Principles of our Government Unit Notes
Principle – a standard, such as a guide to behavior; rule; policy; belief
Popular sovereignty – Basic principle of the American system of government; that the people are the only source of any and all governmental power, that government must be conducted with the consent of the governed; a republican system where the people select representatives to represent their interests as they make and carry out laws (representative government)
- Government can govern only with the consent of the governed.
- Sovereign people created the Constitution and the government.
- Preamble to the Constitution – “We the people of the United States … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Limited government – Basic principle of the American system of government; that government is limited in what it may do, and each individual has certain rights that government cannot take way; the philosophy that the national government has only those powers given to it in the Constitution; if a power is not listed, the national government is assumed not to have it; constitutionalism
- Government may do only those things that the people have given it the power to do.
- The government and its officers are always subject to the law. (rule of law)
- 1st Amendment – “ Congress shall make no law ….”
Separation of powers – Basic principle of the American system of government; that the executive, legislative, and judicial powers are divided among three independent and coequal branches of government; a system of distinct powers built into the constitution
- The Constitution distributes the powers of the National Government among Congress (legislative branch), the President (executive branch), and the courts (judicial branch).
- The legislative branch is the lawmaking branch; the executive branch is the law-executing, law-enforcing, law-administering powers branch; the judiciary branch is the interrupts and
applies the laws of the united States to cases brought before them.
- The Framers of the Constitution created a separation of powers in order to limit the powers of the government and to prevent tyranny – too much power in the hands of one person or a few people.
- Madison in Federalist #47 – “The accumulation of powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
- (chart demonstrating separation of powers)
Checks and balances – System of overlapping the powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, to permit each branch to check the actions of the others; to prevent an accumulation of power in one branch and in order to ensure each branch can stop the others from growing too powerful
- Each branch of government was subject to a number of constitutional restraints by the other branches.
- Although there have been instances of spectacular clashes between the branches, usually the branches of government restrain themselves as they attempt to achieve their goals.
- demonstrating checks and balances)
Judicial review – Power of the courts to determine the constitutionality of the actions of the legislative and executive branches of government
- Judicial review is the power of a court to determine the constitutionality of a governmental action.
- Through the landmark case Marbury v. Madison (1803), the judiciary branch possesses the power to determine the constitutionality of an action of the government.
- In most cases the judiciary has supported the constitutionality of government acts; but in more than 130 cases, the courts have found congressional cats to by unconstitutional, and they have voided thousands of acts of State and local governments.
Federalism – the division of power among a central government and several regional governments; national government in Washington, D.C. and the 50 states; form of government with governmental powers divided between a central government and several regional governments. In the United States, the division of powers between the National Government and the 50 States is made by the Constitution; a system of dual sovereignty; the people delegate certain powers to the national government, while the states and the people retain those powers not delegated; medical marijuana laws, physician assistance suicide laws, recreational use of marijuana laws.
- Federalism is the division of political power among a central government (think Washington, D.C.) and several regional governments(think state governments).
- United States federalism originated in American rebellion against the edicts of a distant central government in England (think King of England).
- Federalism is a compromise between a strict central government and a loose confederation, such as that provided for in the Articles of Confederation.
- (chart demonstrating the concept of federalism)
Individual freedom – rights and privileges as citizens; each person is born with freedom from arbitrary or unjustified restraint
Justice – fairness of our legal system that is supposedly blind; the law when it is applied or carried out in a fair way; to do it the right way; impartiality
Economic opportunity – possibility to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, turn a dime into a fortune, offer our children a better life, achieve our dreams through hard work and smart choices; right to obtain and control possessions, as well as the fruits of our labor
Equality – all men (people) are created equal; the understanding that there is no natural class of rulers among the people, all are born with the same unalienable rights among others to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; a condition of being on par (in importance, rank, power, etc.); identical; being the same or alike in terms of opportunity
Civic Engagement – the opportunity to join together to address community issues; political participation; joining a political party, help out with a campaign, join a civic group, join a community group, tell an elected official your opinion on an issue, call your elected officials, publicly support or oppose an issue or policy, voting, running for office, and/or write to a newspaper