Kevin Beadle
Mr. Haskell
Per. 5
25 September 2007
Origins of the Constitution Study Guide
Chapter 1
1. government – Government is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies. It is made up of those people who exercise government’s powers, those who have authority and control over other people.
2. public policies – The public policies of a government are all of those things a government decides to do. Examples of public policies are imposing an income tax setting a minimum wage, maintaining large, combat-ready armed forces, and protection the environment.
3. the state – A body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically, and having the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority is the state. There are over 180 states in the world today, and they all vary greatly in size, military power, natural resources, economic importance, and in many other ways.
4. sovereign – Every state is sovereign. It has supreme and absolute power within its own territory. Each state can decide its own foreign and domestic policies.
5. population – The population of a state may be homogeneous, or composed of people who are much alike. It can also be heterogeneous, or made up of people of different races, languages, religions, and customs.
6. territory – A state must have a territory with known and recognized boundaries. The total area of the United States is 3,787,425 square miles.
7. Origins of the State – For centuries, historians, political scientists, philosophers, and others have pondered the question of the origin of the state. Many different answers have been offered, but history provides no conclusive evidence to support any of them. Four theories have emerged as the most widely accepted explanations: the Force Theory, the Evolutionary Theory, the Divine Right Theory, and the Social Contract Theory.
8. The Force Theory – This theory says that the people hold one person or group claimed control over an area and forced all within it to submit to that person’s or group’s rule. When that was established, all the basic elements of the state were present.
9. The Evolutionary Theory – This states that the primitive family, of which one person was the head and thus the “government,” was the first stage in political development. Over countless years the original family became a network of related families, or a clan. In time the clan became a tribe. When the tribe first turned to agriculture and gave up its nomadic ways, the state was born.
10. The Divine Right Theory – This held that the state was created by God and that God had given those of royal birth a “divine right” to rule. The people were bound to obey their ruler as they would God; opposition to the “divine right of kings” was both treason and mortal sin.
11. The Social Contract Theory – This theory states that no government existed, and no authority existed to protect the people. They overcame their unpleasant condition by agreeing with one another to create a state.
12. The Purpose of Government – The Constitution of the United States tells us the purpose of government. A government must form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.
13. To Form a More Perfect Union – The Articles of Confederation in 1781 did not provide for a firm or friendly atmosphere in the United States. The 1780s were marked by great rivalries and jealousies among the States. Therefore, the Constitution that was written in 1787 linked the American people more closely together, forming a more perfect union.
14. To Establish Justice – The law, in both its content and its administration, must be reasonable, fair, and impartial. The history of the United States can be told largely in terms of our continuing attempts to reach the goal of equal justice for all.
15. To Insure Domestic Tranquility – Order is essential to the well-being of any society, and keeping the peace at home has always been a prime function of government. Without law and order, people would be living in a state of anarchy.
16. To Provide for the Common Defense – Defending the nation against foreign enemies has always been one of government’s major responsibilities. Defense is mentioned far more often in the Constitution than any of the other functions of the government it created.
17. To Promote the General Welfare – The government must act as the servant to its citizens. Examples of this are public schools and efforts to protect the quality of air, water, and food. The services that government provides in the United States are those that benefit all or most people and are not likely to be provided by the voluntary acts of private individuals or groups.
18. To Secure the blessings of Liberty – This nation was founded by those who loved liberty and prized it above all earthly possessions. The American dedication to freedom for the individual recognizes that liberty cannot be absolute. But the Federal Constitution and the State constitutions set out many guarantees of rights and liberties for the individual in this country.
19. Classifying Governments – No two governments are, or ever have been, exactly alike, for governments are the products of human needs and experiences. All governments can be classified based on the geographic distribution of governmental power within the state, the relationship between the legislative and the executive branches of the government, and the number of persons who can take part in the governing process.
20. Geographic Distribution of Power – In every system of government the power to govern is located in one or more places, geographically. From this standpoint, three basic forms of government exist: unitary, federal, and confederate.
21. Unitary Government – A unitary government is often described as a centralized government. It is a government in which al powers held by the government belong to a single, central agency.
22. Federal Government – A federal government is one in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments. In the United States, for example, the National Government has certain powers and the 50 states have others.
23. Confederate Government – A confederate government is an alliance of independent states. A central government has the power to handle only those maters that the member states have assigned to it.
24. Relationship Between Legislative and Executive Branches – The relationship between legislative and executive branches of government yields two basic forms of government. These are called presidential governments and parliamentary governments.
25. Presidential Government – A presidential government features a separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of the government. The two branches are independent of one another and coequal.
26. Parliamentary Government – In a parliamentary government, the executive is made up of the prime minister or premier and that official’s cabinet. They themselves are members of the legislative branch, the parliament. The prime minister is the leader of the majority party or of a coalition of parties in parliament and is chosen by that body.
27. The Number Who Can participate – Classifying governments based on how many people can participate yields two forms of government. These are called dictatorships and democracies.
28. Dictatorship – A dictatorship exists where those who rule cannot be held responsible to the will of the people. The government is not accountable for its policies, nor for the ways in which they are carried out. All dictatorships are governmental systems in which those in power hold absolute and unchallengeable authority over the people.
29. Democracy – In a democracy, supreme political authority rests with the people. The people hold the sovereign power, and government is conducted only by and with the consent of the people.
30. Direct Democracy – A direct democracy exists where the will of the people is translated into public policy directly by the people themselves, in mass meetings. It does not exist at the national level anywhere in the world today.
31. Representative Democracy – In a representative democracy, a small group of persons chosen by the people to act as their representatives expresses the popular will. These agents of the people are responsible for carrying out the day-to-day conduct of government and are held accountable to the people for that conduct.
32. The Foundation of Democracy – Democracy exists in the United States because the American people believe in its basic concepts. It will continue to exist only for as long as we, the people, continue to subscribe to those concepts.
33. Fundamental Worth of the Individual – Democracy is firmly based upon a belief in the fundamental importance of the individual. Each individual, no matter what his or her station in life, is a separate and distinct being. Democracy insists that each person’s worth and dignity must be recognized and respected by all other individuals, and by society, at all times.
34. Equality of all Persons – Democracy stresses the equality of all individuals. The democratic concept of equality insists that all are entitled to equality of opportunity and equality before the law. Therefore, it holds that no person should be held back for any arbitrary reasons as those based on race, color, religion, or gender.
35. Majority Rule and Minority Rights – In a democracy, it is the will of the people and not the dictate of the ruling few that determines public policy. The majority will rule, but at the same time the minority must be heard because they are sometimes in the right.
36. Necessity of Compromise – In a democracy, public decision-making must be largely a matter of give-and-take among the various competing interests. It is a matter of compromise, the process of blending and adjusting, or reconciling competing views and interests, in order to find the position most acceptable to the largest number.
37. Individual Freedom – Democracy insists that each individual must be as free to do as he or she pleases as far as the freedom of all will allow. Therefore, laws are put in place to protect the safety and freedoms of other citizens.
38. anarchy – Absolute freedom can exist only in a state of anarchy, or the total absence of government. Anarchy can only lead, inevitably and quickly, to rule by the strong and ruthless. If human beings were angels they could live in a state of anarchy without a problem.
Chapter 2
1. Basic Concepts of Government – The first English settlers brought with them concepts of a political system, including established laws, customs, and practices, that had been developing for centuries. Most importantly, they brought three ideas that eventually were big in shaping American government: ordered government, limited government, and representative government.
2. Ordered Government – The colonists recognized the need for an orderly regulation for their government to keep the people safe and secure. They created local governments and established offices of the sheriff, coroner, assessor, justice of the place, the grand jury, counties, townships, and several others.
3. Limited Government with respect to England and the Magna Carta 1215 – The concept of limited government, or belief that a government should not be all-powerful, was deeply rooted in English belief and practice by the time the colonists reached America. The signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 was an earlier example of limited government.
4. Representative Government – Representative government is the idea that government should serve the will of the people. This concept had also been developing in England for centuries and has flourished in the United States.
5. Magna Carta – King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 due to his military campaigns and heavy taxes. The Magna Carta included rights such as trial by jury and due process of law, or protection against life, liberty, and property. The document established the principle that the power of the monarchy was not absolute.
6. The Petition of Right – The Petition of Right, an idea of the British Parliament in 1628, limited the king’s power by demanding that the king not imprison political critics without trial by jury; not declare martial law, or rule by the military, during peacetime; nor require people to shelter troops without the homeowner’s consent. The Petition challenged the idea of divine right and said that monarchs must obey the laws of the land.
7. The Bill of Rights – A Bill of Rights is a list of rights that all citizens of a nation are given. British Parliament drew up a Bill of Rights in 1689 to prevent abuse of power by the current king and queen: William and Mary of Orange.
8. English Bill of Rights – The English Bill of Rights prohibited a standing army in peacetime, except with the consent of Parliament, and required that all parliamentary elections be free. It also included such guarantees as the right to a fair and speedy trial, and freedom from excessive bail and from cruel and unusual punishment. Much in American government and politics today is based on the ideas of the English Bill of Rights.
9. John Locke (natural rights) – English philosopher John Locke argued that life, liberty, and property were natural rights rather than privileges. His beliefs were a strong influence on 18th-century America.
10. Government in the Colonies – The colonies were the settings in which Americans first began to learn the difficult art of government. The 13 colonies were established separately over a span of 125 years. During that time, outlying trading posts and isolated farm settlements developed into organized communities.
11. charter – Each colony was established on the basis of a charter, a written grant of authority from the king. Over time, these instruments of government led to the establishment of three different kinds of colonies: royal, proprietary, and charter.
12. Royal Colonies – Royal colonies were subject to the direct control of the Crown. In these colonies, the king named a governor to serve as the colony’s chief executive. A council, also named by the king, served as an advisory body to the royal governor. In time, the governor’s council became the upper house of the colonial legislature.
13. bicameral – Bicameral means made up of two houses. In the royal colonies, the lower house of a bicameral legislature was elected by those property owners qualified to vote.
14. The Proprietary Colonies – A proprietor was a person top whom the king had made a grant of land. By charter, that land could be settled and governed as much as the proprietor chose. The governments of the proprietary colonies were much like the ones of the royal colonies, except the governor was appointed by the proprietor.
15. unicameral – Unicameral means made up of one house. In Pennsylvania, the legislature was a unicameral body. There, the governor’s council did not act as one house of the legislature.
16. The Charter Colonies – Charter colonies were ones based on charters granted to the colonists themselves. The only two charter colonies were Rhode Island and Connecticut. The governors of these two colonies were elected each year by the white, male property owners in each colony.
17. Royal Control – The thirteen colonies were separately controlled under the king, largely through the Privy Council and the Board of Trade in London. Due to the large distance between the colonies and London, colonists became used to a large measure of self-government. However, once King George III became King of England, royal control began to go up.
18. Growing Colonial Unity – Long before the 1770s, several attempts had been made to promote cooperation among the colonies. It wasn’t until the signing of the Declaration of Independence that all thirteen colonists were completely unified.
19. Early Attempts – In 1643 the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut settlements formed the New England Confederation for defense against the Native Americans. The confederation lost importance when the danger of Native Americans passed in 1696.
20. The Albany Plan – In 1754 the British Board of Trade called a meeting of seven of the northern colonies at Albany. The main purpose was to discuss the problems of colonial trade and the danger of attacks by the French and their Native American allies.
21. Albany Plan of Union (Ben Franklin Factor) – At the meeting in Albany, Benjamin Franklin offered what came to be known as the Albany Plan of Union. He proposed the formation of an annual congress of delegates from each of the 13 colonies. That body would have the power to raise military and naval forces, make war and peace with the Native Americans, regulate trade with them, levy taxes, and collect customs duties.
22. The Stamp Act Congress – In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This required the use of tax stamps on all legal documents, on certain business agreements, and on newspapers. The new taxes were widely denounced by all colonists. British goods were boycotted, leading to the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party.
23. The First Continental Congress – Fifty-five delegates, from every colony except Georgia, met in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. For nearly two months, the members of this First Continental Congress discussed the worsening situation and debated plans for action.
24. The Second Continental Congress – The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775 because the British government refused to compromise. The congress became the nation’s first government. It exercised both legislative and executive powers.
25. The Declaration of Independence – On June 7, 1776, Congress named a committee of five to prepare a proclamation of independence. Their product, the Declaration of Independence, was almost wholly the work of Thomas Jefferson. It announces the independence of the United States in its first paragraph. It also speaks of the injustices of King George III.
26. The First State Governments – In January 1776, New Hampshire adopted a constitution to replace its royal charter. Les than three months later, South Carolina followed suit. Then, on May 10, the Congress urged each of the colonies to adopt.
27. Written Constitutions (in states) – In 1776 and 1777, most of the States adopted written constitutions, or bodies of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of their governments. Assemblies or conventions were commonly used to draft and then adopt these new documents.
28. Common Features of New States – The first state constitutions differed, sometimes widely, in detail. Yet they shared many common features: popular sovereignty, limited government, civil rights and liberties, and separation of powers and checks and balances.
29. Popular Sovereignty – Each of the new constitutions was based o the principle of popular sovereignty. This principle insists that government can exist and function only with the consent of the governed. It is the people who hold power; it is the people who are sovereign.
30. Limited Government – The concept of limited government was a major feature of each document. The powers delegated to government were at best reluctantly granted and hedged with many restrictions.
31. Civil Rights and Liberties – Seven of the new documents contained a bill of rights, setting out the “unalienable” held by the people. In every State it was made clear that the sovereign people held certain rights that government must at all times respect.
32. Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances – The powers granted to the new State governments were purposely divided among three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Each branch was given powers with which to check the other branches of government. Most of the authority that was granted to State government was placed in the legislature.
33. The First National Constitution – On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation was approved by Congress. It was created due to the need to unite all of the colonies and was considered over a period of seventeen months.
34. ratification – The Articles did not go into effect immediately because the ratification, or formal approval, of each of the 13 states was needed first. Eleven states ratified within the next year, Delaware ratified in 1779, and Maryland finally ratified in 1781. On March 1, 1781, the Articles finally became effective.
35. Articles of Confederation – The Articles of Confederation established “a firm league of friendship” among the states. Each State kept “its sovereignty, freedom, and independence” and the States came together “for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare.”
36. Governmental Structure – The government set up by the Articles was simple. A Congress was the sole body created, and it was unicameral, made up of delegates chosen yearly by the States in whatever way their legislatures might direct. Each State had one vote in the Congress, whether its population or wealth. There was no executive or judicial branch because these functions were to be handled by committees of the Congress.
37. Powers of Congress – Several important powers were given to Congress. It could make war and peace, send and receive ambassadors, make treaties, borrow money, set up a monetary system, build a navy, raise an army by asking the States for troops, fix uniform standards of weights and measures, and settle disputes among the States.
38. State Obligations – All states were obligated to obey the Articles and acts of the Congress, provide funds and troops requested by the Congress, treat citizens of other States fairly and equally with their own, give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State, surrender fugitives from justice to each other, submit their disputes to Congress for settlement, and allow open travel and trade between and among the States.
39. weaknesses – Several important factors were missing from the Articles. Firstly, the Congress did not have the power to tax and could raise money only by borrowing and by asking the States for funds, which was a poor source of finances. Secondly, the Congress did not have the power to regulate trade between the States. Additionally, Congress had no power to make the states obey the Articles of Confederation or the laws it made. Lastly, the Articles themselves could be changed only with the consent of all thirteen of the State legislatures, proving to be an impossible task and not one amendment was ever added to the Articles.
40. The Critical Period, the 1780's – After the Revolutionary War was over, the new nation’s economic and political problems came into sharp focus, and the weaknesses of the Articles soon surfaced. The States bickered among themselves and grew jealous and suspicious of each other. They taxed each other’s goods and even banned some trade. Economic chaos spread throughout the colonies. The Articles had not created a government to deal with the nation’s troubles, and the demand for change grew.
41. The Meetings at Mount Vernon and Annapolis – Maryland and Virginia took the first step in the movement for change by agreeing to a conference on their trade problems. Representatives from the two States met at Alexandria, Virginia, in March 1785. Their negotiations were successful, so the called a joint meeting at Annapolis, Maryland on September 11, 1786.
42. The Framers – The Framers were the group that came together in 1787 to form the Constitution. They were delegates sent from twelve of the thirteen States to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson called the delegates “an assembly of demigods.”
43. Framers (included who?) – The Framers included George Washington, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, George Mason, Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, James Wilson, Alexander Hamilton, William Paterson, Elbridge Gerry, Rufus King, Luther Martin, Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman, John Dickinson, John Rutledge, and Charles Pinckeny. They were men of wide knowledge and public experience, of wealth and prestige.
44. Organization and Procedure – The Framers met on May 25 in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and elected George Washington president of the convention. On May 28, they adopted several rules of procedure. The Framers met on 89 of the 116 days from May 25 through their final meeting on September 17.
45. The Decision to Write a New Constitution – Almost all of the delegates who met at the Philadelphia Convention were looking to create a new government for the United States. They decided to create a new constitution that would replace the Articles of Confederation.
46. The Virginia Plan – No state had more to do with the calling of the Philadelphia Convention than Virginia. On May 29, Edmund Randolph presented his Virginia Plan, which called for a new government with three separate branches: legislature, executive, and judicial.
47. Virginia Plan (3 branches govt.) – According to the Virginia Plan, the legislature would be bicameral and representatives of each house would be based on State population. Congress was to be given all of the powers it held under the Articles of Confederation as well as the rights to veto any State law in conflict with national law and to use force if necessary to make a State obey national law. The executive and judicial branches could veto acts of Congress, but a veto could be overridden by the two houses. The executive branch would have a “general authority to execute the national laws” and the judiciary would consist of the Supreme Court.
48. The New Jersey Plan – On June 15, William Paterson introduced his New Jersey Plan. This plan would have kept the unicameral Congress of the Confederation with each state equally represented. It also gave the Congress the right to tax and called for a federal executive of more than one person.
49. New Jersey Plan (plural Executive) – The plural executive would be chosen by Congress and could be removed by it at the request of a majority of the States’ governors. The federal judiciary would be composed of a single supreme tribunal, appointed by the executive.
50. The Connecticut Compromise – The Connecticut Compromise said that Congress should be composed of two houses. In the smaller Senate, the States would be represented equally. In the House, the representation of each State would be based upon its population.
51. The Three-Fifths Compromise – There was still the conflict of whether or not slaves should be equally represented as free citizens. The Three-Fifths Compromise dictated that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a free man.
52. The Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise – According to the Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise, Congress was forbidden the power to tax the export of goods from any State. It was also forbidden the power to act on the slave trade for a period of at least twenty years.
53. "A Bundle of Compromises" – The Constitution drafted Philadelphia has often been called a “bundle of compromises.” There were difference of opinion among the delegates, and bringing each State’s interests together did require compromise. However, the Framers all agreed on many of the basic issues they faced and all wanted a new central government.
54. Sources of the Constitution – The Framers were familiar with the origins of democracy in Ancient Greece and Rome. They also knew a lot about the governments of contemporary Britain and Europe and read many of the political writings of their time.
55. The Convention Completes Its Work – On September 8, a committee was named to revise and edit the Constitution. Finally, on September 17, 1787, the convention approved the Constitution and thirty-nine names were placed on the finished document.
56. Ratification – The Constitution was intended to replace the Articles of Confederation. The Framers realized a unanimous approval from the States on the new Constitution would be too difficult to achieve, so they decided that only nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify to establish the Constitution.
57. Federalists – The Federalists were the group that approved ratification of the Constitution. They were led by many of those who had attended the Philadelphia Convention. They stressed the weaknesses of the Articles and argued that many of the difficulties facing a Republic could be overcome by a new government based on the proposed Constitution.
58. Anti-Federalists – Anti-Federalists were the group that did not approve ratification of the Constitution. They attacked nearly every part of the new government, but two major features drew the heaviest fire. These were the greatly increased powers of the central government and the lack of a bill of rights. The Constitution in its current state did not provide for basic liberties such as freedom of speech, press, and religion, nor for the rights of fair trial.
59. Success (Federalists) – The contest for ratification was close in several States, but the Federalists finally won in all of them. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire brought the number of ratifying States to nine. Once Virginia and New York ratified, George Washington was elected President of the United States. On April 30, he took the oath of office.
60. Inauguration of the New Government – On September 13, 1788, the Congress of the Confederation paced the way for its successor. It made New York City the temporary capital. It set the first Wednesday in January as the date on which the States would choose presidential electors. The first Wednesday in February was set as the date on which those electors would vote, and the first Wednesday in March as the date for the inauguration of the new government.
Chapter 3
1. Popular Sovereignty – Popular sovereignty means that people the only source of governmental power. Government can only govern with the consent of the governed. In the United States, all political power belongs to the people.
2. Limited Government – The principle of limited government holds that government is not all-powerful, that it may do only those things that the people have given it the power to do. Therefore, the people are the only source of any and all of government’s authority, and government has only that authority the people have given it.
3. constitutionalism – The concept of limited government can be expressed another way: Government must obey the law. Stated this way, the principle is often called constitutionalism, which means the government must be conducted according to constitutional principles.
4. rule of law – Limited government is also described as the rule of law. This means that government and its officers are always subject to, and not above, the law.
5. separation of powers – The Constitution distributes the powers of the National Government among the Congress (the legislative branch), the President (the executive branch), and the courts (the judicial branch). This separation of powers id clearly set forth by the Constitution.
6. Checks and Balances – The three branches of government are not entirely separated nor completely independent of one another. They are tied together by a complex system of checks and balances. This means that each branch is subject to a number of constitutional checks, or restraints, by the other branches. In other words, each branch has certain powers with which it can check the operations and balance the power of the other two.
7. Judicial Review – As part of the system of checks and balances, the courts have the power of judicial review. This is the power to decided whether what government does is in accord with what the Constitution provides.
8. unconstitutional – More specifically, judicial review may be defined as the power of a court to determine the constitutionality of a governmental action. Therefore, the courts can declare a governmental action unconstitutional if it violates some provision in the Constitution.
9. Federalism (How did it come about?) – Federalism is the division of power among a central government and several regional governments. It came to the Constitution out of both experience and necessity. It was implemented in order to build a new, stronger, more effective National Government while preserving the existing States and the concept of local self-government.
10. amendment – The Framers new that even the wisest of constitution-makers cannot build for all time. Thus, the Constitution provides for its own amendment, or change in its written words.
11. formal amendment – Article V of the Constitution sets out two methods for the proposal and two methods for the ratification of constitutional amendments. There are four methods of formal amendment, or changes or additions that become part of the Constitution itself.
12. First Method – The first method for a formal amendment states that an amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress and be ratified by three-fourths of the State Legislatures. Twenty-six of the Constitution’s current twenty-seven amendments were adopted in this manner.
13. Second Method – An amendment may be proposed by Congress and then ratified by conventions, called for that purpose, in three-fourths of the States. Only the 21st Amendment, which repealed national prohibition, was adopted in this way.
14. Third Method – An amendment may be proposed by a national convention, called by Congress at the request of two-thirds of the State legislatures. It must then be ratified by three-fourths of the State legislatures. To date, Congress has not called such a convention.
15. Fourth Method – An amendment may be proposed by a national convention and ratified by conventions in three-fourths of the States. The Constitution itself was adopted in much this same way. To date, no amendments have been made in this method.
16. The 27 Amendments – Congress proposed all of the firth ten amendments in 1789. Many people had agreed to support the Constitution only on condition that a listing of the basic rights of the people be added to the document. All ten of these amendments were ratified by the States in 1791.
17. Bill of Rights – Collectively, the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. They set out the great constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and belief, of freedom and security of the person, and of fair and equal treatment before the law.
18. informal amendment – Informal amendment is the process by which many changes have been made in the Constitution that have not led to changes in the document’s written words. These informal amendments are the result of the day-to-day, year-to-year experiences of government under the Constitution.
19. Basic Legislation – Congress has been a major agent of informal amendment in two ways. First, it has passed many laws to spell out several of the Constitution’s brief provisions. Second, it has added to the Constitution by the war in which it has used many of its powers.
20. Executive Action – The manner in which different Presidents have used their powers has also produced a number of important informal amendments. For example, the Constitution states that only Congress can declare war, but it also makes the President the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.
21. executive agreement – Executive agreement is a pact made by the President directly with the head of a foreign state. They are as legally binding as treaties, but they are not approved by the Senate.
22. Court Decisions – Our nation’s courts interpret and apply the Constitution in many cases they hear. Informal amendment by the Court is known as constitutional interpretation.
23. Party Practices – The nation’s political parties have also been a major source of informal amendment over the course of American political history. The Constitution makes no mention of political parties, and most of the Framers were opposed to their growth. From the late 1830s on, the major parties have held national conventions for the nomination of candidates for the presidency, even though neither the Constitution nor any law provides for that.
24. Custom – Many customs have developed in our governmental system. For example, by custom, not because the Constitution says so, the heads of the fourteen executive departments make up the Cabinet, an advisory party of the President. Both the strength and the importance of unwritten customs can be seen in the reaction to the rare circumstances in which one of them has not been observed.