Principles of American Government

The good news is your presentation for your projects is cancelled. The bad news is the presentation for your projects is cancelled. Some were excited and relieved. Some were disappointed because they had been so creative and wanted the chance to show their good work. In any case, I was very proud of the work that went into the preparation of these projects and they will still be graded accordingly.

BUT that leaves 20 more points in the project to make up so here is how to earn the last 20 points on your project: explain each principle of government in a way that shows me you understand it. You can do this on notebook paper or the sheets the others used in class. Here are notes on the principles which will also be available in the make up work file in the classroom:


Popular Sovereignty
Power of the government comes from the people not from itself. People rule the government and not the government rule the people.

Limited Government
The government has to follow its own rules. Government can’t just do whatever it wants or abuse its power

Separation of Power
To prevent the abuse of power, government is separated into three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

Checks and Balances
There is no point in separating power if one branch gets enough power to take over and control the others so each branch is given certain powers to check up on the others.

Judicial Review
The Supreme Court’s power to ultimately declare an act of congress or the president unconstitutional. Note it can’t exert this power whenever it wants only when the case is brought to them.

Federalism
Some powers only the national government has. Some powers only the 50 states individually have. Some powers they both can do.