A.P US Gov. and Politics Study Guide Answers

1. Democracy is a system of government in which, the people regularly have a say in what goes on in their lives. 2. Three things that are wrong with the Articles of Confederation are that there was no foreign policy, the government couldn’t levy taxes, and there was no standing army. 3. A unitary system of government is where there is a powerful central government and some regional governments. A federal system of government is a government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units. A confederation system is where there is barely any central control. 4. The Federalists were people that approved of the Constitution. The Anti-Federalists disapproved of the Constitution. They thought it would give the federal government too much power. 5. A presidential system differs from that of a parliamentary system because; in a presidential system the president selects a cabinet. Instead in a parliamentary system, they have a parliament. 6. The basic principle of separation of powers is to separate the three branches of government. 7. The basic principle of federalism is to separate the powers of the federal and state governments. 8. The basic principle of checks and balances is to limit the power that one branch has. An example is a president vetoing a bill. Another is when the Senate can overturn the president. Also, the president nominates judges. 9. Mandates are rules imposed by the federal government on the states as conditions for obtaining federal grants or requirements that the states pay the cost of certain nationally defined programs.

10. Block Grants are money grants for programs in certain general areas, while categorical grants are money grants for specific purposes defined by federal law. 11. The Federalist Papers were a series of 85 essays published in the New York newspapers (1787-1788) to convince New Yorkers to adopt the newly proposed Constitution. These documents were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. 12. The Great Compromise was part of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that reconciled interest of small and large states by allowing the former to predominate in the Senate and the latter in the House. 13. Political socialization is the concept concerning the study of developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors. 14. Liberals tend to be young, college-educated, either Jewish or non-religious, and are usually minorities. 15. Conservatives tend to be older, have high incomes, white, and live in the Midwest. 16. Libertarians want less government control on both social and economic issues, while populists want more control in both social and economic issues. 17. One voter trend is that the higher the education amount the more likely you are to vote. Another in the older a person is the more likely they are to vote. There is a higher voter turnout for presidential elections than there are for congressional.

18. Older people (65 or older), people with higher education, and the average white person are more likely to vote than any other race.

19. Demographics that vote infrequently are pople from the age of 18-24, people with low education, and minority races. 20. Literacy test- a requirement that a citizen pass a literacy test in order to register to cote, it was established to prevent former slaves (most who were illiterate) from voting.

poll tax- a requirement that citizens to pay a tax in order to register to vote, it was adopted by many states to keep former slaves (most who were poor) from voting. grandfather clause- a clause added to registration laws allowing people who did not meet registration requirements to vote because their