Term
| Why did the Articles of Confederation threaten individual rights? |
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Definition
| Because the government was not strong enough to secure rights. (The weak government was unable to create a good economy or to protect people from foreign attack in the future.) |
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Term
| True or False: The existence of the Federalist Papers indicates that the citizens of the thirteen states took seriously the Declaration of Independence's statement that the just government must be created by the consent of the governed. |
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Definition
| True. (The Federalist Papers were written as part of a political campaign to persuade voters to support the Constitution as they chose delegates to go to the ratifying convention. The Constitution could not go into effect without such a campaign, or without proper approval, since just governmental authority arises only from the consent of the governed.) |
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Term
| True or False: Alexander Hamilton begins the Federalist Papers by stating that he is certain that the people can make a rational decision about adopting the Constitution. |
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Definition
| False. (Hamilton challenges his readers to make a choice based upon rational analysis of the things needed for a government to govern effectively, but he also betrays an uncertainty as to whether people are sufficiently reasonable to make the choice well.) |
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Term
| What do the authors of the Federalist Papers contend about the human nature of human beings? |
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Definition
| They are creatures with selfish passions. (Whatever the possibility that human beings could be reasonable and selfless, Hamilton and Madison thought it foolhardy to depend on that.) |
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Term
| True or False: According to Hamilton, one purpose of government under the Constitution it to lead people to a better understanding of what their happiness requires. |
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Definition
| False. (Hamilton writes that the purpose of the Union under the Constitution it do defend people from internal and external attack, and to regulate commerce. It is not the business of such a government to help people understand what happiness involves.) |
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Term
| As shown in Federalist #6, what did Hamilton think the important thing to know about human nature was? |
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Definition
| Humans are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. (The political problem is, then, to protect people from the other nasty and selfish people.) |
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Term
| True or False: For Hamilton and Madison, the key question to ask when deciding how to distribute political power is how can the most prudence be brought to bear on decision making. |
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Definition
| False. (For Hamilton and Madison, the key question to ask when deciding how to distribute political power is how can things be arranged to protect people from one anothers' nastiness and selfishness.) |
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Term
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Definition
| A number of citizens united by some common passion or interest adverse to the rights of other citizens. (The group can be small or large.) |
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Term
| Is a basketball team a faction? |
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Definition
| No. (While this group may be united by a common passion and interest, they are not seeking to use political power to satisfy that passion or interest at the expense of private rights or the public good.) |
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Term
| According to Madison, which of the two methods used to prevent the formation of factions is unacceptable? |
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Definition
| Take away the liberty of people who want to form groups. (This is like removing all of the air to prevent forest fires.) |
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Term
| According to Madison, which of the two methods used to prevent the formation of factions is impractical? |
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Definition
| Give people the same opinions, passions, and interests. (Madison argues that an attempt to make people care about the public good by teaching them of its importance it likely to fail.) |
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Term
| True or False: According to Madison in Federalist #10, the first object of government is to protect the diverse faculties of human beings. |
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Definition
| True. (According to Madison, the first object of government is to protect the faculties of human beings. From those faculties, he writes, the right to property originates. And because those faculties are different from person to person, if all people are protected, some will end up acquiring more than others.) |
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Term
| True or False: In Federalist 10, Madison argues that the methods for eliminating factions are either unjust or impractical. |
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Definition
| True. (Removing liberty is wrong in a community designed to secure rights. Teaching people to care about the public good is impractical.) |
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Term
| True or False: People's interest in politics is the most common cause of faction? |
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Definition
| False. (Madison states that the most common and durable source of faction is economic interests.) |
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Term
| What is the first and most important tactic that the Constitution employs to prevent factions from controlling political power? |
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Definition
| Establish majority rule. (Majority rule prevents any faction that is smaller than a majority from ruling.) |
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Term
| True or False: According to Madison, under a system of majority rule, no minority faction will have influence over public policy. |
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Definition
| False. (In fact, any minority faction may have influence over a decision, as may any individual. The key point is that with majority rule, no faction will have the power to make a decision by itself that would violate the rights of people or harm the public good in serving the faction's selfish interest.) |
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Term
| According to Madison in Federalist 10, is the problem of a majority faction more likely to arise in a pure democracy or in a republic? |
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Definition
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Term
| In order to avoid majority tyranny, what are the two ideas Madison utilized to build the community? |
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Definition
1. He built a community where there would be no majority with the same precise self interest.
2. He also created the community in such a way, where if somehow there was a majority with the same selfish interest, the people who makeup that majority cannot discover that they are a majority. |
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Term
| According to James Madison, what is the principle advantage of a large republic over a small one? |
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Definition
| The presence of a greater number and variety of interests makes it more unlikely that a majority faction will exist. |
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Term
| True or False: Madison argues that the way to prevent economic factions from causing injustice and instability is to arrange the community to encourage those factions to form. |
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Definition
| True. (Under a system of majority rule, in a large commercial republic there can be so many economic factions that each becomes a "special interest," and none becomes a majority interest. The system of majority rule then prevents any faction from gaining uncontrolled use of political power and using it to the detriment of minority rights or the public good.) |
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Term
| True or False: The authors of the Constitution created a popular government even though democracies in the past had tended to be both unjust and unstable. |
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Definition
| True. (They did, however, devise new strategies to prevent the injustice and instability.) |
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Term
| How did Madison seek to control the harmful effects of economic factions? |
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Definition
| By encouraging the formation of economic factions. (Madison argues that the more factions there are, the less likely it will be that any faction will be large enough to be a majority, and majority rule will prevent any faction from dominating the government.) |
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Term
| True or False: People will tend to fight over religious or political opinions because they understand those opinions to be about the most important things. |
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Definition
| True. (Religious opinions and, in some cases, political opinions are about what people must do and not do to be happy. There is nothing more important for humans. Not everyone always agrees, however, that religious and political opinions are correct about the meaning of happiness.) |
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Term
| What is the most important distinction to me made about the tendencies of factions that have their origins in different political or religious opinions? |
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Definition
| They tend to be the most dangerous and violent types of factions. |
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Term
| True or False: The key to preventing violence from religious and political factions is to make sure that there are many such factions in the community. |
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Definition
| False. (This is the approach to controlling economic factions.) |
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Term
| How did the American founders seek to control the effects of factions having their origins in religious or political opinions? |
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Definition
| By encouraging people to believe that economic well-being is the most important thing. (If people think that economic well-being is the most important thing, they wont be as likely to risk comfort or security for religious or political causes.) |
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Term
| True or False: Like Lycurgus, the American founders used the power of politics to shape people's understanding of what is good. |
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Definition
| True. (The American founders used the power of politics to shape people's understanding of what is good. But while they used the same comprehensive power as Lycurgus, they used it very differently. They created a different understanding of what is good, and they created it for a different reason.) |
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Term
| What is the assumption that the authors of the Federalist Papers make about people who would be likely to serve as government officials? |
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Definition
| They can be counted on to be selfish. (Even though people may sometimes act from praiseworthy motives, it is safer to assume that they will not.) |
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Term
| True or False: Madison and Hamilton argue that it is not safe to assume that government officials will be driven by a desire for the public good, even though they have been elected by the people to do so. |
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Definition
| True. (While the people might be looking for public spirited representatives, and might even find them, the argument behind the Constitution is that the system must be created with the worst case in mind, to prevent ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious people from harming the people's rights.) |
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Term
| How does the Constitution seek to avoid abuse of power by governing officials? |
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Definition
| By giving government as a whole extensive power, but then dividing that power among three separate branches. (This is called separation of powers.) |
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Term
| True or False: The Constitution seeks to prevent abuse of power by the government by making certain that the government does not have enough power to violate anyone's rights. |
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Definition
| False. (Government needs power to secure people's rights effectively. If it didnt have enough power to violate peoples rights, it wouldnt have enough power to secure them either. The challenge is to give government all the power it needs to secure rights well, while making certain that no single part of government has sufficient power to violate those rights.) |
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Term
| According to Federalist 51, what is the only way that separation of powers can be maintained? |
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Definition
| The powers of the different branches must overlap somewhat. |
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Term
| True or False: Checks and balances is a system designed to make government more efficient. |
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Definition
| False. (For the most part, checks and balances is not designed to make government act quickly, but safely. Because it fosters a certain hostility among the three branches. Checks and Balances is more likely to slow down decision making rather than make it more efficient.) |
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Term
| True or False: The system of checks and balances uses the selfish ambition of public officials to maintain the public good. |
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Definition
| True. (The system uses the ambition of public officials to lead those officials to defend their constitutional authority from assault by other branches. The result is the maintenance of separation of powers and the prevention of tyranny.) |
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