CHAPTER 2 TEST STUDY GUIDE—The Constitution
AP US GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Mr. Baysdell
70 questions/ 52.5 minutes plus Extra-Credit questions
 Be able to compare the American Revolution and the French Revolution. They had different goals. The primary goal of the American Revolution was liberty, but the French
Revolution also emphasized equality.
 Know about the Russian and Chinese revolutions. The American revolution, like these two was a violent revolution. All 3 were also “people’s revolutions.” Only the American
Revolution, however, had liberty as its goal.
 One of the biggest reasons for the split from Great Britain was that the colonists wanted freedom from taxation without representation. Know the different types of representation: actual and virtual and how the Americans and the British defined representation.
 Know about the following events:
 Marshall Plan—aided Europe, helped Europe rebuild after World War II
 Iran-Contra Scandal: Ploy to sell weapons and smuggle profits to Contras in Nicaragua to help them defeat the Sandanistas.
 The theory of natural law provided the basis for the colonists’ justification of the liberties they sought through revolution.
“The pursuit of happiness” is generally interpreted to mean “property.” 
 Life, liberty, and property were viewed by the colonists as rights that stemmed from God.
 The American Revolution had some underlying ideas: o Human liberties are more important than government o Written constitutions are necessary o The legislature must be supreme over the executive
 The Declaration of Independence was essentially a lawyer’s brief that justified a revolution. It was not innovative (it stole from Locke) and it was written by Thomas
Jefferson.
 The Constitution was signed in 1787 and ratified in 1788. It took effect in 1789.
 The “Critical Period” between 1776 and 1787 was a time of fear and uncertainty.
 John Dickinson wrote the original draft of the Articles of Confederation.
 If the Articles of Confederation were still in effect today, most environmental and
 consumer safety issues would be handled by the individual states.
Under the Articles, the states delegated military power to the central government. It also gave diplomatic power and postal power to the central government, but that was about it.
 The purpose of the 1787 Convention was to revise the Articles, not to write a whole new
Constitution.
 James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton were responsible for writing
. They were aimed mainly at New York, and to a lesser extent, Virginia.
 The most democratic state government in the 1780s was that of Pennsylvania.
 Shays’s Rebellion strongly encouraged delegates to come to the 1787 convention because they wee fearful that state governments might collapse.

 Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were both absent from the Constitutional
Convention. Prominent leaders at the Convention were Hamilton, Hancock, Franklin,
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John Adams, and James Madison.
Under the Virginia Plan, the state legislature would have had the power to veto state laws.
 Know the differences between the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan and what kind of states supported each.
 Be able to explain the Connecticut Compromise, a.k.a. “the Great Compromise”
 What was the significance of the Great Compromise?
 Know the other compromises settled at the Constitutional Convention: Commerce and
Slave Trade, 3/5ths Compromise. Be able to explain these.
 The goal of the Framers was to create a representative republic, not a pure democracy
 The power of the people to rule as a majority was limited by the Constitution by making the amendment of the Constitution very difficult.
 The Supreme Court’s power of judicial review also places limits on democracy—some
 laws cannot be passed.
Know the difference between federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances.
 Separation of powers and federalism each involve a system of checks and balances.
 Ratification of the Constitution took place not by state legislatures, but by special
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 conventions elected by the people. As a result, some people claim the Constitution was never properly ratified. They’re a little sick in the head.
 Anti-Federalists opposed strong, centralized government
Most of the fears of Anti-Federalists have been realized over the past 200 years.
Know the following terms: Ex post facto law, habeas corpus, judicial review, bill of attainder
 Madison was a centralist and would disagree with any mention of devolution of power.
 Madison argued that liberty was safer in large republics rather than small ones.
 Many of the Framers thought a Bill of Rights was unnecessary because they had already limited the power of government, and the state constitutions all had bills of rights.
The Bill of Rights was originally intended only to limit the power of the federal  government.
 3/5 of all slaves were counted for apportionment purposes.
 All revenue bills must start in the House of Representatives.
 States were very mixed on the issue of slavery at the Constitutional convention
Southern support was essential to the success of the Constitution, so slavery was largely 
 left out of the document.
Until 1808, the national government could not ban the slave trade. It did, however, place a tax on the head of every slave that entered this country from 1788-1808. The slave trade was banned in 1808.
 Most framers acted out of a mixture of motives, with economic interests playing only a modest role.
 Charles Beard concluded that the main economic interest present at the time of the
Constitutional Convention was the group of people holding government IOUs
 Some critics of separation of powers argue that the President has to share his authority over the bureaucracy with many strong members of Congress.
 If the U.S. Constitution was modified to be more like the British Constitution, separation of powers would be a thing of the past.
 Know all 4 methods of amending the Constitution and know which method has been used most frequently.
 Know which amendments never passed (see notes)
 Who would more likely support a balanced budget, a conservative or a liberal?
 Be able to explain the line-item veto, when it passed, and why it no longer exists.

 During the last 10 years before the American Revolution, most Americans still agreed that their rights could be protected by staying within the British Empire.
 Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government had no real problem with
 national defense.
Know the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
 In a federal system, political power is divided between the central government and local/regional governments
 Know Madison’s arguments from Federalist #10 and #51.
 No person 18 or older can be denied the right to vote based on age.
Know Madison’s arguments from Federalist #46 and #47. 
 Be able to cite examples of checks and balances in the Constitution. Confirmation of appointees, vetoing bills, declaring laws unconstitutional—all of these are checks and balances.
 Roche argues that the constitution was produced democratically, and that the framers had limited self-interest in mind.
 Tribe and Dorf argue that the Constitution is a “living document” that must be read keeping with today’s times.
 Know what powers are denied to Congress and the Civil Liberties detailed in the Bill of
Rights (boy, you better know those amendments)
 Most delegates to the Constitutional Convention felt that only white male property owners should have the right to vote.
 The Connecticut Compromise created a bicameral legislature.
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Know how the Electoral College functions, who it elects, and why it was instituted.
Know that unitary systems can be democratic or not.
 Know what a concurrent power is and be able to name a few.
 John Roche described the founding fathers as practical politicians that strove the accommodate state and national interests
 According to Roche, the delegations to the Constitutional Convention were dominated by
NATIONALISTS—favored strong central government
Roche argues that the Virginia Plan provided for an essentially unitary form of  government
 Roche thought that federalism reflected a necessary COMPROMISE to gain state support for a national government
 Charles Beard’s thesis was that the framers of the Constitution represented the propertied class, were highly talented, and opposed majority rule. The Constitution was adopted to guarantee the payment of debt.
 According to Charles Beard, the revolutionaries and radicals were not men of property interests
 According to beard, under the State Constitutions and Articles of Confederation, every economic class in the nation suffered losses
 Beard sees the separation of powers in the Constitution to curb popular majorities and protect rich, property interests
 In Federalists 47, 48, and 51, Madison argued for a strong government, but with limits.
He defined the concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial power as tyranny.
 Madison felt that men were not angels and had to be politically limited
 According to Madison, the legislature was the branch of government to be most feared— hence the remedy to divide it in two.
 Madison argued that the separation of powers could only be maintained if the powers of the 3 branches of government overlapped.
From its creation, the Constitution was perceived as the document that sought to strike a  delicate balance between individual liberty and government power.
 The intent of the Framers is not clear in many parts of the Constitution
 The text of the Constitution leaves much room to the imagination.

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