AP Government Review Project
BY: JANE BUTTARAZZI
Federalism vs. Antifederalism
 The Federalists approved of
the Constitution saying:
 The separation of powers into
three separate branches
protected the rights of the
people through checks and
balances. None of the groups
would effectively be able to
assume control over another.
 Also said that a Bill of Rights
could be a dangerous thing
because they would not
effectively be able to list every
rights, therefore they could
still violate the ones they left
out.
 Did not want to ratify the
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


Constitution saying that:
It gave too much power to the
national government at the
expense of the states.
There was no Bill of Rights
yet.
Congress would wield too
much power due to the
necessary and proper clause.
The executive branch had too
much power, mirroring the
King of England too much.
Federalist Papers
 The federalist papers are a series of 85 articles that
promoted the ratification of the United States
Constitution.
 Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially
in The Independent Journal and The New York
Packet between October 1787 and August 1788.
 James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay
were the authors of these papers, but it was kept a
secret from the public at the time.
Limited Government
 Limited government is a precept of Constitutionalism.
It simply states that the government has restrictions on
its power over the citizens.
 Limited government can range from large centralized
to small decentralized government, as long as it lends
some kind of restrictions to the government.
 In a limited government, there exist minimal
governmental intervention in personal liberties and the
economy.
 A democracy is an example of Limited Government,
because it lends restrictions over each branch. The
power is said to come from the people.
Popular Sovereignty
 This is the principle that the power of the
government is upkept by the will of the people, who
are the source of all political power.
 It is closely associated with the philosophies of,
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
 It can also be simply described as, the voice of the
people.
Separation of Powers
 This is a political doctrine which was laid out in the
Constitution, explaining that there were to be three
separate branches of government with certain checks
over the other.
 The three branches created were: Judicial,
Legislative, and Executive. This attempted to keep
distinct order and prevent abuse of power from any
sector of government. Specifically, the executive
branch, because they were afraid of another English
monarchy situation.