First Quarter Review
American Government
Types and Forms of Gov’t
• Types:
• Democracy (direct and
indirect)
• Non-Democracy
(dictatorships, theocracy,
communism, etc.
• How are leaders chosen?
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Forms:
Unitary
Confederate
Federal
• How is power
distributed?
Dictatorship
• People are controlled by force or threats
• One leader or a small group of leaders
• Also: totalitarian, authoritarian, absolute power,
tyranny
• NOT: participation, equal, individual rights,
representative, democracy, liberty
Democracy
• The people participate in government
• Direct: the people make the decisions themselves
• Indirect: the people vote for leaders who make
the decisions
• Most democracies (ours included) are
INDIRECT.
FEDERAL
• Also: federalism, anti-federal
• Power of government is divided and shared
between national, state, and local levels
• NOT: confederate, unitary
Confederate
• Power is SPREAD OUT among states.
• Each is SOVEREIGN. It has complete control
inside its own borders.
• The South during the Civil War called itself the
“Confederacy.” They believed each state should
be able to make its own laws without DC telling
it what to do. The laws they were worried about
concerned slavery.
Unitary
• Power is CONCENTRATED in one
government that controls the whole
country.
• There might be local governments, but they are
much weaker. They take directions from the
national gov’t.
Purposes of Gov’t
• Stated in the Preamble to the Constitution
• We the people of the United States, in order to form a
more perfect union,
• establish justice,
• insure domestic tranquility,
• provide for the common defense,
• promote the general welfare, and
• secure the blessings of liberty
• to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
Principles of Gov’t
• A principle is a basic idea, a foundation
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1. Limited government
2. Majority rule
3. Separation of powers
4. Checks and balances
5. Consent of the governed
6. Republicanism/representative democracy
7. Rule of law
8. Equality of opportunity
9. Individual rights and responsibilities
10.Federalism
11.Judicial review
Limited Government
• Gov’t is limited by a set of rules
• Our Constitution limits gov’t in many
ways:
• Can’t pass laws making criticism illegal
(freedoms of speech, press)
• Officials must be elected, can’t stay in
office forever (term limits)
Majority Rule
• A small group can’t control the gov’t
• Majority= 50% +1
• Large group makes decisions, like who to
elect President, which laws to pass in
Congress
Separation of Power
• Idea that the branches of government share power
separately; no one can get too powerful
• President, Congress, and Court all have their own
jobs
• Also: checks and balances (veto, confirming,
ratifying, judicial review)
• EX: Bush wanted to fight Iraq, had to ask
Congress for the money ($87 billion)
Checks And Balances
• Related to separation of power
• Means that each branch has a “check” blocking
some power of the other branch
• President: veto laws
• Congress: “power of the purse (the money),
reject appointments
• Supreme Court: judicial review of laws, lifetime
terms
Consent of the Governed
• Officials need agreement from the people
they work for
• They get elected
• Sometimes they can get un-elected (recall)
• Power comes from the agreement. If the
agreement goes away, so does the power; a
new person gets elected
Republican/Representative
Democracy
• Not everyone gets to make gov’t decisions,
new laws
• That would be DIRECT democracy
• Everyone gets to VOTE on leaders,
• The LEADERS make the important
decisions
Rule of Law
• Laws are more important than people
• Even the most important people (the
President, Congress, Supreme Court) are
not allowed to break laws
Equality of Opportunity
• Older: Gov’t can’t use power to make
unequal opportunities
• Modern: Gov’t must use its power to create
more equal opportunities
Individual Rights and
Responsibilities
• Gov’t can never overpower a few specific
individual rights
• With those rights come responsibilities: if
you vote, you might have to serve on a
jury;
• Individuals have freedom of speech, but
must be responsible not to threaten or lie
Federalism
• The national government is in charge
• There are state gov’ts sharing some
powers:
• Taxes
• Making laws
• Also, local gov’ts share powers, esp. taxes
Judicial Review
• Judges (usually the Supreme Court) get to
review laws to decide if they fit under the
Constitution
Due Process
• Legal (court) procedures—the process that
gov’t MUST use, especially where a
citizen might lose some freedom
Some words I saw on the test . . .
• Justice: fairness, esp.
in court (“under the
law”)
• Sovereignty:
complete control over
your own land
• tranquility: peace,
order
• Parliament: elected
group of lawmakers
(like Congress).
• Debate: argument
with rules
• Absolute: complete,
total
• Criticism: point out
strengths and
weaknesses,
(especially of a gov’t)
• Uninformed: not
having important info
• Domestic: in the US;
opposite of foreign, or
outside the US
• Constituent: person
represented by a leader in
Congress
• Constituency: all the
people represented by one
Congressman (or woman)
• International: outside
the US, also foreign
• Constitution: a written
document setting out the
“rules” for a gov’t
• Indispensable: too
important to do
without
• Guarantee: promise
that can’t be broken
• Nullification: cancel,
stop
• Geography: physical
characteristics of a
place
• Unanimous: getting
100% of the votes
• Unconstitutional:
against the “rules” of
gov’t
• Foreign policy: gov’t
dealings with other
countries
• Principle: basic idea
• Oligarchy: small
group rule
• Judicial: concerning
judges, deciding whether
laws are OK
• Executive: concerning
presidents or other leader
who Enforce laws
• Congressional:
concerning Congress,
making laws
• Executive privilege:
keeping president’s
decision process secret
• Oversight: watching over
something (usually to
make sure $$ is spent
well)
Multiple Choice
• Read each answer!!!!! There are only 20
questions.
• Try to eliminate the ones that are clearly
wrong
• Double check scantron to make sure
numbering agrees
Final Words of Wisdom
• Stay relaxed; move on through things you don’t
know . . . find things you do!
• If you’ve NEVER heard of it, it’s probably NOT
the right answer.
• Don’t worry . . . it’s only 10% of your grade.
• Answer everything so you take every possible
chance to get points.