Week 6 Quiz

A classmate says a country has limited government because it has a constitution. Which statement matches the course's definition of constitutionalism?

Select one.

• Having a single written document that names every office of government
• Holding regular elections that the people in power can lose
• The fundamental rules actually binding the people who rule
• A court holding the power to set aside laws it finds invalid

Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution reads "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States". Which of a constitution's jobs does this fragment do?

Select one.

• It limits Congress by naming things Congress may not do
• It creates an office and empowers it with legislative power
• It entrenches the text by requiring supermajorities to change it
• It divides power between the national government and the States

Which statement accurately describes the U.K. model of a constitution as this course teaches it?

Select one.

• Its rules are spread across statutes, judicial decisions, and conventions, with a formally sovereign Parliament
• It has no rules that bind officeholders, because it lacks a single written document
• It gathers every fundamental rule into one supreme document that outranks ordinary law
• It can be changed only when three fourths of the nations within it ratify an amendment

The Senate has 100 members, two from each State, so there are 50 States. Article V requires three fourths of the States to ratify an amendment. How many States must ratify?

Select one.

• 26
• 37
• 50
• 38

In the illustrative country of Ostrel, the president can dismiss any judge at will. Which element of the rule of law does this fail?

Select one.

• Publicity
• Generality
• Independent enforcement
• Stability

A made-up federation lets its provinces run their own schools while the national government runs the border posts. Which concept names this arrangement?

Select one.

• Federalism, a vertical division of power between levels of government
• Separation of powers, a horizontal division of power among branches
• Checks and balances, tools that let one branch resist another
• Entrenchment, rules made harder to change than ordinary law

Which statements about The Federalist No. 51 (1788) are accurate as this course teaches it? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• The Avalon Project header reads "HAMILTON OR MADISON", an old dispute the editors of Madison's papers call settled in his favor
• The essay contains the sentence "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."
• Hamilton is the essay's settled author, so the header records no real dispute
• The essay's sentence on this point reads "ambition must counteract ambition."
• Its authorship is unknown, so the essay should be cited only as anonymous

In this week's fragment sort, how is "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." from Federalist No. 51 labelled?

Select one.

• Normative, because it states a design rule for government
• A definition to apply, like the No. 10 definition of faction
• Normative, because it prescribes what officeholders ought to do
• Empirical-leaning, a conditional claim about human nature

A constitution attaches power to offices rather than to the persons who hold them. Which of Weber's (1919) types of legitimate authority does that kind of rulebook support?

Select one.

• Traditional authority, resting on custom and long practice
• Legal-rational authority, resting on rules and the office
• Charismatic authority, resting on devotion to a leader
• Raw power, resting on the capacity to force compliance

Because a constitution attaches power to an office rather than to a person, the powers of the office stay with the office when a different person comes to hold it.

True or false.

• True
• False