Government 301 Ch 2

Front 1

influence society and government

Back 1

land, people, and technology

Front 2

based on self-government or popular sovereignty

Back 2

U.S. government at both levels—state and national

Front 3

was the first government established in the free United States

Back 3

Articles of Confederation

Front 4

Established a loose alliance of states, or confederacy, under the so-called “league of friendship”

Back 4

Articles of Confederation

Front 5

Each state retained its own independence and sovereignty, with more power than the national government

Back 5

Articles of Confederation

Front 6

Problems with the Articles

Back 6

No power to tax
No national army
No executive or judicial branches—no enforcement capability
Amendments to the Articles required a unanimous vote

Front 7

Established a more powerful national government that allowed states to retain autonomous power

Back 7

This was called federalism or sometimes dual sovereignty, where each level retained its own independence and powers

Front 8

States conducted most of the day-to-day business of government

Back 8

Road building and maintenance
Public health, pestilence control

Front 9

Other federal systems

Back 9

Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, etc

Front 10

in the 1960s centered around the debate over federalism

Back 10

Civil Rights movement

Front 11

trends toward

Back 11

nationalization and decentralization

Front 12

Federalism is subject to

Back 12

Supreme Court interpretation

Front 13

States retain more power under

Back 13

strict constructionism

Front 14

At the time of this book’s writing, Court was under

Back 14

Rehnquist, a strict constructionist

Front 15

Federal government ruled that interfering with freedom of movement hampered

Back 15

interstate commerce
Buses, planes, trains crossed state lines
Banking and credit

Front 16

Supreme Court rejected commerce clause reasoning in some federal cases

Back 16

Gun Free School Zone Act of 1990
1994 Violence Against Women Act

Front 17

Some states made restrictive laws designed to

Back 17

disenfranchise certain citizens
Literacy tests
Poll taxes
Moral character criteria
“reading tests” written in foreign languages

Front 18

administer and control elections/voting with supervision by the national government

Back 18

States

Front 19

laws continued into the 1960s

Back 19

Discriminatory

Front 20

Amendments expanded the voting franchise to women, eliminated the poll tax, lowered voting age to 18

Back 20

19th, 24th, 26th

Front 21

prohibited registrars from intimidation

Back 21

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Front 22

gave power to the federal Attorney General to prosecute uncooperative state governments
Also allowed “referees” to oversee elections

Back 22

Civil Rights Act of 1960

Front 23

did away with any discriminatory practices, unequal standards for registration

Back 23

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Front 24

Singled out districts where less than half the eligible voters actually voted
Outlawed literacy tests, other “testing” devices designed to disenfranchise
Gap between African-American and white voter registration continued to close

Back 24

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Front 25

Accusations of disenfranchisement are occasionally made after a disputed election—always by the losing side—but legal safeguards exist to prevent this

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recounts, voter records, census data, etc

Front 26

Still some laws remain that can hamper the vote:

Back 26

Registration deadlines
In person v. mail-in registration cards

Front 27

This law allowed you to register to vote and renew registration when you got your driver’s license
Some states opposed as the federal government interference

Back 27

Motor Voter Act
Official name: National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)

Front 28

Constitution designed the national government to be stronger than the states

Back 28

Implied powers clause (Art. I, Sect. 8)
Supremacy clause (Art. VI)
Judicial review (not specifically designated in the Constitution, but implied)

Front 29

lead to individual social policies and social programs

Back 29

Civic culture of the states

Front 30

are “laboratories of democracies”

Back 30

States

Front 31

Each state has its own problems and must come up with its own way of dealing with them – in this case, poverty

Back 31

South, Midwest: agricultural droughts
Northeast, urban areas: ghettos, overcrowding
West: Indian reservations

Front 32

With different origins of poverty, different solutions are needed, and each state has a different________of poverty

Back 32

interpretation

Front 33

government has a moral obligation to help the poor

Back 33

Moralists

Front 34

Individualists

Back 34

you make your own choices; if you don’t like your wages or circumstances, take the steps to improve them

Front 35

have the highest poverty rates

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African- and Hispanic-Americans

Front 36

Welfare population disproportionately

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single women, children, elderly, and disabled

Front 37

States have sought creative solutions to poverty and welfare

Back 37

New Jersey: capped welfare benefits to discourage having more children
Privatization – some states use private accounts and/or contractors for welfare programs
These innovations are ways states experiment with finding cheap and effective solutions to social welfare policy

Front 38

National action – Welfare Reform Act of 1996

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Every family on welfare had to go to work within two years or lose benefits; allowed capped benefits
Block grants

Front 39

Unfunded mandates

Back 39

Americans with Disabilities Act