Social Studies - Government Notes

What is a government and what does it do? / A government is when a person or group of people have the power to make, enforce, and interpret laws.
Why do people form governments? /
  • To protect individual rights.
  • To provide safety and security.
  • To provide a way to manage conflict.
  • To make, enforce, and interpret laws.

What is Popular Sovereignty? / It means that the power and authority of the government comes from the people.
What is Limited Government? / The national government doesn’t have too much power. It can only do what the people say. The government must obey its own laws.
What is Democracy? / A form of government in which the people have the power to govern.
What is Direct Democracy? / A form of democracy in which the people all meet to make decisions and to create the laws.
What is Representative Democracy? / A form of democracy where the people choose representatives to make decisions for them.
What is the Bill of Rights? / The first 10 amendments
Attention! The questions below all have answers that come in 3’s!!! Study these carefully so that you don’t get confused. These questions will be fill in the blank on the test whereas all the questions above will be multiple choice.
How many parts does the Constitution have? / It has three main parts:
  1. Preamble (or introduction)
  2. Articles
  3. Amendments (changes that have been made to it).

What are the 3 Individual Rights? / Life is the right to live without fear of being injured or killed by others.
Liberty is the right to be free.
Property is the right to own things such as land, a house, or a business.
What are the three branches of the U.S. government?
What does each branch do?
Who makes up each branch?
You will have to know two things (job and who) for each branch. / Legislative – makes the laws; Congress = House of Representatives and Senate
Executive – enforces the law; President and Cabinet
Judicial – checks the laws to make sure they are Constitutional; Supreme Court
What are the three different levels of government found in our country? /
  1. local government
  2. state government
  3. national / federal government

The following two questions are long answer questions (short paragraph).
Why is the Constitution referred to as a “living document”? / Because it can change and grow to fit the needs of the people. It has been amended or changed 27 times since it was first written.
What did the Founders think would happen without a government and laws? /
  • Stronger people might try to take away other people’s rights.
  • Stronger people might force the weaker people to do whatever they wanted them to do.
  • Stronger people might try to take property away from the weaker people.
  • Then the weaker people might join together to try to take away the rights of the stronger people and no one would be safe.
  • Life would be like a constant state of war.