POLS 206 TAMU STUDY EXAMS GUIDE QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Shay's Rebellion - ✔✔Rebellion led by Daniel Shays of farmers in western
Massachusetts in 1786-1787, protesting mortgage foreclosures. It highlighted the need
for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went
out.
✔✔economic turmoil - ✔✔-Postwar depression left farmers unable to pay debts.
-State legislatures sympathetic to farmers passed laws that favored debtors over
creditors.
✔✔human nature - ✔✔The fundamental disposition of humans that determines their
behavior (people are naturally self-interested)
✔✔Political Conflict - ✔✔The most common and durable source of factions has been
the various and unequal distribution of property
✔✔Factions - ✔✔Groups such as parties or interest groups, which according to James
Madison arose from the unequal distribution of property or wealth and had the potential
to cause instability in government.
✔✔Purpose of Government - ✔✔preservation of property
✔✔Nature of Government - ✔✔power against power so that no one faction rises above
and overwhelms another
✔✔Equality issues at Constitutional Convention - ✔✔1. Equality of States - Connecticut
compromise
2. Slavery - 3/5s
3. Equality in Voting - let the states decide qualifications
, ✔✔New Jersey Plan - ✔✔The proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called for
equal representation of each state in Congress regardless of the state's population.
✔✔Virginia Plan - ✔✔"Large state" proposal for the new constitution, calling for
proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress. The plan favored
larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for
apportioning representation.
✔✔Conneciticut compromise - ✔✔create an American government that is a
compromise of virgina plan and new jersey plan
(gave more poewr to smaller states)
✔✔Three-Fifths Compromise - ✔✔Compromise between northern and southern states
at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be
counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of
Representatives.
✔✔Economic issues of the constitutional convention - ✔✔-states had tariffs on precuts
from other states
-paper money was worthless
-congress couldn't raise money
-so the Powers of Congress were strengthened (they could levy taxes, create uniform
money) and the power of states was weakened
✔✔Charles A. Beard - ✔✔A historian who argued that the Founders were largely
motivated by the economic advantage of their class in writing the Constitution
✔✔chief economic policymaker - ✔✔Congress
✔✔Powers of Congress - ✔✔Collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce with
other nations, coin money, declare war, control armed forces, make necessary laws.
✔✔writ of habeas corpus - ✔✔A court order requiring jailers to explain to a judge why
they are holding a prisoner in custody. Article 1 Section 9
✔✔bill of attainder - ✔✔a law that punishes a person accused of a crime without a trial
or a fair hearing in court
Article 1 Section 9
✔✔ex post facto law - ✔✔a law that makes an act criminal although the act was legal
when it was committed
Article 1 Section 9
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Shay's Rebellion - ✔✔Rebellion led by Daniel Shays of farmers in western
Massachusetts in 1786-1787, protesting mortgage foreclosures. It highlighted the need
for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went
out.
✔✔economic turmoil - ✔✔-Postwar depression left farmers unable to pay debts.
-State legislatures sympathetic to farmers passed laws that favored debtors over
creditors.
✔✔human nature - ✔✔The fundamental disposition of humans that determines their
behavior (people are naturally self-interested)
✔✔Political Conflict - ✔✔The most common and durable source of factions has been
the various and unequal distribution of property
✔✔Factions - ✔✔Groups such as parties or interest groups, which according to James
Madison arose from the unequal distribution of property or wealth and had the potential
to cause instability in government.
✔✔Purpose of Government - ✔✔preservation of property
✔✔Nature of Government - ✔✔power against power so that no one faction rises above
and overwhelms another
✔✔Equality issues at Constitutional Convention - ✔✔1. Equality of States - Connecticut
compromise
2. Slavery - 3/5s
3. Equality in Voting - let the states decide qualifications
, ✔✔New Jersey Plan - ✔✔The proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called for
equal representation of each state in Congress regardless of the state's population.
✔✔Virginia Plan - ✔✔"Large state" proposal for the new constitution, calling for
proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress. The plan favored
larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for
apportioning representation.
✔✔Conneciticut compromise - ✔✔create an American government that is a
compromise of virgina plan and new jersey plan
(gave more poewr to smaller states)
✔✔Three-Fifths Compromise - ✔✔Compromise between northern and southern states
at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be
counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of
Representatives.
✔✔Economic issues of the constitutional convention - ✔✔-states had tariffs on precuts
from other states
-paper money was worthless
-congress couldn't raise money
-so the Powers of Congress were strengthened (they could levy taxes, create uniform
money) and the power of states was weakened
✔✔Charles A. Beard - ✔✔A historian who argued that the Founders were largely
motivated by the economic advantage of their class in writing the Constitution
✔✔chief economic policymaker - ✔✔Congress
✔✔Powers of Congress - ✔✔Collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce with
other nations, coin money, declare war, control armed forces, make necessary laws.
✔✔writ of habeas corpus - ✔✔A court order requiring jailers to explain to a judge why
they are holding a prisoner in custody. Article 1 Section 9
✔✔bill of attainder - ✔✔a law that punishes a person accused of a crime without a trial
or a fair hearing in court
Article 1 Section 9
✔✔ex post facto law - ✔✔a law that makes an act criminal although the act was legal
when it was committed
Article 1 Section 9
