AEPA Social Science NT303 key terms

An economic doctrine holding that a nation's wealth depends on accumulating gold and silver by exporting more than it imports, and that colonies exist to supply raw materials and buy the home country's goods.

The Atlantic trading system in which manufactured goods went from Europe to Africa, enslaved Africans were shipped to the Americas, and colonial raw materials such as sugar and tobacco returned to Europe.

The forced ocean voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas, notorious for crowding, disease, and high mortality aboard ship.

A system of government in which power is divided between a national government and state or regional governments, each with authority granted directly by a constitution rather than by the other level.

Specific powers granted to Congress by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, such as coining money, declaring war, and regulating interstate commerce.

The final clause of Article I, Section 8, allowing Congress to make laws necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated powers; it supports implied federal authority.

Powers not delegated to the federal government and not prohibited to the states, which the Tenth Amendment leaves to the states or to the people.

Article VI provision stating that the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties are the supreme law of the land, binding state judges even when state law conflicts.

The division of government authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches so that no single branch holds all power.

Constitutional arrangements letting each branch limit the others, such as the presidential veto, Senate confirmation of appointments, and judicial review of laws.

The power of courts to declare legislative or executive acts unconstitutional, established in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

The president's constitutional power to reject a bill passed by Congress; Congress may override it with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

The body of electors chosen by states that formally selects the president and vice president, with each state's electors equal to its congressional delegation.

Constitutional agreement counting three-fifths of enslaved people toward a state's population for representation and direct taxes, without granting them voting rights.

The 1787 agreement creating a bicameral Congress with representation by population in the House and equal representation per state in the Senate.

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, protecting individual liberties such as speech, religion, and fair trial from federal infringement.

The process by which the Supreme Court has applied most Bill of Rights protections to state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.

The constitutional guarantee that government will follow fair procedures and respect protected liberties before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property.

The principle that political authority ultimately rests with the people, who create and may alter their government.

The idea, associated with Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, that people consent to government in exchange for protection of their rights, and may resist a government that violates that trust.

Rights believed to belong to all people by virtue of being human, such as life, liberty, and property, which government is meant to secure rather than grant.

The nineteenth-century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, used to justify westward settlement and territorial acquisition.

The 1803 purchase from France that doubled the size of the United States and opened the Mississippi River region to American settlement.

The period after the Civil War (roughly 1865-1877) when federal policy sought to rebuild the South, readmit states, and secure rights for formerly enslaved people.

State and local statutes in the post-Reconstruction South that mandated racial segregation in schools, transportation, and public accommodations until the mid-twentieth century.

The 1896 Supreme Court decision upholding racial segregation under the doctrine of 'separate but equal,' later overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

President Franklin Roosevelt's 1930s program of federal legislation and agencies aimed at relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression.

The theory that government spending and tax policy should be used to manage aggregate demand, increasing spending in recessions and restraining it during inflation.

Government use of taxation and spending to influence the economy, typically enacted by the legislature and executive rather than the central bank.

Central bank actions, such as changing interest rates or the money supply, intended to influence inflation, employment, and economic growth.

A sustained rise in the general price level, which reduces the purchasing power of money and is often measured by the consumer price index.

The value of the best alternative forgone when a choice is made, reflecting that scarce resources used for one purpose cannot be used for another.

The interaction of how much producers offer at various prices and how much buyers will purchase, which together tend toward an equilibrium price and quantity in a market.

The condition in which human wants exceed the limited resources available, forcing individuals and societies to make choices about allocation.

The principle that trade benefits parties when each specializes in producing goods at a lower opportunity cost than the other, even if one party is more efficient at everything.

Conditions that drive people away from a place (push), such as war or famine, and conditions that attract them elsewhere (pull), such as jobs or safety, explaining migration.

A model describing the shift of societies from high birth and death rates to low ones as they industrialize, with population growth peaking in the middle stages.

The growing share of a population living in cities, typically driven by rural-to-urban migration and economic change accompanying industrialization.

The anthropological principle that a culture's beliefs and practices should be understood within its own context rather than judged by the standards of another culture.

The tendency to evaluate other cultures by the standards of one's own, often treating one's own practices as normal or superior.

The lifelong process through which individuals learn the norms, values, and behaviors of their society, beginning in family and continuing through peers, schools, and media.

A group whose standards and values a person uses to evaluate themselves and to guide behavior, whether or not the person belongs to it.