Ch 2 – Foundations of Our Government

1) Types of Government
a) Monarchy = has king or queen.
i) Absolute Monarchy = king or queen has all government powers
ii) Titular Monarchy = king or queen has title but no government powers
b) Democracy
i) Direct Democracy = all people vote on everything
ii) Indirect Democracy = citizens vote for representatives and representatives run
the country
c) Dictatorship
i) 1-person dictatorships = absolute monarch or a person without a title
ii) 1-party dictatorships = party based on religion or political philosophy
iii) 1-group dictatorships = oligarchy, small group controls people
2) Our First American Government
a) 1776 = Declaration of Independence is written
i) Thomas Jefferson wrote it
ii) He borrowed ideas from John Locke (Locke wrote about “life, liberty, and
property” because it was illegal for those in England to own property)
iii) Was written to explain why the states were breaking away from England
b) 1777 = the Article of Confederation is written as the first government document
for the United States
i) States were mini countries: they could declare war, make peace, print money,
enter into military and political alliances and treaties
ii) There was a Congress and it could pass laws but they couldn’t make the states
follow them nor could they tax the states or citizens
iii) No executive or judicial branch
iv) All states had to unanimously vote to change the Articles for the Articles to be
changed
c) Meetings were held to try and fix the Articles
i) However, two states (Georgia or Rhode Island) continually refused to vote,
therefore the Articles couldn’t be changed
ii) In Philadelphia 1787, representatives from each state came to change the
Articles. Rhode Island didn’t send delegates but the 55 men proceeded
anyway.
3) The Constitution
a) Other sources for the Constitution
i) Magna Carta – person could not be put in prison of forced to leave their
country unless first tried by a jury of their peers and found guilty of the crime
ii) English Bill of Rights of (1689) – citizen had the right to petition the
government for redress of grievances, and punishment should be fair and
equal to the crime
iii) Parliament – bicameral legislature with an upper house (House of Lords) and
a lower house (House of Commons)
b) James Madison: Father of the Constitution
i) Meeting done in secret so no one outside of the 55 men could influence the
writing
 ii) We know what happened now because James Madison kept a diary of the
events
c) They started with Legislature
i) Congress is a bicameral legislature: Upper house (Senate) and lower house
(House of Representatives)
ii) Great Compromise: each state would have 2 senators no matter the state’s
land size or population size. House would be based on state’s population, 1
representative per a certain number of people in that state
(1) Three-fifths compromise: count all people but blacks are counted each as
being 3/5ths of a person
d) Executive Branch
i) Includes what is required to be elected President, what powers President has,
how President gets elected
e) Judicial Branch
i) Court system and US supreme court: writers put in what they do
f) To become legal document, Constitution had to be ratified by 9 of the 13 states
g) Constitution written in summer and fall of 1787
i) Federalists: John Adams, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
ii) Antifederalists: Thomas Jefferson
h) While 9 states ratified the Constitution, 2 of the biggest states didn’t not. 55 men
decided to wait until New York and Virginia ratified it.
i) Virginia: Didn’t want to ratify because Jefferson was from Virginia and urged
them not to. Madison met with Jefferson and found out that Jefferson wanted
a Bill of Rights. Madison agreed and Virginia ratified
ii) New York: Didn’t want to ratify because they would lose power. Madison,
Hamilton and Jay wrote the Federalist Papers describing the good things about
the Constitution and New York soon caved under the pressure from its
citizens
i) In 1789, the Constitution was put into effect. Men are elected into the House and
Senate, George Washington is elected president, and government is up and
running.
i) North Carolina and Rhode Island later ratified
ii) Capital is temporarily at NYC until permanent site is chosen, which will be
Washington DC
4) Lagniappe
a) 1st – Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion, Petition and Assembly
b) 2nd – Right to Bear Arms
c) 3rd – Quartering of Soldiers
d) 9th – Rights Reserved to the People
e) 10th – Rights Reserved to the States
5) Vocabulary
a) Antifederalists – those persons who opposed the ratification of the Constitution in
1787-1788
b) Articles of the Confederation – plan of government adopted by the Continental
Congress after the American Revolution; established “a firm league of friendship”
among the states but allowed few important powers to the central government
c) Bicameral – an adjective describing a legislative body composed of two chambers
d) Confederation – a joining of several groups for a common purpose
e) Constitution – the body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures
and processes of a government
f) Federalists – those persons who supported the ratification of the Constitution in
1787-1788
g) Framers – group of delegates who drafted the United States Constitution at the
Philadelphia Convention in 1787
h) Government – the institution through which a society makes and enforces its
public policies
i) Limited government – basic principle of American government which states that
government is restricted in what it may do, and each individual has rights that
government cannot take away
j) Ratification – formal approval, final consent to the effectiveness of a constitution,
constitutional amendment or treaty
k) Three-fifths compromise – an agreement in the Constitutional Convention to
count a slaves as three-fifths of a person when determining the population of a
states
l) Unicameral – an adjective describing a legislative body with one chamber
m) Great Compromise – agreement made at the Constitutional Convention that all
states should have equal representation in the Senate and be represented in the
House according to their population size
n) Delegate – representative chosen to attend the Constitutional Convention
o) Representative democracy – also known as a republic, system of government in
which the people elect representatives to carry on the work of government for
them
p) Totalitarian government – also known as a dictatorship, it is a government that
has total control over the lives of the people