| A | B |
|---|
| A meeting of delegates in 1778 to revise the Articles of Confederation | Constitutional Convention |
| The power of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government to block some acts by the other two branches | checks and balances |
| A form of democracy in which leaders and representatives are selected by means of popular competitive elections | republic |
| An alliance between different interest groups or parties to achieve some political goal | coalition |
| Rights thought to be based on nature and providence rather than on the preferences of people | inalienable rights |
| Change in, or addition to, a constitution | Amendment (constitutional) |
| A group of people sharing a common interest who seek to influence public policy for their collective benefit | faction |
| The power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive unconstitutional and therefore null and void | judicial review |
| The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution | Bill of Rights |
| A series of eighty-five essays published in New York newspapers to convince New Yorkers to adopt the newly proposed Constitution | Federalist papers |
| Supporters of a stronger central government who advocated ratification of the Constitution and then founded a political party | Federalists |
| The power of an executive to veto some provisions in an appropriations bill while approving others | line-item veto |
| Those who opposed giving as much power to the national government as the Constitution did, favoring instead stronger states’ rights | Antifederalists |
| A law that would declare a person guilty of a crime without a trial | bill of attainder |
| A law that would declare an act criminal after the act was committed | ex post facto law |
| A philosophy holding that accommodating individual self-interest provided a more practical solution to the problem of government than aiming to cultivate virtue | Madisonian view of human nature |
| An agreement among sovereign states that delegates certain powers to a national government | confederation |
| A court order requiring police officials to produce an individual held in custody and show sufficient cause for that person’s detention | writ of habeas corpus |
