Unit 1- Foundations of Government

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Systems of Government Foreign Influences Colonial Period Articles of Confederation Ratifying the Constitution $100 $200 $300 $400 $500

In this system of government, individual member states retain their power. There is a weak central government.

What is a confederal system of government?

In this system of government, power is shared between different levels of government, such as federal, state, and local.

What is a federal system of government?

How are a federal and unitary system of government alike?

They both have a federal, or central, level of government.

How are a federal and confederal system of government different?

In a federal system, the central (federal) government has much power. In a confederal system, the central (federal) government is weak.

Explain why our Founding Fathers abandoned a confederal system of government for our country in favor of a federal system of government.

Under the Articles on Confederation (which was a confederal system of government), the federal government was too weak, so they wrote the Constitution (which was a federal system of government) and strengthened the power of the federal government.

This document established the idea of limited government.

What is Magna Carta?

How was the English Bill of Rights different than the Magna Carta?

Magna Carta gave rights to only the English nobles, while the English Bill of Rights gave rights to all Englishmen.

What is the connection between natural rights and natural law?

Natural law are the rules that protect our natural rights.

Explain Baron de Montesquieu’s ideas.

Separation of powers means that the powers of government are not given to one person or group but given to different people or groups. Checks and balances prevents the different groups from grabbing too much power.

Explain how we know that Thomas Jefferson was influenced by the ideas of John Locke.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and said “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This is very similar to Locke’s writing about natural rights “life liberty, property”.

This document was a colonial example of self-government.

What is the Mayflower Compact?

Who wrote a colonial period pamphlet that argued for independence from England?

Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense

Explain the act of Parliament that led to the Boston Tea Party.

The Tea Act made it illegal for colonists to buy tea from any company except the East India Tea Company.

What was the main reason colonists opposed the taxes imposed on the them by Parliament?

They were being taxed without any representation in Parliament.

Explain how an idea of John Locke led to the ideal of consent of the governed being included in the Declaration of Independence.

John Locke’s idea of social contract (an agreement between the people and their government) was reflected in the ideal of consent of the governed, which states that people give the government consent to govern them, in exchange for the protection of their rights.

The Articles of Confederation created this system of government.

What is a confederal system of government?

Why did the writers of the Articles of Confederation create a weak central government?

They didn’t want to have a central government that would overpower and take away the rights of citizens, like the King of England had done to them.

Why couldn’t Congress enforce the laws that it passed?

There was no central leadership to make sure the laws were enforced.

Why was it difficult to make changes to the Articles of Confederation?

Any amendments required unanimous approval from all 13 states.

Explain how the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation led to the writing of the U.S. Constitution.

The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were that the federal government did not have enough power to do what it needed to do. This caused the Founding Fathers to write U.S. Constitution, which gave much more power to the federal government.

This group of people opposed ratification of the Constitution.

Who are the Anti-Federalists?

Why did the Federalists want a stronger central government?

They thought the central government under the Articles of Confederation was too weak and couldn’t do what it needed to do.

Why were the Anti-Federalists scared of creating a strong national government? Think about their previous experience.

They had recently fought the Revolutionary War to gain independence from England. They did not want to set up a national government that was too strong and could take power like a king.

Why did the Anti-Federalists think that a Bill of Rights should be included in the Constitution?

They thought the Constitution, as it was originally written, did not protect the rights of the people enough.

How did the ideas of Montesquieu strengthen the argument of the Federalists in the debate over the ratification of the Constitution?

Montesquieu’s idea of separation of powers (checks and balances) was in the Constitution, and the Federalists argued that this would keep the government under control.