Leila Albert
AP Questions
September, 20, 2009
1. It has been said “The Constitution reflects a basic distrust of direct popular
government.” Identify two features of the Constitution and explain how they
show distrust of popular government.
A feature that shows government distrust in popular government is the Electoral College.
What’s deceiving is that the United States citizens vote for a president, but the candidate
who wins by popular vote may not win the presidency. If all the power was truly in the
citizens hands that wouldn’t happen. In the end the states end up with the ultimate power.
Another feature is the appointment of judges. These judges get appointed for life. Their
term will never end, and they’ll never be up for a re- election. The majority does not
influence their job, which shows complete distrust of the popular government.
2. Identify and explain two arguments made by the Federalists and explain how the
Anti federalists would counter each argument.
A Federalist would make any argument that would be in favor and support of business.
They want a government who will have the power to tax. They believe taxing will help
provide things for the state like roads, bridges, anything that will go back into a business
favor. Anti Federalist aren’t fond of being taxed because, they don’t get the same
outcome out of it as merchants would get. The majority of the anti federalists are farmers,
and unskilled laborers. Their income isn’t that much so when they get taxed they’re
getting a large portion of their income token out, going into an organization that doesn’t
help them out in the long run. They obviously don’t care for business so why would they
want their money going into that.
A federalist wants a strong central government that is in complete control and everyone
follows. An Anti federalist would disagree and say that a government should protect the
people rights and should have a set of written rules to in force them. Anti federalist think
the Bill of Rights are necessary and a good approach to keeping the people happy.
Federalist don’t feel the need for it because they want the government to keep everything
inline and function well.