AP®︎ U.S. Government & Politics: Topic 1.5 Flashcards

The 1787 Philadelphia meeting where delegates abandoned revising the Articles of Confederation and drafted a new Constitution with a stronger national government

Large-state proposal for a strong national government and a bicameral legislature with representation based on population or financial contribution

Small-state proposal retaining equal state representation in a unicameral national legislature similar to that under the Articles of Confederation

Created a bicameral Congress with population-based representation in the House and equal state representation in the Senate

Compromise system in which state-appointed electors formally choose the president; each state receives electors equal to its House seats plus two senators

Counted three-fifths of a state’s enslaved population when apportioning House seats and direct taxes, increasing slaveholding states’ congressional and electoral power

Prevented Congress from banning the international importation of enslaved people before 1808, after which Congress could prohibit it

Required specially elected conventions in nine of thirteen states to ratify the Constitution, bypassing state legislatures and the Articles’ unanimity rule

Supporters of ratification who argued that the nation needed a stronger but constitutionally limited national government

Opponents or critics of ratification who feared centralized power, loss of state authority, and threats to liberty, especially without a bill of rights

Arrangement under which states ratified the Constitution while recommending that amendments protecting individual rights be considered afterward

The first ten amendments, ratified in 1791 to protect individual liberties and fulfill a major promise made during ratification

Amendments are proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or a convention called after applications from two-thirds of state legislatures, then ratified by three-fourths of states through legislatures or conventions