The Six Basic Principles
The Constitution did not give the American people many details about their government; instead, the Framers of the U.S. Constitution wrote it around six broad ideas, or principles.
Basic Principles:
1. Popular Sovereignty: asserts that the people are the source of any and all government power, and the government can exist only with the consent of the governed.
2. Limited Government: government is restricted in what it may do, and each individual has rights that the government cannot take away.
3. Separation of Powers: executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government are three independent and coequal branches of government.
4. Check and Balances: allows the legislative, executive, and judicial branches to check, or restrain, the actions of one another.
5. Judicial Review: power of a court to determine the constitutionality of a governmental action.
6. Federalism: system of the government in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments.
Basic Principles:
1. Popular Sovereignty: asserts that the people are the source of any and all government power, and the government can exist only with the consent of the governed.
2. Limited Government: government is restricted in what it may do, and each individual has rights that the government cannot take away.
3. Separation of Powers: executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government are three independent and coequal branches of government.
4. Check and Balances: allows the legislative, executive, and judicial branches to check, or restrain, the actions of one another.
5. Judicial Review: power of a court to determine the constitutionality of a governmental action.
6. Federalism: system of the government in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments.