AP Government Unit 1

Limited Government

Limited Government

people in democratic societies admit the need for a government but it only has powers delegated to it by law, ex: Jefferson faced cognitive dissonance when buying the Louisiana Territory because he believed he could only be given power if stated in the constitution

Enlightenment

European Intellectual Movement, influenced the founders of the United States

Natural Rights

the idea that people are born with certain rights that are given to them by their creator (were not given and can not be taken by a monarch)

John Locke

contributed to the idea of natural rights, wrote the Two Treatises of Government that says people are endowed just by virtue of being born a human with the rights of life, liberty and property

State of Nature

Locke and Hobbes argued that humans are free and that comes before any government

Thomas Hobbes

contributed to the idea of natural rights but said that government was necessary as a device for ensuring collective security

Popular Sovereignty/ Social Contract

that idea that by nature the power to govern is in the hands of the people, and to protect their natural rights people willingly give over some of that power to a government, AKA the state is the servant of the people

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

wrote the treatise called the Social Contract, additionally he wrote that if the government violates the agreement, it is the people’s duty to overthrow that government

Republicanism

a form of government that means people elect leaders to represent them and create laws in the public interest, to keep this government from becoming tyrannical, he argued that power ought to be separated between three branches: executive, legislative and judicial

Baron de Montesquieu

wrote the book The Spirit of Laws, which had many beliefs on republicanism

Declaration of Independence

outlined the reasons for the official break between American colonies and British Empire, written by Thomas Jefferson with help from John Adams and Benjamin Franklin