Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
- Ask the one question first: does this writer want the national government to have more power, or less?
- The writer trusts the state government, close to home, and fears a national government far away. That is a wish for less national power.
- Fear of a strong, distant government is the heart of the Anti-Federalist view. Anti-Federalists believed liberty was safest in small republics close to the people.
Answer: Anti-Federalist
Example 2
- Ambition is a strong wish for power. Counteract means work against. In plain words: let one ambitious official’s power be checked by another’s.
- Watch the trap: both sides feared tyranny. The difference is the cure. Is the writer saying the Constitution’s design will prevent tyranny, or cause it?
- Here the cure is the Constitution’s own design, separate branches that check one another. So the writer defends the Constitution: a Federalist.
- These words are from Federalist No. 51, by James Madison.
Answer: Federalist
Where this is taught: Civics, Chapter 4: Federalist or Anti-Federalist? How to tell · Civics, Chapter 4: The two sides, side by side · Civics, Chapter 4: The Federalist Papers · Civics, Chapter 4: The Anti-Federalists in their own words
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 3, Lesson 2: Constitutional Government · Map of the Terrain, topic 14: Founding documents II: Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, the Federalist debate
The drill
Ten questions
Tap your answer to each one. A few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Then press Check my answers at the bottom.Circle your answer to each one; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.