unit 1B: the constitution

A design of government that distributes powers across institutions (legislative, executive, and judicial branches) in order to avoid making one branch too powerful on its own.

A design of government in which each branch has power that can prevent the other branches from making policy and therefore ensure that no one branch can dominate.

A document that sets out the fundamental principles of governance and establishes the institutions of government.

A government ruled by representatives of the people.

The electoral system used in electing the president and vice president, in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for a particular party's candidate.

The institution responsible for hearing and deciding cases through the federal courts.

The institution responsible for making laws.

The institution responsible for carrying out laws passed by the legislative branch.

A one-house legislature.

A meeting attended by state delegates in Philadelphia, May 25 to September 17, 1787, to fix the Articles of Confederation.

A popular uprising against the government of Massachusetts. It highlighted the need for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went out.

The principle of a two-house legislature.

A plan of government calling for a three-branch government with a bicameral legislature, where more populous states would have more representation in Congress.

A plan of government that provided for a unicameral legislature with equal votes for each state.

Compromise that settled issues of state representation by calling for a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives (lower house) apportioned by population and a Senate (upper house) apportioned equally (in which each state would have two senators).

Compromise between northern and southern states at the Constitutional Convention that a slave would count as three-fifths of a person in calculating a state's representation and determining taxation.

Supporters of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government.

Opponents of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government, generally.

A series of 85 essays promoting ratification of the Constitution, published anonymously by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in 1787 and 1788.

The first constitution of the U.S. that created a union of thirteen sovereign states in which the states, not the national government, were supreme. It was drafted in 1777, ratified in 1781, and replaced by the Constitution in 1789.

An essay in which James Madison argues that a large republic and republican government can mitigate the dangers of a faction.

An Antifederalist Paper (against ratification of the Constitution) arguing that the country was too large to be governed as a republic and that the Constitution gave too much power to the national government.

A group of self-interested people (usually united by a particular common political purpose) who use the government to get what they want, trampling the rights of others in the process.

Committee organized at the Constitutional Convention that worked out the compromise on representation in the national legislature.

Congress could not restrict the slave trade until 1808.

The sharing of power between the national (aka central or federal or U.S.) government and the states.

Process by which change may be made to the Constitution (laid out in Article V).

An essay in which Madison argues that separation of powers and federalism will prevent tyranny.