Founding Documents
This document begins with the words “We the People.”
What is the United States Constitution?
This principle means the government gets its power from the people.
What is popular sovereignty?
These are the two major political parties in the modern day.
What is the Democratic and Republican Parties?
This term means the amount of a good or service people are willing to buy.
What is demand?
This level of government is closest to the people and includes counties, cities, and towns.
What is local government?
This branch of government interprets laws.
What is the judicial branch?
This document listed complaints against King George III and declared independence from Britain.
What is the Declaration of Independence?
This principle divides power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What is separation of powers?
This amendment gave women the right to vote.
What is the Nineteenth Amendment?
This economic system is based mostly on voluntary exchange and private ownership.
What is free market economy?
This local official is usually responsible for enforcing laws in a county.
What is a sheriff?
The two houses of Congress are these.
What are the Senate and House of Representatives?
This document created America’s first national government before the Constitution.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
This principle prevents any one branch from becoming too powerful.
What are checks and balances?
This system is used in the United States where the candidate with the most votes in a state receives all the electoral votes from that state.
What is the winner-take-all system?
This is money the government collects to pay for services like roads and schools.
What are taxes?
This elected group creates local laws and approves budgets for a city.
What is a city council?
This document established the plan for Virginia’s government.
What is the Constitution of Virginia?
This document established the principle of rule of law.
What is the Magna Carta?
This principle says everyone, including government leaders, must obey the law.
What is rule of law?
These organizations help nominate candidates and influence public policy.
What are political parties?
This type of business is recongized as a legal entity and can have numerous people involved who all share the profit.
What is a corporation?
This type of local government leader is often responsible as the executive of a city and carrying out policies approved by the council.
What is a mayor?
This Cabinet department is responsible for national defense.
What is the Department of Defense?
This document was written by George Mason and established basic rights that inspired the Bill of Rights.
What is the Virginia Declaration of Rights?
This principle says that the people have the power to elect other people to represent them and make decisions in a government.
What is republicanism (representative government)?
This group officially elects the president of the United States.
What is the electoral college?
This is the inability to satisfy all the wants and needs at once due to limited resources.
What is scarcity?
This is another word for a local law.
What is an ordinance?
This amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 during the Vietnam War era.
What is the Twenty-Sixth Amendment?