2009 FRQ #1

Post date: Apr 04, 2013 7:11:48 PM

1. In The Federalist paper number 10, James Madison expressed concern over the possibility that both majority 

and minority factions would have too much power over government, and he presented ways of minimizing 

that danger. The United States Constitution established a democratic government but also contained several 

provisions that limited majority rule. Throughout the next two centuries, the role of majority rule in the 

United States government and politics continued to change. (2009)

(a) Identify the part of the national government that was originally most closely tied to citizens and explain how 

it was tied to citizens. 

(b) Explain two ways the United States Constitution limited majority rule. 

(c) Choose two of the following twentieth-century developments and explain how each moved the United States 

from a less democratic system to a more democratic system. 

• Primary elections 

• The Seventeenth Amendment 

• Expansion of suffrage