CLEP Social Sciences and History flashcards
CLEP Social Sciences and History · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Columbian Exchange
- Post-1492 transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. It spread smallpox to the Americas and crops such as maize and potatoes outward.
- Great Compromise
- 1787 agreement creating a bicameral Congress: the House apportioned by state population and the Senate with equal representation for each state, resolving large-versus-small-state conflict.
- Three-Fifths Compromise
- Constitutional provision counting enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for apportioning House seats and direct taxes, increasing Southern representation without granting voting rights.
- Reconstruction Amendments
- The 13th (1865) abolished slavery, the 14th (1868) guaranteed citizenship and equal protection, and the 15th (1870) barred denying the vote based on race.
- Marbury v. Madison
- 1803 Supreme Court decision establishing judicial review, the power of courts to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional when they conflict with the Constitution.
- Electoral College threshold
- The Electoral College has 538 electors, equal to House seats plus 100 senators plus three for the District of Columbia. A candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency.
- Enumerated versus implied powers
- Enumerated powers are explicitly listed in Article I; implied powers derive from the necessary and proper clause, letting Congress carry out its listed responsibilities.
- Selective incorporation
- Process by which the Supreme Court applied most Bill of Rights protections to state governments through the 14th Amendment's due-process clause, beginning in the twentieth century.
- Filibuster and cloture
- A Senate filibuster extends debate to block a vote; cloture, requiring 60 senators, ends debate. The House has no equivalent because it sets debate rules.
- Federalist versus Anti-Federalist
- Federalists supported ratifying the Constitution and a stronger national government; Anti-Federalists opposed it, demanding a bill of rights to protect individual liberties and state power.
- Gerrymandering
- Drawing legislative district boundaries to favor a party or group. Courts restrict racial gerrymandering; partisan redistricting remains largely a state political question.
- Marbury precedent limit
- Judicial review applies to legislative and executive acts, but courts generally avoid political questions and may not enforce decisions lacking implementation by other branches.
- Latitude versus longitude
- Latitude measures distance north or south of the equator, from 0 to 90 degrees. Longitude measures east or west of the prime meridian, from 0 to 180 degrees.
- Plate boundary types
- Divergent boundaries create rifts and mid-ocean ridges; convergent boundaries produce subduction zones, volcanoes, and mountains; transform boundaries generate strike-slip earthquakes.
- Physiological population density
- Population divided by arable land area. It reveals pressure on food-producing land, unlike arithmetic density, which divides population by total land area.
- Demographic transition model
- A four-stage sequence: high birth and death rates, then falling death rates, then falling birth rates, ending with low rates and slow population growth.
- Push and pull factors
- Push factors drive migration away from a place, such as conflict or unemployment; pull factors attract migrants, such as jobs or services. Intervening obstacles can block movement.
- Economic sectors
- Primary involves extraction, secondary manufacturing, tertiary services, and quaternary information and research. Development shifts employment from primary toward tertiary and quaternary work.
- Bid-rent theory
- Land value declines with distance from the central business district. High-value activities such as retail outbid residential users for central locations, shaping urban land-use patterns.
- Climate controls
- Latitude, altitude, proximity to water, ocean currents, and prevailing winds determine climate. Coastal areas have smaller temperature ranges than continental interiors.
- GDP expenditure formula
- Gross domestic product equals consumption plus investment plus government spending plus exports minus imports. It counts final goods produced within a country's borders.
- Real versus nominal GDP
- Nominal GDP uses current prices; real GDP adjusts for inflation using a price index, so real GDP changes reflect changes in actual output.
- Price ceiling effect
- A legal maximum price set below equilibrium creates a shortage because quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied; rent control is a common example.
- Price floor effect
- A legal minimum price set above equilibrium creates a surplus because quantity supplied exceeds quantity demanded; the minimum wage is a common example.
- Price elasticity of demand
- Percentage change in quantity demanded divided by percentage change in price. Demand is elastic when the absolute value exceeds one and inelastic when below one.
- Money multiplier
- The maximum expansion of the money supply equals one divided by the reserve requirement. With a 10 percent requirement, each deposit supports up to ten times its value.
- Open-market operations
- Central bank purchases of government bonds inject reserves and expand the money supply; sales withdraw reserves and contract it. This is the most frequently used monetary tool.
- Comparative advantage
- A country gains from trade by specializing in goods for which its opportunity cost is lowest, even without an absolute advantage in producing any good.
- Automatic stabilizers
- Features that dampen the business cycle without new legislation, such as unemployment insurance and progressive income taxes, which rise in recessions and fall in expansions.
- Recession definition
- A significant decline in economic activity, commonly identified by two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP, accompanied by rising unemployment and weaker spending.
- Opportunity cost
- The value of the next-best alternative forgone when a choice is made. It underlies supply decisions and the shape of production possibilities frontiers.
- Central bank tools
- Three main tools: open-market operations, the discount rate, and reserve requirements. Buying bonds, lowering the discount rate, or lowering requirements expands the money supply.