Brains Behind the State
English thinker who defined Natural Rights as Life, Liberty, and Property.
Who is John Locke
The 1689 British document that stripped absolute power from the monarch and gave it to Parliament.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
The political movement that shifted power away from an absolute King to an elected Parliament.
What is the Glorious Revolution?
System of government where power is divided between a national government and state governments
What is Federalism?
The primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
Who is Thomas Jefferson?
Enlightenment thinker who advocated for dividing power into three separate branches
Who is Baron de Montesquieu?
The 1215 historic document that first limited the power of the English King
What is the Magna Carta?
The 1730s–1740s religious movement that encouraged colonists to question traditional authority.
What is the Great Awakening?
A system of government ruled by a single, unchecked leader with absolute power
What is an autocracy?
Rights that precede politics or government and cannot be taken away.
What are Natural Rights?
Philosopher who argued that humans form a social contract to escape a chaotic state of nature.
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
The 1620 agreement signed by Pilgrims establishing self-government in the New World
What is the Mayflower Compact?
The shift from religious leaders controlling beliefs to individuals having a direct relationship with God.
What is individual equality / direct relationship with God?
A government system where citizens vote directly on laws rather than electing representatives.
What is a direct democracy?
The fundamental idea that government power comes directly from the consent of the governed.
What is Popular Sovereignty?
Enlightenment thinker who wrote about the Social Contract and popular sovereignty
Who is Jean-Jacques Rousseau?
The colonial grievance involving soldiers being forced into private homes, later addressed in the U.S. Constitution.
What is quartering troops?
The colonial movement away from European monarchies that led colonists to demand representative governance.
What is the American Revolution
Type of legislature that features two distinct voting houses.
What is a bicameral legislature?
The right of citizens to alter or abolish a government if it becomes tyrannical.
What is the right to alter or abolish government?
Term for the agreement where people give up some freedom to a government in exchange for protection of their rights.
What is the Social Contract?
The 1689 legal protection that directly inspired the U.S. 8th Amendment's prohibition on harsh punishments.
What is the ban on cruel and unusual punishment?
The concept that rulers must follow written laws and cannot rule by personal whim
What is the Rule of Law?
A political system where voters elect representatives to make laws and govern on their behalf
What is a representative democracy
The three specific rights highlighted by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
What are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?