UNIT 1 AP TEXTBOOK GOV NOTES - Google Docs

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UNIT 1 AP TEXTBOOK GOV NOTES Title of Chapter Notes Ideals of Democracy 1.1 - Articles were weak because of insufficient structure to bind the states together revealing its weaknesses.= Nations 1st constitution (decentralized government) - Delegates met in 1787 in Philadelphia to draft the new constitution - New constitution= defined 3 branches of government, relations among states, national and state powers, and the process to amend the document. - Checks and balances= not one branch becoming too powerful - Amendment process= added Bill of Rights and 27 amendments - Constitution established federalism= divides power between state and national - states= jurisdiction over states, schools, marriages and divorces, criminal law enforcement, motor vehicle law. - The Declaration of Independence, applying the principles of Enlightenment philosophy, provided a foundation for a government in which the people with protected rights, not monarchs, were the true source of governmental power. - People could take over government if the government was treating them wrong= Enlightenment ideas. - Hobbes = give up rights as long as other people do and live in peace - Locke = because of natural law, people were born free and equal - Rousseau = popular sovereignty—the people as the ultimate ruling authority— and a government of officials to carry out the laws. (social contract) - Montesquieu = separation of powers: executive, legislative, and judicial branches. (Spirit of the laws) - Life, liberty and property= American Revolutionaries belief - Republic= citizens elect leaders for a limited period of time; the leaders’ job is to make and execute laws in the public interest. - The United States is a limited government —one kept under control by law, checks and balances, and separation of powers. - The Declaration of Independence drew from Locke and other Enlightenment philosophers, upholding popular sovereignty. It explained how abuses by the too powerful British Crown violated natural rights and self-rule, justified the colonists’ separation from Britain, and defined the newly independent states’ relationship. Following are key excerpts from the Declaration. - Treaty of Paris ended Revolutionary war - States sent representatives with experience in public affairs to help the 5 men create a constitution (all had enlightenment ideas) - Grand committee = The committee was made up of one delegate from each of the states represented at the convention. George Mason, William Paterson, and Benjamin Franklin were among those on the Grand Committee. The Grand Committee was instrumental in forging the compromises needed to work out the many conflicting interests as the new form of government took shape - People give consent= give up some rights for the betterment of the people - Congress as the legislative branch could tax, borrow money, and regulate commerce. The president would serve as commander in chief. The judicial branch included a Supreme Court and a plan to create lower courts. The Constitution also outlined a system to elect the president. - representative republic , a collection of sovereign states gathered for the

national interest, national needs, and national defense - To promote popular sovereignty, the framers required popular elections every two years for members of the House of Representatives, but those were the only popular elections they put in the original Constitution. State legislatures elected their senators until 1913. The state legislatures named their electors (done today by citizen voters), and then the Electoral College elects the president. Types of Democracy 1.2 - The constitution was adopted in 1788 - representative democracy—a government in which the people entrust elected officials to represent their concerns. - Participatory democracy= most people in society participate, not only in government life, but in public life (broad involvement of citizens in politics) - citizens vote directly for laws and other matters that affect them instead of voting for people to represent their interests. - Con: The larger the population, the more difficult it is to involve everyone in decision making in a timely manner. - Town hall meetings - Pluralist democracy= interest groups (factions) - Con: slow process for changing policy - Pro: allows many people to voice their interests, preventing wealthy and elite from grabbing power - House of Senate limit factions - Electoral college limit factions - elite democracy, elected representatives make decisions and act as trustees for the people who elected them - Elites dominate - Have educated and necessary skills to rule - Elite democracy are in all 3 branches - House of representatives- directly elected by the people and represent for 2 years - The Senate, originally elected by state legislators, was another step removed from the citizenry, still representative, but more elite. And several appointees in the federal government—Cabinet officials and judges, for example—are appointed, the latter for life. - Strong central government= elite democracy - representatives have the power to represent their constituents. In fact, in the original Constitution, elected members of the state legislatures elected their U.S. senators. They are now elected directly by the people. - Elected representatives serve at all levels of state and local governments, but states and the cities and towns that comprise them have the freedom to encourage widespread participation.= Participatory democracy - Representatives and senators from all regions of the country, representing a wide variety of views, negotiate agreements to pass laws. = Pluralism democracy - Federalists= John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton - proposed constitutional structure, a strong federal government, and full ratification - Federalists papers designed to sell ratification - Antifederalists= Robert Yates and William Lansing - opposed the consolidation of the states under a federal government - Brutus, which evoked images of the heroic Roman republican who killed

the tyrant Caesar. Brutus wrote 16 total essays, which in many ways paralleled the very detailed analysis of the Federalists from the other side. - State and local ballot initiatives= participatory - Referendum is where the people contest the legislature= participatory - Civil rights group (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Organization for Women (NOW), and economic interest groups that represent labor, such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO))= Pluralist - Elite government weakened after progressive era - People who are wealthier take more action in the government than the less privilege= Elite - Most politicians are wealthier= elite Government Power and Individual Rights 1.3 - Nine states needed to ratify the constitution for it to go into effect - Federalists argued that a strong national government and the diversity of America’s large population would protect the rights of all citizens from the elite and would protect the units of states from the collective whole. - Madison, in Federalist No. 10, addressed the concern that a few powerful individuals might unite into a faction, or interest group to dominate political decisions. - Antifederalists desired a federal government more like the confederation under the Articles. These Anti-Federalist concerns came from recent experience with an autocratic ruling country. Some feared the proposed single executive might replicate a monarchical king, potentially limiting state and individual rights. Congress’s power to tax, to control a standing army, and to do anything else it felt “necessary and proper” made the Anti-Federalists wary. The Anti-Federalists suspected foul play and pointed to the thick veil of secrecy in which designing men had conspired to draft the document.

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Challenges of the Articles of Confederation 1.4 - Articles of Confederation: - Each state wrote its own constitution, many of which were pointedly in response to the injustices the colonists had experienced under British rule. The state constitutions shared other features as well: they provided for different branches of government, they protected individual freedoms, and they affirmed that the ruling power came from the people. - Each state received one vote in the new Confederation Congress. - The Confederation Congress met in New York. States appointed delegations of up to seven men who voted as a unit. National legislation required the votes of at least nine states. A unanimous vote was required to alter or amend the Articles of Confederation themselves or to alter the format of government. - National government relied on states for taxes (government couldn’t pay for things) - Without taxes, the new government couldn’t pay foreign creditors and lost foreign nations’ faith and potential loans. - Tax plans kept failing - Shays Rebellion showed how there was no national safety Ratification of the U.S. Constitution 1.5 - 55 delegates= constitutional convention - Virginia Plan which called for a three-branch system with a national executive, a judiciary, and a bicameral—or two-house—legislature. The people would elect the lower house whose members would, in turn, elect the members of the upper house. This plan also made the national government supreme over the states and set clear limits for each of the branches. - New Jersey Plan assured states their sovereignty through a national government with limited and defined powers. This plan also had no national court system and

each state would have one vote in a legislative body. - Great Compromise - Senate= New Jersey Plan - House of Representatives= Virginia Plan - compromise= northern and southern delegates agreed to count only three of every five enslaved persons to determine representation in the House for those states with slaves. - The international slave trade couldn’t stop by congress until twenty years after ratification of the Constitution - Confederal system= a loose gathering of sovereign states for a common purpose - Commerce Compromise= agreement appealed to both sides by allowing the government to impose a tariff on imports but not exports. This compromise gave the federal government the ability to regulate trade between states, a power it lacked under the Articles. - Article I: define basic setup operations for congress - Article II: lays out the requirements to assume this office and the executive’s role. As Commander in Chief, the president oversees and manages the U.S. military. As head of state, the president receives foreign ambassadors and sends U.S. ambassadors abroad. - Article III:defines the judiciary. The framers mentioned only one actual court, the Supreme Court, but they empowered Congress to create inferior courts. The federal courts have jurisdiction over cases involving federal law, disputes between states, and concerns that involve government officials. The president appoints Supreme Court justices and other federal judges, with approval of the Senate. These judges serve “during good behavior,” which in practice means for life. - Article IV: defines relations among the states. It includes the full faith and credit clause that requires states to be open about their laws and encourages states to respect one another’s laws. - Article V: A two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress or a proposal from two-thirds of the states, followed by ratification from three-fourths of the states, is the process to amend the Constitution. - Article VI: to establish national supremacy. The supremacy clause quoted above makes certain that all states must adhere to the Constitution - Article VII: declared that the Constitution would go into effect when the ninth state convention approved it.

- - Yet instead of creating a democracy, the Constitution creates a representative republic that limits government and tempers hasty, even if popular, ideas. Under federalism, the national and state governments divide and share power as well, though the principle of national supremacy gives the federal government full authority within its defined sphere. The Constitution’s necessary and proper clause gave the government the flexibility to face unforeseen circumstances. - ratification= formal consent - Bill of Rights= secure liberties - Bill of Rights ratified in 1791 - - Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act ( U niting and S trengthening A merica by P roviding A ppropriate T ools R equired to I ntercept and O bstruct T errorism) after 9/11 - It allowed government agencies to share information about significant suspects, and it widened authority on tapping suspects’ phones. Government can now share grand jury testimony and proceedings, detain illegal immigrants for longer periods, and monitor email communications. The new bipartisan law passed with strong majorities in both houses. - Rights from the 14th amendment were now limited - Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which upheld certain portions of the USA PATRIOT Act but phased out bulk collection of phone and Internet data and set limits for its collection in certain circumstances. - After the Cold War the Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 - ensuring that lesser-funded schools received adequate resources

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- No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)= called for improvements in teaching methods, testing to measure progress, and sanctions for underperforming schools. To implement these changes, the federal government increased its role and level of oversight in education. - Race to the Top initiative offered incentives, rather than the sanctions of NCLB, for states to adopt new national standards or develop their own that require students to be college- and career-ready at graduation. - Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)= states are free to determine their own standards for educational achievement, while still upholding protections for disadvantaged students. However, the federal Department of Education must still approve each state’s plan, assuring that the states live up to the requirements in the federal law. Principles of American Government 1.6 - Legislative - Congress= 435 House representatives and 100 senators make the nation’s laws, determine how to fund government, and shape the nation’s foreign policy - stakeholders= people or groups who will be affected by the policies - pay professionals to lobby lawmakers—meet face-to-face with them and provide them with information and reasons to support or reject certain proposed legislation - Executive - The president and the cabinet - The Cabinet has grown to about 20 members, and the federal executive branch has more than 2.7 million employees to carry out the nation’s laws. - President George Washington had a four-person Cabinet and no more than a few hundred government employees. - Article II - People also have access to their government through the executive branch and its many agencies. Some agencies exist to protect citizens, who can file a complaint to assure enforcement of or fairness in the law. - Judicial - a series of lower appeals courts, and even more trial courts below them form the structure of the court system - The Supreme Court and lower courts have exercised judicial review to protect liberties and to properly initiate policy. Courts can use this power to check the legislature, the executive, or state actions. - Citizens use the federal courts to challenge unfair government action, to appeal wrongful convictions, and to question public policies. -

- the legislature makes the law, the executive branch enforces the law, and the judicial branch interprets the law. - legislature is the most representative branch and makes the public’s will become public policy. - A bill (a proposed law) can originate in either the House or Senate and must pass both bodies with a simple majority (50 percent plus 1). Then the bill is presented to the president, who may sign it into law if he agrees with the proposal. Or, exercising executive checks and balances, the president may reject it with a veto - After ten days (excluding Sundays) the president has not signed or vetoed, the bill becomes law. - The president receives the bill at the end of a legislative session, however, refusal to sign is known as a pocket veto and kills the bill. - Each house acting separately, can overcome the veto with a two-thirds override, a super majority vote in each house. - Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump= have been impeached - Impeachment = an accusation of wrongdoing - The house can impeach the president, a federal judge, or another official of wrongdoing. The Senate then holds a trial for the accused official. The Chief Justice presides as the judge at the trial. The Senate must vote by a two-thirds majority to find an official guilty and remove him or her. Relationship Between the States and Federal Government 1.7 - Federalism, the sharing of powers between the national government and state governments - supremacy clause, places national law, treaties, and presidential action - So unless federal actions or policies violate the Constitution, states cannot disregard federal law. - - Powers that are delegated only to the federal government are called exclusive powers. - States have police powers, or powers to create and enforce laws on health, safety, and morals. - Some powers are held by authorities at both levels, state and federal= concurrent powers - Federalism leaves schools, elections, and most law enforcement up to the states. - revenue sharing and fiscal federalism= Congress collects federal tax revenues and distributes these funds to the states to take care of particular national concerns - grants-in-aid programs= directing federal funds to states that qualify for aid and

withholding funds when they do not. (picked up during progressive era) - Grants with particular congressional guidelines or requirements are known as categorical grants. Categorical grants with strings, or conditions of aid, became the norm. In addition to the political benefits congressional members experience, grant recipients at the state and local levels enjoy categorical grants. Special interest groups could lobby Congress for funding their causes. State agencies, such as those that support state health care or road construction, depend on federal aid and appreciate these grants. Community groups and nonprofit agencies thrive on these as well. - Morrill Land-Grant Act= allowed Congress to parcel out large tracts of land to encourage states to build colleges - Block grants, which refers to federal money given to states for broadly defined reasons, differ from categorical grants in that they offer larger sums of money to the states without the strings of the categorical grants. - Congress passed two major block grants: the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 (CETA) and the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG) in 1974. - Federal Mandates= require states to comply with a federal directive, sometimes with the reward of funds and sometimes—in unfunded mandates—without. - Devolution= New Federalism is characterized by the return of power to states - Personal Responsibility Act= denied Congress the ability to issue unfunded mandates, laws that were taking up some 30 percent of state budgets - Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act= restructured the welfare system to return much authority and distribution of welfare dollars Constitutional Interpretations of Federalism 1.8 - Enumerated powers= powers to tax, borrow money, raise an army, create a postal system, address piracy on the seas, define the immigration and naturalization process, and a few others. - The commerce clause empowers the Congress to “regulate commerce with other nations, and among the several states.” - necessary and proper clause, or elastic clause= grant implicit powers (assure the Congress some flexibility in legislating) - the federal legislature cannot tax exported goods. Congress cannot take away the right of habeas corpus (the right to be formally charged after an arrest), cannot pass bills of attainder (legislative acts declaring one guilty of a crime), and cannot create ex post facto laws (making an act illegal after one has committed it). Nor can Congress grant any title of nobility - States can’t enter into treaties with other countries, coin money, or tax exports. - McCulloch v. Maryland, addressing the balance of power between the states and the federal government.

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- - the Gibbons decision eventually led to a system of dual federalism, in which the national government is supreme in its sphere and the states are equally supreme in their own sphere. - elective exclusiveness—a doctrine asserting that Congress may regulate only when the commodity requires a national uniform rule. For years, this system worked because commerce and trade were mainly local, with fewer goods crossing state lines than they do today - 16th amendment= created the federal income tax and expanded Congress’s reach of regulation. - Since the Constitution nowhere gave Congress the direct power to legislate to improve safety, health, and morals, it began to rely on its regulatory power over commerce to reach national goals of decreasing crime, making the workplace safer, and ensuring equality among citizens. The commerce clause served as the primary vehicle for such legislation. - Congress created the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - UNITED STATES V. LOPEZ - He brought a gun to a school and went to federal prison, but he challenged that it was a state school, so the federal government has no right to regulate behavior at a state-run school. Federalism in Action 1.9 - The federal and state governments allow for multiple access points for stakeholders and institutions to address environmental policy through federalism. - Sharing powers between 3 branches slows down policymaking - The National Environmental Policy Act (1970) requires any government agency, state or federal, to file an environmental impact statement with the federal government every time the agency plans a policy that might harm the environment, dams, roads, or existing construction. - The Clean Air Act, call for improved air quality and decreased contaminants. - The Clean Water Act of 1972 regulates the discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and monitors quality standards for surface waters. - The Endangered Species Act established a program that empowers the National Fish and Wildlife Service to protect endangered species. - industry pays into the Superfund as insurance so taxpayers do not have to pay the bill for waste cleanup - Under the law, the guilty polluter pays for the cleanup, but when the guilty

party is unknown or bankrupt, the collective fund will cover these costs, not the taxpayer. - EPA oversees superfund and toxic waste cleanup - Kyoto Protocol, a multi-country agreement that committed the signing nations to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but United States didn’t ratify it - EPA established limits on how much mercury and other hazardous chemicals coal- and oil-fueled power plants could emit. However, the Supreme Court overturned that regulation in 2015, arguing that the EPA had unreasonably neglected to consider the cost burden to the power plants and customers and exerting a check and balance to the EPA. - The Uniform State Narcotics Act =strongly urged states to make marijuana and other drugs illegal. - House passed the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act in an effort to regulate the substance - By 1970, the Controlled Substances Act, a comprehensive federal drug policy that was part of President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs, was the first federal law with any teeth to enforce and heavily punish marijuana dealers and users. The law categorized heroin, cocaine, and other illegal substances in terms of potential harm and placed marijuana in the same category with no medical benefits. - California became the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana through a statewide vote, Proposition 215, in 1996—participatory democracy at work. - legalization advocates and patients sued the federal government, arguing that states had the authority under the Tenth Amendment and the police powers doctrine to determine the status of the drug’s legality. However, on appeal, in Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution’s commerce clause entitles Congress to determine what may be bought and sold. Thus, federal marijuana crimes were upheld. - Trump said shall be the local determiners of how federal marijuana policy is handled. In fact, the Justice Department attorneys and the FBI deal with a variety of federal crimes on a daily basis and decide whether to prosecute and which crimes are higher on their priority list. - Summary

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