Civic Duties & Rights
Paying taxes, serving on a jury, and obeying laws are all examples of this type of legally required action.
What is a civic obligation?
This primary principle states that no person-including government leaders and elected officials-is above the law.
What is the rule of law?
This philosopher proposed that three natural rights: life, liberty, and property belong to all individuals.
Who is John Locke?
The Founding Fathers created legislative, executive, and judicial branches to establish this balance with the U.S. Constitution. (This idea came from Montesquieu)
What is separation of powers (or checks and balances)?
In this form of government, citizens elect officials to make laws and represent them, which is the system of the U.S.
What is a representative democracy (or republic)?
Unlike an obligation, voting and volunteering in your community fall into this category because they are voluntary.
What is a civic responsibility?
The Rule of Law protects citizens from this form of oppressive government rule by preventing leaders from abusing their power.
What is tyranny?
This French thinker argued that government powers should be divided into separate branches to prevent tyranny.
Who is Baron de Montesquieu?
Signed in 1215, this famous English document established that free men could not be imprisoned without the "lawful judgment of peers".
What is the Magna Carta?
This is the core similarity shared by both Direct Democracies and Representative Democracies.
What is "rule by the people"?
This civic obligation ensures that individuals accused of a crime are tried fairly by peers rather than a single official.
What is jury duty?
An example of the Rule of Law in action is when a high-ranking official faces this consequence after committing a crime.
What is being arrested and tried (or being held legally responsible)?
According to Locke, citizens enter into this explicit agreement with their government, trading some unlimited freedoms for protection of rights.
What is a social contract?
The Magna Carta's requirement of a "lawful judgment of peers" directly influenced this U.S. constitutional right.
What is the right to a trial by a jury?
A government ruled by a single person with complete, unrestricted power.
What is an autocracy?
Planning a neighborhood recycling program or helping repair damaged community buildings after a flood are actions that promote this overall goal.
What is the common good?
Secret trials and unequal rights violate the Rule of Law because the principle requires transparency and this type of protection for all citizens.
What is due process?
Under Social Contract Theory, citizens reserve this radical right if their government consistently violates natural rights.
What is the right to alter or overthrow (rebel against) the government?
Calling a king a "tyrant unfit to be the ruler of free people" in early American documents reflects the idea that rulers lose the right to govern when they violate this.
What are individual liberties (or natural rights/the social contract)?
A form of government where state laws are dictated by religion or a divine authority.
What is a theocracy?
Taxes are mandatory rather than voluntary because they fund these essential government provisions, such as roads, schools, fire department.
What are public services?
Name two of the three main indicators of a society governed by the Rule of Law.
What are 1. clear, public, stable laws, 2. fair/equal enforcement, 3. an independent judiciary
Enlightenment thinkers rejected traditional ideas like divine right and royal authority, advocating instead that government systems be based on natural law and this human capability.
What is reason (or human reason)?
Two key principles introduced in the Magna Carta that carried over into the U.S. Constitution are limited government and this procedural protection.
What is DUE PROCESS?
Under this political and economic system, major resources and industries are owned by the government and shared by the public.
What is socialism?