Six Basic Principles
The Constitution did not give the
American people many details
about their government. Instead,
the Framers wrote it around six
broad ideas, or principles.
Popular Sovereignty

Popular sovereignty
means that all
government power
belongs to the people.
The people give the
government the power it
holds. Through the
Constitution, the
American people set up
their government and told
it what it could do.
Limited Government

Limited government
means that the
government has only the
powers that the people
give it. The government
must obey the
Constitution. And the
people who work in
government, its officials,
must always obey the
law.
Separation of Powers

Separation of powers
means that three
separate parts, or
branches, share the
government's power.
These branches are the
executive (president),
the legislative
(congress), and the
judicial (courts). Each
branch has specific
jobs.
Checks And Balances

The Constitution made sure none of
the branches could become too
powerful. Each branch has ways to
limit the power of the other two. This
principle is called checks and
balances. The president can say no,
or veto, one of the congress's laws.
Or Congress can refuse to approve
an official the president wants to
appoint, such as a justice of the
Supreme Court. Or the court can
strike down an action of the
executive branch. At times, the
branches have disagreed. Because of
our democratic system and its checks
and balances, the branches try to
compromise.
Judicial Review

Judicial review is a part of
the checks-and -balances
system. This power lets
courts decide what the
words in the Constitution
mean. The courts can also
say if something the
government does is
unconstitutional, or against
the Constitution.
Federalism

The Framers used the
principle of federalism to
divide the government's
power between a central
government and smaller
regional governments. In
the United States, this
division is between the
national government in
Washington, D.C., and the
50 States.