AP Gov Required Documents Exam Review NEW!

alright welcome back in this video we're gonna review all of the required documents so let's get right to it [Music] alright so let's start at the beginning the Declaration of Independence so this document has basically three things that we want to focus on it talks about natural rights popular sovereignty and this social contract so we're probably already familiar with that phrase at Jefferson says that all men are created equal and then he goes on to say that people have certain unalienable rights he means natural rights these are rights that can't be taken away from us things that we have simply by virtue of being born by being human we have these rights and he says among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and then he goes on to bring in the other two ideas of popular sovereignty and social contract he says that the purpose of government is to protect those rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that's a social contract telling us the purpose of government and then he tells us who establishes governments he says about the consent of the governed and of the people form governments that's popular sovereignty the idea that people are the source of governmental power so right there in the Declaration we have three of the most fundamental ideas to American government okay so not long after that we get the Articles of Confederation and one of the main ideas here is the states wanted to keep and maintain their sovereignty they need to make sure that they were stronger than this new national government that they were forming so they very intentionally created a very weak national government for example this new national government only had one branch just Congress there was no executive branch there was no judicial branch and one of the fundamental weaknesses of this new government was that it lacked the ability to tax again this was on purpose states did not trust giving power to this new national government they wanted to maintain that power for themselves so states are still allowed to do things like making their own currency they could impose tariffs on other states they could ignore federal treaties again these things should show that the real power under the Articles was held by the states now again Congress did have some power so they could raise an army they could declare war they could coin and borrow money but without that power to tax they were really left observing to the states and again that's just how the states wanted it but now we move ahead another decade or so and we get to the US Constitution and specifically the debate over that Constitution so we have federal papers being written in support of the new constitution and we have anti federalist papers like British number one being in an opposition to the new constitution so we're gonna consider four Federalist Papers and one anti federalist paper okay so let's start with Brutus number one Brutus is an argument against ratifying the Constitution instead of having power at the national government and centralized far away he prefers power to be held locally a more democratic government where people have more direct say on policy now there are a couple things that really frighten Brutus about this new constitution one thing he strongly opposes is the Necessary and Proper Clause he argues that this will give Congress unlimited and uncontrollable power that they can decide essentially that anything is Necessary and Proper and that will allow them to make any law that they want a second clause he didn't like was the Supremacy Clause now there's a primacy clause says that when the state law and a federal law come into conflict the federal law is superior or it supersedes it Trump's the state law and Brutus again found this to be a really bad idea because remember he wanted power made at the state and local level he wanted States to be able to do what they wanted and this goes directly against that he thought this was way too much power for the federal government to have along with that the new federal government Congress specifically would be allowed to tax - Brutus this was no small thing he said that the power to tax is the great engine of tyranny he thought that they could oppress and tyrannize the citizens and essentially stamp out the state governments because they could tack so oppressively that there'd be nothing left for states to deal with so to say that he was against Congress's power to tax is quite an understatement he also was worried about the idea of standing army says the president can have the standing army at his disposal again that that will lead to the destruction of liberty and freedom among the individual citizens he makes a rather dramatic prediction which is that through that Supremacy Clause through that power to tax and through having standing armies the federal government will soon trample and completely destroy state governments he says there won't be state governments in the future they'll just be gotten rid of because they're gonna be an annoyance to the federal government so they'll just get rid of them using those powers that the Constitution is giving them so what is Brutus's solution well he prefers democracy but he says a republic can work it just needs to be a small republic state and local level where people have a lot of control and lot of say and can check the power of their representatives ok so let's move on to Federalist number 10 Federalist number 10 is all about factions Madison views factions as the biggest threat to this new republic so what is a faction Madison defines factions as being groups of citizens and the type that he's worried about are groups of citizens that have interests that are adverse to the rights of other citizens now one of the important things that point out right away is that Madison did not believe that democracies could suitably handle or control the negative effects of factions and the reason for that is that a democracy you just vote and so if there's a big enough group when that group has more people and they have a desire that is adverse to the rights of others well they vote and the majority wins therefore they can trample the rights of minorities simply by virtue of out voting them so to Madison democracy is not a solution to this problem so he runs through different ideas can we get rid of factions and he says the answer's no factions are natural so you can't get rid of them so if factions are natural and you can't get rid of them then what's the solution well Madison says you have to control the negative effects and his answer is that we need to have a larger public he says that a larger public is the best way to control the negative effects of factions and can maintain majority rule with minority rights ok so we got the idea that Madison likes republics doesn't like democracy but the question stands why a larger public why can't smell Republic's work as well and here Madison has a creative answer which is that the larger the Republic the more factions we'll have and this is actually the solution he says by having so many different factions you have so many people in many different factions it'll be much less likely that any one single faction will form a majority and it will thus be rendered unable to oppress smaller minority factions in minority groups so again the main idea of Federalist 10 is larger public is the best way to control the negative effects of factions Federalist number 51 is all about separation of powers and checks and balances in this essay Madison famously states that if men were angels no government would be necessary now his point in saying that is that we need government because men are in fact not angels not perfect but the people who are gonna be in that government aren't angels either so while it's true that we might need a government we also need to control the power of the people within that government so his solution is separation of powers and checks and balances separation of powers refers to taking the jobs of the federal government and dividing them into three branches giving each branch their own job their own power now he goes beyond this and he says alright but now ambition must be made to counteract ambition so he knows that each branch the people within that branch are gonna want to increase their own power they're also going to jealously guard the power that they have and they're gonna try to prevent the other branches from taking that power from them so he says give each of them a little bit of power influence over the other branches that's checks and balances and he says by doing this they will ensure that no other branch gets too much power because they want to make sure that they don't lose their own power so in Federalist number 70 Hamilton is here arguing in favor of a unitary executive this means the power the presidency should be held by a single person rather than having like a councilor group holding that power together now at first this might sound really strange because isn't the whole point of the Constitution to make sure that no one person or group has too much power so why give all that power to one person well for one thing Hamilton says that it'll be more efficient and it'll be more effective it'll be able to respond faster in moments of crisis than a group would a group would bicker they would fight with each other they would debate but are we sure that we want the president acting fast well here Hamilton says yes he says that while it is good for Congress to be slow and deliberative remember that long process we have of making a bill he says that's fine they should be slow cuz lawmaking that's the real power he says but once that law is made you need somebody who can enforce it and enact it quickly and can respond especially in emergencies moments of crisis so he says the solution is to have a unitary executive but Hamilton doesn't stop with the efficiency argument he says that actually public opinion will have more power over a single president than it would over a council or a group and the reason for this he says is because when things are going badly people will know exactly who to blame and who to hold accountable when things are going well they'll know who to give credit for he says if they were a council they would be pointing fingers at each other and the people would never really know who is doing a good job and who's doing a poor job therefore public opinion wouldn't be as an effective a check on a group as it is against a single person so not only is it more effective and more efficient but it actually caused the present to be more accountable to the people Federalist number 78 is all about an independent judiciary so Hamilton here is arguing that the judicial branch needs to be independent of the other two branches the judicial branch needs to be able to freely use their power of judicial review to rule on the constitutionality of laws made by Congress and actions of the president so by having this job for life having the guarantee that their pay can't be cut or reduced based on their rulings judges can now focus on ruling the proper way on protecting the Constitution protecting the rights of citizens from those other two branches and he says that wouldn't be possible if they were alliant on Congress the president for their job security now maybe you're thinking well that's a lot of power because now there's no check on them because they can't lose their jobs or have their pay cut and there's a little bit of truth of that obviously but what Hamilton argues is that the judicial branch is beyond comparison of the weakest branch of government he says that they have neither force nor will so unlike Congress who has the will of the people the democratically elected branch unlike the president who has the power of force he can execute laws he's commander in chief he has an army he says that all the judicial branch has is merely judgment all they can do is say something they can just rule that something is right or wrong and it doesn't stop there they only have judgment they can't even enforce their own rulings they rely on the president or state and local governments others to enforce their rulings for them so he says they are beyond a doubt the weakest branch so don't worry that they have this job for life they can't take away your liberty and oppress you anyway and finally we have letter from Birmingham jail and we can view this document as a demand for the fulfilment of those founding documents so Martin Luther King jr. here is arguing that those words in those founding documents they're beautiful they're nice words all men created equal the preamble of the Constitution saying We the People and the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection Clause which guarantees that States cannot deprive any citizen of their equal protection under law he says those words are great but make it happen now he is demanding the fulfillment of those words demanding that they become more inclusive and that all Americans are part of that We the People I also are within this document he defends the tactics of the civil rights movement he argues forcefully in favor of civil disobedience this is when a person intentionally breaks the law he's saying that these Pro segregation Jim Crow laws that they are immoral that they violate the natural rights of men and therefore you do not have to follow them in fact he says that an unjust law is no law at all therefore citizens not only can break these laws but they actually have a duty or an obligation to not follow a law that goes against the person's natural rights all right so there it is all your required documents if you need more specifics on any of these individual ones you know I have videos for you till next time this has been allamani production thanks again for watching this video make sure you hit that like button subscribe for me if you haven't already check out the ultimate review packet as a practice multiple-choice test has a ton of great study guides good content for you guys everything you need to get ready for that exam see you next time

Channel: Carey LaManna

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Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 13 2020