Lets Vote on it
Originally our country only had one branch, a body of representatives that are elected by citizens to vote on laws on their behalf.
What is the Legislative Branch?
This idea was a source of inspiration for the founding fathers when laying out the relationship between people and government. It's the idea that citizens agree to give up some freedom to the government in exchange for the security and order that government provides.
What is the Social Contract?
Divides governmental authority into legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with each branch having its own job to prevent any single branch from getting too powerful.
what is separation of powers?
Like the CEO of a company, this individual is the leader of the Executive Branch.
Who is the President?
This influential document from 1200's England limited the power of government by limiting the king’s power. It turned England into a limited monarchy and established important rights.
What is The Magna Carta?
A type of democracy in which policies and laws are voted on by every citizen instead of a group of elected representatives.
What is a Direct Democracy?
This catch all term for the religion traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam inspired our founding fathers with their ideas of Ethical Ideas of Justice, Individual Rights and Personal Responsibility.
What is the Judeo-Christian Tradition?
The principle of government that says everyone, including the government, is accountable under the law
what is Rule of Law
This is the word for our first form of Government in the United States, it had a very weak Federal Government and the states held the majority of the power.
What is a Confederal Government?
When a group of religious settler's ship was blown off course, they landed in an unsettled area of New England called Plymouth Rock. Before leaving the ship they drafted this now famous document, which outlined the rules and limits of their government. (it was named after their ship)
What is the Mayflower Compact?
A type of Democracy where citizens elect representatives to make decisions and govern on their behalf, instead of voting directly on policies and laws.
What is a Representative Democracy or a Republic?
This ancient civilization influenced our founding fathers, namely the way they divided their government into separate branches, we also modeled our Representative Democracy after their Republic. (think gladiators not salads...)
What is Ancient Rome?
These kinds of laws promote justice based on the ideas of right and wrong
What are Ethical Laws?
This was the document for America's first Government. It was list of 13 articles that strong states rights and a weak federal government, the idea being to avoid the abuse of power they saw in England.
What are The Articles of Confederation?
This List of rights and freedoms for English citizens was used by our Founding Fathers both in drafting up their own government documents as well as an example of the rights they were being denied as American Colonists.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
The idea that citizens should take part in government , including voting for elected officials and legislation, proposing and voting on laws, serving on a jury and running for office was popularized by the Ancient Greeks.
What is Civic Participation?
This is a document that lists fundamental principles or established rules that a state or country has to follow. While very normal today, they were revolutionary in 600 BCE
what is a Constitution?
A system where each of the three branches of government has the power to limit or "check" the actions of the other branches, preventing any one branch from becoming too powerful
what are checks and balances?
This group of people with the constitutional or legal task to rule a country or state, or advise a head of state, usually from the executive branch. Their members are known as ministers and secretaries
What is the Cabinet?
The declaration of independence has 4 main Sections, the last of which is to declare our separation from Great Britain and the formation of our own country. Name the 3rd section and how many items are listed on it
What is the List of (27) Grievances?
England has this type of Government where a leader, usually a King or Queen serving as head of state, but their powers are restricted by a constitution or law giving people more power in their government.
What is a Limited Monarchy?
This term describes the principle that citizens of the united states have certain rights when it comes to the law. They have to be charged with a crime when arrested, they have the right to an attorney and a jury of their peers, and they must be punished in a predetermined manner, like jailtime, a fine or probation.
What is Due Process of Law?
This founding principle of government helps prevent power from being abused, by dividing governmental power between central (whole country) and regional (individual states) bodies.
what is Federalism?
Both of these chambers, known together as congress make up the Legislative Branch work together to pass legislation. One has members based on state population while the other has two members per state.
What are the House of Representatives and the Senate?
This man is credited at the primary author of the declaration of indepence, although all of our founding fathers contributed to its contents.
Who is Thomas Jefferson?