Notes

1. A republic is an indirect form of democracy, placing political decision making at least one step away from the people.

2. The federal system of government is largely an American invention.

3. The power to carry out, enforce, and administer the law is known as executive power.

4. Thomas Jefferson argued in the Declaration of Independence that, if a government disregards the will of the people, the people are free to change their government.

5. The Great Compromise was acceptable to the smaller states because States would be represented equally in the Senate.

6. According to the Three-Fifths Compromise, three-fifths of a state’s slave population would be counted when determining representation in Congress.

7. The Antifederalists believed the Constitution lacked individual rights.

8. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers in defense of the new Constitution.

9. The first ten amendments to the constitution are traditionally called the Bill of Rights.

10. The main purpose of the Bill of Rights is to protect individual freedoms.

11. The Civil War amendments had little effect in the South until 1965 because Southern states passed Jim Crow laws immediately after Reconstruction ended.

12. The Supreme Court has the ultimate authority to decide whether or not a federal law or action is constitutional.

13. The 1803 landmark Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison established the principle of Judicial Review.

14. The Cabinet is a group of executive department heads who advise the president.

15. Under the Constitution, the electoral college holds the actual power to elect the president.

16. The Preamble of the Constitution states the goals for the new government.

17. When the president vetoes a law passed by Congress, the president is applying the principle of checks and balances.

18. The Framers established the principle of federalism because they wanted distribution of state and national powers.

19. One reason the Constitution has endured for more than two hundred years is because changing ideas of liberty can be incorporated by amendments.

20. Because laws that fund government must begin in the House of Representatives, it is said that the House of Representatives has “significant power of the purse.”

21. Federalism can be described as different levels of government sharing authority over the same land and people.

22. Controlling public school systems is one example of a power reserved to the states.

23. Laws made by the will of the people come through the Congress, the elected representatives of the people.

24. The term constituents refers to people who are represented by a particular member of Congress.

25. The implied power to create Social Security is based on the expressed power to make all laws necessary and proper.

26. The practice of drawing district boundaries to the political advantage of the party in power is known as gerrymandering.

27. The Speaker of the House is the most powerful member of the House of Representatives.

28. When the president signs a bill, it becomes law.

29. If Congress disagrees with a president’s veto of a bill, Congress has the power to override it.

30. As our nation’s foreign policy leader, our president seeks to improve relations with other countries.

31. In the electoral college that chooses the president, each state gets one vote for every member of Congress.

32. The power of the presidency has increased significantly over time.

33. Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the maximum length of time a president can commit troops to military action without Congress’s approval is 90 days.

34. A bureaucracy is any organization, either in government or the private sector, which has a clear, formal structure, a division of labor, and operates under a set of rules and procedures.

35. The regulations set by an independent regulatory commission have the force of law.

36. The term precedent refers to previous court rulings.

37. The Framers thought that making federal judgeships permanent would help ensure judicial independence.

38. A majority opinion is one that is signed by at least five members of the Supreme Court.

39. The source of news that has grown the most since the year 2000 is getting news online.

40. One example of political socialization is that most people acquire their political views from their parents.

41. Civil liberties are basic freedoms to think and to act that are protected and that all people have.

42. Freedom of speech can be limited whenever it is likely to lead to immediate lawless action.

43. Before the Civil War, civil rights were denied to enslaved African Americans on the grounds that they were constitutionally viewed as mere property.

44. A major purpose of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments was to protect the civil rights of former slaves.

45. Checking a candidate’s Web site is among the best ways for a voter to learn a candidate’s detailed stand on a political issue.

46. A political action committee can be described as an organization that donates money to candidates and political parties.

47. Tapping a person’s telephone line might be considered a search under the Fourth Amendment.

48. The President is the foreign policy leader of the United States.

49. The most common form of an authoritarian government is a dictatorship.

50. The Florida Constitution requires that the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, chief financial officer, and commissioner of agriculture all be elected into office.