Autocracy
A form of government where one individual (or a small group of people) make all of the decisions without consulting anyone
Democracy
A form of government where citizens vote to make the decisions
Monarchy
An autocratic form of government where a king or queen has all of the power and makes the decisions
Dictatorship
An autocratic form of government where a dictator takes all of the power by force and makes all of the decisions
Direct democracy
A form of government where citizens come together and vote on laws and other things like court trials
Representative democracy/republic
A form of government where citizens elect representatives that make the decisions, like laws
Natural rights
The idea that people are born with certain rights that can never be taken away by a government, like life, liberty, freedom, etc.
Separation of powers
The idea that different powers should be separated between different people (or groups of people) so that no one person can get all of the power
3 Parts of the Constitution
Preamble, Articles, Amendments
Legislative Branch
Congress makes laws (in Article I of the Constitution)
Executive Branch
the President carries out/enforces the laws (in Article II of the Constitution)
Judicial Branch
the Supreme Court interprets the laws (in Article III of the Constitution)
Veto
the power of the President to reject a bill passed by the Legislative Branch
Roots of American Government
1. Athenian direct democracy
2. Roman republic
3. the Magna Carta
4. the English Bill of Rights
5. separation of powers
6. natural rights
Judicial review
the power of the Supreme Court to cancel out laws passed by Congress that go against the Constitution
Checks and balances
a system of limits on government where each branch has the power to cancel out the action of another branch
Federalism
a system of dividing government into 3 levels (local, state, national) and giving each level different powers and responsibilities
preamble
introduces the Constitution, gives us the goals of our government
articles
gives us the framework for our govt. and how it works (the three branches)
amendments
changes to the Constitution, usually give citizens more rights