| A | B |
|---|
| Popular Sovereignty | the people are the only source of government power. |
| Limited Government | holds that government is NOT all-powerful, that it may do ONLY those things that the people have given it the power to do. |
| Constitutionalism | government must be conducted according to constutional principles. |
| Rule of the Law | government and its officers ar always subject to- never above that law |
| Seperation of powers | Basic princeable of the American system of goverment, that the executive, legislative, and judicial powers are divided among three independent and coequal branches of government |
| Checks and blances. | system of overlapping the powers of the legislative,executive, and judical branches to permit each branch to check the actions of the others. |
| Judicial review | the power to decide wether what government does is in accord with whatthe Constitution provides. |
| Federalism | the division of power among a central government and several regional goverments- cam to the Constituation out of both exoerience and nescessity. |
| Amendment | A change in, opr additon to, a constutution or law |
| Formal amendment | Changes or additons that become part of the written language of the Constitution itself. |
| First Method | An amendment may be proposed by 2/3rds vote in each house of Congress and be radified bt 3/4ths of the State legislatures. |
| Second Methond | An amendment may be proposed by Congress and then ratidued by conventions called for that purpose, in 3/4ths of the States |
| Third Method | An amendment may be proposed by a national convention ,called by Congress at the request of 2/3rds of the State legislatures. |
| Fourth Method | An amendment may be proposed by a ntational convention and ratified by concentions in three-fourths of the States. |
| Bill of Rights | The first 10 admenments to the Constitution. |
| Informal amendment | the process by which many changes have been made in the Consitution that have not lef to changes in the documents written words. |
| Executive agreement | A pact made by the Presidtent directly with the head of a foreign state. |
| Court Decisions | The nation's courts, most tellingly the United States Supreme Court, interpret and apply the Constutution in many cases they hear, |
| Party Practies | The nation's political parties have also been a mahor sources of informal amendment over the course of American political history. |
| Custom | Unwritten customs may be as strong as written laws, and many customs have develped in our governmental system. |
