| A | B |
|---|
| amendment | Changes in, or additions to, a constitution. |
| Anti-Federalist | Those persons who opposed the ratifications of the Constitution in 1787-1788 |
| Checks and Balances | The ability of one branch to limit or check the actions of the others to ensure that no one branch becomes too powerful. (Ex: the president may veto legislation passed by Congress; the Senate must confirm major executive appointments; and the courts may declare acts of Congress unconstitutional) |
| Consent of the Governed | John Locke's ideas that the government gets its right to govern from the people, included in the Declaration of Independence. |
| Ex Post Facto | A law applied to an act committed before the law's passage. Such a law violates the Constitution of the United States that states that neither Congress nor any state shall pass an ex post facto law. |
| Federalism | - A form of political organization in which government power is divided between a central government and state subdivisions. |
| Federalist | Supporters of a stronger central government who advocated ratification of the Constitution. |
| Hobbes | English philosopher best known for his book Leviathan (1651), in which he develops the idea of the Social Contract Theory of Government that argues that the only way to secure civil society is through universal submission to the absolute authority of a sovereign. |
| Judicial Review | The power of the courts to determine the constitutionality of the actions of the legislative and executive branches of government. The precedent for Judicial Review was established in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison. |
| Limited Government | Basic principle of American government that states that government is restricted in what it may do and that each individual has rights that government cannot take away. |
| Constitution | A set of customs, traditions, rules and laws that sets forth the way a government is organized and operated. |
| Locke | English philosopher who expanded upon Thomas Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory of Government in his Two Treatises on Government (1690), and influenced the Declaration of Independence. |
| Majority Rule(with minority rights) | A principle of democracy that asserts that the greater number of citizens in any political unit should select officials and determine policies, while not restricting the freedoms/rights of the minority. |
| Marbury v Madison | Established the power of judicial review |
| Popular Sovereignty | - The rule by the people. Basic principle of the American System of government that asserts that the people are the source of any and all governmental power and that government can exist only with the consent of the governed. |
| Ratification/ratify | Formal approval of a constitution, constitutional amendment, or treaty |
| rule of law | The principle in which the law applies to government officials as much as to ordinary citizens. |
| separation of powers | The division of governmental power among three branches that must cooperate in decision-making. |
| social contract | This theory believes a nation exists due to the will of the people and that the power stays with the people, which that nation protects. Concepts that have arisen with social contract include popular sovereignty, limited government, and individual rights. |
| Writ of Habeas Corpus | court order that prevents unjust arrests and imprisonment. |
| Articles of Confederation | First constitution of the United States, 1781. Created a weak national government, replaced in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States. |
| Bill of Rights | First ten amendments to the Constitution that restrict the federal government's power to take away certain basic rights of people. |
| Declaration of Independence | Written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, a list of grievances of the colonists to the British king |
| US Constitution | The fundamental, underlying document, which establishes the government of the United States, which was adopted in 1787. Supreme law of the land. |
