. IV. The House and Senate cannot agree on a Conference Committee report.
I and II
Critics of representative democracy have pointed out all of the following EXCEPT
It is unresponsive to majority opinion
Who said that to devise a proper government is "to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain free as before?"
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Who contributed most to the writing of the Constitution?
Madison
Which of the following statements BEST characterizes the motives of the Framers of the Constitution?
Most framers acted out of loyalty to their state, not out of personal business interests.
James Madison examined historical data on republics, confederations, and aristocracies to learn about the formation of a government. His conclusions are found in
The Federalist papers
Larger states benefited most under what plan
The Virginia Plan
Federalism is a combination of which two ideas?
Unitary government and a confederation
Which metaphor best describes cooperative federalism?
a marble cake
When did the U.S. Constitution become a source of legitimate authority?
after 1787, gradually
Which of the following expresses a traditional American political ideal?
all men are created equal
The Great Compromise led to which of the following?
bicameral legislature
Money awarded for broad, general purposes is called a _____ grant
block
The idea that each American should be economically self-reliant is most closely associated with the principle of
capitalism
Which of the following is an informal way of amending the Constitution?
changes in social and cultural attitudes that lead to substantive changes in how people interpret the Constitution
Under separation of powers, the U.S. system keeps power among branches balanced by enabling one branch to counter the actions of another by the use of
checks and balances
Conflict in the practice of America's ideals occurs because these ideals
conflict somewhat, one with another, are seen as equally important but hard to reach, are general principles, not precise rules, are only one source of political action (all of the above)
Compared to citizens in other nations, Americans
do not value order very much
If James Madison were alive today and heard of demands to make American government more libertarian by decentralizing its power, he would probably
flatly disagree
A state must honor the public acts and records of any other state under the
full faith and credit clause
The central issue in the framing of the Constitution was that
how strong to make the central government
The single most important factor leading to the Constitution Convention was
inability of the national or state governments to maintain order under the Articles
Because the Founders believed they were creating a government of limited powers, they felt it unnecessary to
include a bill of rights
Separation of power and federalism were two key principles in the framing of the Constitution. These two principles are related in that each
involves a system of checks and balances in which power is dispersed
Which characteristic of the Constitution most angered Anti-Federalists?
lack of a bill of rights
Which metaphor best describes dual federalism?
layer cake
How likely are voters to participate in state and local elections compared with national elections?
less likely
The principle goal of the American Revolution was
liberty
According to John Locke, the fundamental purpose of government is the protection of
life, liberty and property
The power of the people--popular majority rule--was limited by the Constitution in several ways, including
making the amending of the constitution relatively difficult
According to Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan, the proper objective of government is to ensure
order
The concept of liberty is most closely associated with
personal freedom
The complexity of the American federal system encourages
pluralism
The division of authority in the U.S. Constitution among competing branches and levels of government has encouraged the development of
pluralism
Each citizen having one vote demonstrates
political equality
The power of Congress to enact laws by which the national government assumes complete or partial responsibility for a state government function is known as:
preemption
Originally, the Constitutional Convention's purpose was to
revise the Articles of Confederation
The original Constitution provided that US senators were to be elected by
state legislatures
If a state's drinking laws allowed eighteen-year-olds to drink alcoholic beverages in violation of the federal government's age requirement of twenty-one, the federal government's age restriction would supersede the state's law based upon the
supremacy clause
The notion that when state and federal laws conflict, the national laws will prevail is the
supremacy clause
An example of concurrent power is
tax
For the united States, the core substantive principles of democracy are embedded in
the Bill of rights and other amendments to the Constitution
A shift away from dual federalism and toward cooperative federalism was a response to the problems associated with
the Great Depression
The New Jersey Plan was a reaction by some states primarily to the fear that
the Virginia plan gave too much power to the populous states
If the United States were operating today under the Articles of Confederation, issues like the effect of acid rain on the environment would be handled by
the individual states
The Antifederalist attacked the proposed Constitution on the grounds that
the national government it created was too strong
The basic premise of federalism is that
two or more governments share power and authority over the same land and people
Sovereignty is synonymous with
ultimate governing authority
In the eyes of most Americans today, the power of the federal government, compared with that of state governments, seems
vastly powerful
Compared to Federalists, Antifederalist tended to favor
wear decentralized government as a protection of liberty
The primary goal of Federalist, No. 10 was to demonstrate that the new government
would not fall under the dominance of any one faction