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