AP Government Midterm Study Guide (Half Complete)

• Senate: 100 Senators, two from each state
  
  • Must be 30; must be a resident of the state they are representing; must have been a U.S. resident for at least nine years; only 1/3 of the senate is up for reelection at a time
    
  • Senators were expected to represent the will and interest of those in power in a given state
    
  • 17th amendment says that the Senators will be elected by the people
    
• Limits on the government include the restriction under the Articles: Central gov. has little power, cannot call a militia, cannot implement taxes without approval from the states
  
• Filibuster: Delaying tactic used in the U.S. Senate by the minority in an effort to prevent the passage of a bill amendment
  
• Thomas Paine called for an end to colonists' political wavering over British rule and prompted the idea of an American republic where free citizens were in control
  
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• The no Child Left Behind Act motivates states to lower standards to meet the requirements of the act, the focus of standardized testing encourages teaches to teach only a narrow subset of skills for the test, expectations are set lower and there in an increase in segregation by class and race and push low-performing students out of school, even schools doing well will want to do better and so push out low performing students
  

   
   

  Alfie Kohn says that that law is unredeemable and should be scrapped and its main effect sentences poor children to endless test-prep drills
  

• Believed that "man is not by nature a social animal, society could not exist except by the power of the state" and believed that you give up your rights to the government in return for your life
  
• Locke believed that we have the right to rebel if the government is infringing upon our rights and seeks absolute power
  
• The weaknesses of the Articles include the central government's inability to call a militia forward, implement taxes without the consent from the states, unable to regulate commerce, economic rivalry between states was occurring that the central government couldn't doing anything about it, led to territorial conflicts and civil unrest
  
• Miranda v. Arizona: The 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination requires law enforcement officials to advise a suspect interrogated in custody of his rights to remain silent and to obtain an attorney
  
• Who has the powers to tax, borrow money, and define and punish criminals?
  
  • The Judicial branch of the government defines and punishes criminals as in the Supreme Court
    
• McCulloch v. Maryland: Maryland tried to impose a tax on all note of the bank not charted in Maryland. Ruled that though the constitution does not specifically give Congress the power to establish a bank, it does delegate the ability to tax and spend, and a bank is a proper and suitable instrument to assist the operations of the government in the collection and disbursement of the revenue. Maryland had no power to interfere with the bank's operation by taxing it
  
• Federalist Papers: They were written with the intention of recruiting more support for the constitution. They brought up the good points of the constitution and even spoke on the topics that anti-federalists worried about and told how the constitution made these topics not a problem
  
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• The first political party in the U.S. was the Democratic-Republican party which was created by Jefferson. They believed that the Congress should dominate the central government.
  
  • "Equal rights for all, special privileges for none"
    
  • Got the support from agricultural areas
    
  • Dominate the government form Jefferson's presidency to the civil war
    

  Federalist: Created by Hamilton and supported a strong central government. It dominated urban areas in the north
  

  The Democratic party came from the demo-repub.
  

  • Did not support a strong central government
    
  • National bank
    
  • Elitism
    
• McCain-Feingold Act: