Unit 3 Flashcards

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