POL 201 FINAL EXAM VERIFIED STUDY GUIDE
Collective Dillemma - Answers - situations in which there's conflict between group goals
or self-interest
Politics - Answers - process of making collective decisions about resource allocation;
deciding who gets what, when, and how
Political systems - Answers - a bundle of institutions, both formal and informal
Roles of a political institution - Answers - determine who can legally do what, when, and
how; they affect how the political system distributes benefits and costs among people in
society
(includes branches of governments, organizations, rules and procedures)
Authoritarianism - Answers - political system in which there is no expectation that the
government represents the people, and political institutions do not give the people a
direct voice in who will lead
(dictatorships, monarchies, oligarchy, one-party system)
Democracy - Answers - rule by the people; popular election of the government and
basic protections of civil rights and liberties
(republic, direct democracy)
Checks and Balances - Answers - an arrangement in which no one branch of
government can conduct its core business without that approval, tactic or expressed, of
other branches
(Founders built "check" to ensure that power would not be concentrated anywhere
within three branches. No one branch can conduct its core business without the other
branch)
Virginia Plan - Answers - a plan proposed at the constitutional convention be Edmund
Randolph of Virginia outlining a stronger national government with an independent
executive and a bicameral legislature whose membership in both houses would be
apportioned according to state population
New Jersey Plan - Answers - a plan at the constitutional convention by William Paterson
of New Jersey to amend, rather than replace, the standing Articles of Confederation.
The plan called for a unicameral legislature with equal representation among the state,
along with a plural (multi-person) executive appointed by the legislature
(an attempt to forge a coalition among smaller states to defeat the virginia plan)
Connecticut Compromise - Answers - An agreement reached at the Constitutional
Convention to establish a bicameral legislature with an upper ouse (the senate)
, composed of equal representation from each state and a lower house (the House of
Representatives) composed of representation from each state in proportion to its
population
Separation of Powers - Answers - an arrangement in which specific governmental
power are divided among district branches of government; typically this means having
an executive who is choses independently of the legislature, and thus executive power
and legislative power are separated
Elastic Clause - Answers - the provision in Article I, Section 8, of the constitution stating
that Congress can make whatever laws are "necessary and proper" to provide that
means to carry out its enumerated
Limitations and Accomplishments of the Articles of Confederation - Answers -
Limitations:
- Congress has limited legislative power and no authority over the execution of its laws
- failed to address the underlying collective dilemmas
- lacked the means to correct its shortcomings
Accomplishments:
- created a cooperative framework among sovereign states
the Supremacy Clause - Answers - The section of Article VI of the Constitution stating
that Constitution and subsequent laws of the United States are to be the "Supreme law
of the land" meaning they supersede any state and local laws
Federalism - Answers - a political system with multiple levels of government in which
each level has independent authority over some important policy areas; a stronger form
of union than a confederation
Gibbons v Ogden (1824) - Answers - Supreme Court case in which the court affirmed
that Congress has the authority to regulate commerce as long as it involves more than
one state
Commerce Clause - Answers - an enumerate power listed in Article I, Section 8 of the
Constitution that grants Congress the power to 'regulate commerce with foreign Nations,
and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes'
McCulloch v Maryland (1819) - Answers - Supreme Court case in which the court rules
that although the power is not expressed in the Constitution, Congress has the authority
to establish a national bank according to the powers implied by the necessary and
proper clause, giving the national government a wide latitude
Alien and Sedition Acts - Answers - Acts passed by the Federalists that permitted the
harassment and jailing of people critical of the Adams administration and its policies;
Collective Dillemma - Answers - situations in which there's conflict between group goals
or self-interest
Politics - Answers - process of making collective decisions about resource allocation;
deciding who gets what, when, and how
Political systems - Answers - a bundle of institutions, both formal and informal
Roles of a political institution - Answers - determine who can legally do what, when, and
how; they affect how the political system distributes benefits and costs among people in
society
(includes branches of governments, organizations, rules and procedures)
Authoritarianism - Answers - political system in which there is no expectation that the
government represents the people, and political institutions do not give the people a
direct voice in who will lead
(dictatorships, monarchies, oligarchy, one-party system)
Democracy - Answers - rule by the people; popular election of the government and
basic protections of civil rights and liberties
(republic, direct democracy)
Checks and Balances - Answers - an arrangement in which no one branch of
government can conduct its core business without that approval, tactic or expressed, of
other branches
(Founders built "check" to ensure that power would not be concentrated anywhere
within three branches. No one branch can conduct its core business without the other
branch)
Virginia Plan - Answers - a plan proposed at the constitutional convention be Edmund
Randolph of Virginia outlining a stronger national government with an independent
executive and a bicameral legislature whose membership in both houses would be
apportioned according to state population
New Jersey Plan - Answers - a plan at the constitutional convention by William Paterson
of New Jersey to amend, rather than replace, the standing Articles of Confederation.
The plan called for a unicameral legislature with equal representation among the state,
along with a plural (multi-person) executive appointed by the legislature
(an attempt to forge a coalition among smaller states to defeat the virginia plan)
Connecticut Compromise - Answers - An agreement reached at the Constitutional
Convention to establish a bicameral legislature with an upper ouse (the senate)
, composed of equal representation from each state and a lower house (the House of
Representatives) composed of representation from each state in proportion to its
population
Separation of Powers - Answers - an arrangement in which specific governmental
power are divided among district branches of government; typically this means having
an executive who is choses independently of the legislature, and thus executive power
and legislative power are separated
Elastic Clause - Answers - the provision in Article I, Section 8, of the constitution stating
that Congress can make whatever laws are "necessary and proper" to provide that
means to carry out its enumerated
Limitations and Accomplishments of the Articles of Confederation - Answers -
Limitations:
- Congress has limited legislative power and no authority over the execution of its laws
- failed to address the underlying collective dilemmas
- lacked the means to correct its shortcomings
Accomplishments:
- created a cooperative framework among sovereign states
the Supremacy Clause - Answers - The section of Article VI of the Constitution stating
that Constitution and subsequent laws of the United States are to be the "Supreme law
of the land" meaning they supersede any state and local laws
Federalism - Answers - a political system with multiple levels of government in which
each level has independent authority over some important policy areas; a stronger form
of union than a confederation
Gibbons v Ogden (1824) - Answers - Supreme Court case in which the court affirmed
that Congress has the authority to regulate commerce as long as it involves more than
one state
Commerce Clause - Answers - an enumerate power listed in Article I, Section 8 of the
Constitution that grants Congress the power to 'regulate commerce with foreign Nations,
and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes'
McCulloch v Maryland (1819) - Answers - Supreme Court case in which the court rules
that although the power is not expressed in the Constitution, Congress has the authority
to establish a national bank according to the powers implied by the necessary and
proper clause, giving the national government a wide latitude
Alien and Sedition Acts - Answers - Acts passed by the Federalists that permitted the
harassment and jailing of people critical of the Adams administration and its policies;
