Unit 1
Exam Review
Please note that this is a
review-by-definitions. It is not
intended to be a complete question-by-question breakdown of the content of the
exam. For the most part, the content of the
exam will be taken in some form or another directly from this review. If you know the definitions of certain key
terms and concepts, you should be able to make the necessary applications on
the exams. I will rarely ask for a
straightforward regurgitation of a definition.
My purposes in giving you an exam are to ensure that you have processed
the material (not just memorized it) and can make the necessary applications to
particular situations. Remember what I
told you about seeing the bigger picture—the details become clear when you
focus on the larger landscape. You will
not remember the squirrels and the nuts and the mudbugs if you attempt to
digest each of them separately. You will
recall them better if you make them periphery to your study; they will be
assumed as part of the bigger picture.
Good luck to you all…Remember
also to bring a Scantron form 882-E and a pencil to
class on the exam day. None will be
provided.
POLITICS: the public decision-making process; process by which it
is decided who gets what, when, where and how.
Involves conflict resolution in key areas, such as
scarce resources, beliefs, and social goals.
GOVERNMENT: The institution(s) that help to facilitate the
political process; institutions providing order and unity amongst a group of
people organized into a civil society
AUTHORITY: the ability to compel obedience and to punish
non-compliance to certain rules and regulations or laws. Without authority, there can be no real
government and thus no real social order.
LEGITIMACY: the status of the government in the eyes of the
people. Stronger, more legitimate
governments find their strength and status in the fact that their power or
authority is derived from the people directly; weaker, less legitimate
governments usually rely on fear and intimidation to compel adherence to their
causes and have little or no connection to the people.
SOCIAL CONTRACT: Agreement
made by those emerging out of the state of nature, whereby the executive power
belonging rightfully to each individual is transferred to the agreed-upon
regime of the new civil society/body politic
BODY POLITIC/CIVIL SOCIETY: the state into which people move from
their previous existence in the state of nature. Those entering a civil society must
unanimously consent to do so; once done, there is no returning to the state of
nature for anyone; what is left is to establish a regime by majority vote
STATE OF NATURE: prehistoric, unspecified period in which each
individual is fully in possession of all of his or her natural rights (life,
liberty, property) as well as his/her personal executive (enforcement) power.
Thus, in the state of nature, each person serves as his or her own judge, jury
and executioner, which contributes to injustices being inflicted and incurred routinely.
NATURAL LAW: the moral/ethical law that governs the state of
nature; it lacks enforcement powers and must depend on either individuals (in
the state of nature) or the regime (in civil society) to be enforced. It is known by inductive reasoning from
empirical data.
NATURAL RIGHTS: these are inalienable (they cannot be surrendered
by anyone to anyone else) and include life, liberty, and property. They are protected by the natural law in the
state of nature, but are made more secure by the regime of a civil society.
COMMON GOOD: That which is good for everyone as it pertains to each
individual’s association with one another.
In other words, everyone must benefit if the common good is to be served . It is not simple majority rule or utilitarianism. Also known as “PUBLIC GOOD”
MONARCHY: rule of one individual for the common good. The best
possible regime (on paper) according to Aristotle, but least stable
ARISTOCRACY: rule of the wealthy for the common good. The second best possible
regime (on paper) according to Aristotle, but still not very stable.
POLITY: a mixed regime resulting in the rule of the middle class
for the common good. The least of the
possible good regimes (on paper) according to Aristotle, but the most stable.
TYRANNY: corruption of a monarchy, rule by one for his/her own
self-interest. The very worst regime according to Aristotle.
OLIGARCHY: corruption of an aristocracy; rule by the wealthy for
their own self-interest.
DEMOCRACY: corruption of a polity; rule by the mob (the poor) for their own
self-interest. The
best of the bad regimes according to Aristotle.
REPUBLIC: a government without a king in which the sovereignty lies
with a body of eligible citizens who elect representatives to make political
decisions for them (as well as for everyone outside the body of eligible
citizens); this is the regime type that we have in the United States and each
of the 50 separate states, but it is also the regime type of Saddam Hussein’s
Iraq.
FEDERALIST #10: Madison’s argument that factions (especially
majority factions) are mortal diseases for republics and thus we must either
remove the causes (destroy liberty or make everyone think alike) or control the
effects (through creating a republican government for a large territory in
order to prevent majorities from forming or at least from acting in
concert. Creation of more diversity is
crucial to preventing majority factions from forming, as well).
FEDERALIST #51: Madison’s argument for the separation of powers
into three branches (legislative, executive, and judicial) with the legislative
branch the most powerful and in need of further bifurcation (into House and
Senate). Also create a federal system of
government to further avoid concentrating power into too few hands. “If men were angels,” there would be no need
of government…”If angels were to govern men,” there would be no need of
internal constraints…But men govern men, so “ambition must be made to
counteract ambition,” and we must first enable a government to “control the
governed” and then “oblige it to control itself,” because there is a lack of
virtue within human nature and thus within government
SOVEREIGNTY: the ultimate, final authority. In the United States, we operate on a
principle of popular sovereignty (the people are the final authority); under
the Articles of Confederation, the states were sovereign.
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION: The first written
constitution of the United States of America (1781-1789); created a weak
central government with no executive or judicial powers, and only a limited
legislative power.
Retained principle of state sovereignty; Congress could not pass binding
laws, had to rely on the states to carry out the orders in all major areas of
governing.
PASSION: most dangerous and most common motive of
human action; irrational, unthinking, and merely reacting to the
situation at hand, passion cannot be reasoned with.
INTEREST: motive of human action based upon rational, calculated
determination of what is best for one’s own personal gain. Interested people can be reasoned with, therefore, interest is not as dangerous a motive as
passion.
VIRTUE: best motive for human action, involves selflessness and
willingness to put the common good above one’s own gain. Limited quantities of virtue exist, and the
government therefore must be structured in such a way as to draw upon the
resources of virtue that are available (see Federalist #10 for argument for
such government structure)
FEDERALISM: system of government that divides the powers of
government among two or more levels, with some powers reserved to the lower
levels, some expressly delegated to the higher level, and some shared between
the levels
BLOCK GRANTS: Grants-in-aid given to the states as chunks of money
with a broad range of possibilities for which they may be spent—states given
wide discretion over the expenditures of federal money
CATEGORICAL GRANTS: Grants-in-aid given to the states as chunks of
money with a specified purpose for which it may be spent—state hands are bound
by the federal government’s directive in spending the money on a specific object
FORMULA GRANTS:
Grants-in-aid distributed to the states on the basis of some
mathematical formula—more evenly spreads money across the population
PROJECT GRANTS: Grants-in-aid distributed to the states on the
basis of (more or less) equal funding—distributes money evenly across the
states qua states
CROSS-CUTTING REQUIREMENTS: federal
requirement in one area carries over to another area of funding (application of
existing standards) for state purposes
CROSS-OVER SANCTIONS: federal government
puts specific conditions on federal money (sets new standards) for state
spending
STATES’ RIGHTS: Doctrine that the states
must retain their basic sovereignty and the national government be limited solely to matters that cannot be handled
adequately by the states’ governments
IMPLIED POWERS: unspecified powers of the
national government that are nevertheless reasonable extensions of the basic
powers granted to the government by the Constitution. Doctrine is first articulated in McCullough
v. Maryland (1819)
POLICE POWERS: Powers reserved to the
states to regulate public safety, public health, public welfare and public
morality—any and all basic powers of government could be squeezed into this
broad category, with exceptions, perhaps, of foreign relations, interstate
trade, and national security
CONCURRENT POWERS: powers shared between
the national and state governments, e.g., taxation, chartering banks, defining
certain crimes, providing for education, etc.
ENUMERATED
POWERS/DELEGATED POWERS: powers belonging exclusively to the national
government, e.g., foreign relations, regulating interstate commerce and
international trade, national security measures, bankruptcy, copyrighting, etc.
ADVANTAGES OF FEDERALISM: multiple venues
for citizen participation and redress of grievances, room for experimentation,
flexibility in problem solving, checks on national government powers
DISADVANTAGES OF FEDERALISM: confusion
over who is responsible for which areas of government, neglect of minorities,
reduction in accountability, lack of coordination of government efforts, state
competition, etc.
FACTION: a group (majority or
minority) of individuals, motivated out of passion or interest, seeking to gain
control of the government for their own purposes; a deadly disease for
republics, especially if the faction is a majority
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY: doctrine
that the people are the final word in all government matters; the Constitution
is predicated on the doctrine of popular sovereignty, as exemplified in the
first three words of the Preamble, “We the People…”
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH: Congress,
the lawmaking body; represents the people and the states as the people and the
states; elected by the people directly and thus directly connected to the
people
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: President
and Bureaucracy, the enforcement body; represents the national interest;
elected by the Electoral College, indirectly connected to the people
JUDICIAL BRANCH: the Courts;
the interpretive body; represents the Constitution or rule of law; appointed by
president and confirmed by the Senate, no direct connection to the people
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE:
Document written and adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776 to explain the
reasons for the Revolution against Great Britain; assumes the virtue of the
common people (a spirit translated later into the Articles of Confederation)
and their innate ability to govern themselves without many constraints
NO TAXATION WITHOUT
REPRESENTATION: The battle cry of the Revolution; essentially an argument for
the preservation of personal choice over the use of personal private property
THE CONSTITUTION: Governing
document of the United States of America; written to correct the essential
flaws of the Articles of Confederation; creates a strong legislative, executive
and judicial power for a unified nation under a republican federal system of
government; expands national government powers and gives it authority to enact
and enforce certain decisions
FEDERAL SYSTEM: system of
government in which power is shared between two or more layers of government,
as in the United States where power is shared between the central national
government in Washington, DC, and the several state governments and their local
governments
REGIME: A society’s government; according to Locke, a
regime may be changed or abolished by the decision of the majority.
PRE-EMPTION: national
government’s power to trump the enforcement of a state law dealing with a
similar subject
NULLIFICATION: 19th
century doctrine, common in the South, that the states have a right to refuse
to comply with or enforce federal laws within their territories that they
believe to be unconstitutional
AMENDMENT X: last amendment in
the Bill of Rights, grants reserved powers to the states—all powers not expressly
delegated to the United States nor prohibited to the States are reserved to the
States or to the people, respectively
FEDERALISTS: Supporters of
the new Constitution, generally nationalist in outlook and desiring a greater
strength of union amongst the several states
ANTI-FEDERALISTS: Opponents
of the new Constitution, generally states’ righters
in viewpoint and desiring to retain stronger sense of state sovereignty as it
was under the Articles of Confederation
CHECKS AND BALANCES: Internal
control mechanisms that limit the exercise and abuse of government powers—Know the main checks each branch has against each