Enlightenment Ideals and American Government Principles

Vocabulary flashcards covering the Enlightenment concepts, foundational principles, key thinkers, and core historical documents described in the AP Government and Politics transcript.

Enlightenment

A European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that applied rational, philosophical, and evidence-based methods from the scientific revolution to social realities like political systems.

Natural Rights

The concept that human beings possess inherent rights by virtue of being born, which cannot be taken away or infringed upon by a government.

John Lockach

An Enlightenment thinker who viewed the state of nature as a pristine environment where people pursue their natural rights to life, liberty, and property through reason and level-headedness.

Thomas Hob

An Enlightenment thinker who argued that life in a state of nature without governmental laws is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle arguing that the ultimate power to govern belongs to all people in a society.

Social Contract

An agreement among people in a society to surrender some freedoms to create a government that maintains social order and protects their natural rights.

Jean Jacqu Rouso

Enlightenment thinker and author of The Social Contract who asserted that power remains with the people and that citizens have an obligation to replace a tyrannical government.

Limited Government

A system where government power is not absolute, operating under structural restrictions and remaining answerable to the people.

Separation of Powers

The horizontal division of governmental power into three distinct and independent branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

Baron de Montiscu

Enlightenment author of The Spirit of the Laws who articulated the principles of dividing government power into branches and utilizing checks and balances.

Checks and Balances

A constitutional design that controls government power by allowing each independent branch to restrain abuses of authority by the other branches.

Federalism

The vertical distribution and sharing of power between a national government and state governments.

Republicanism

A form of governance where the work of policymaking is conducted by elected representatives who are accountable to the people.

Declaration of Independence

The official colonial breakup letter drafted by Thomas Jefferson that embedded Enlightenment ideals such as natural rights, popular sovereignty, and social contract theory.

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution of the United States, which was eventually replaced following the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Gettysburg Address

An 1863 speech by President Abraham Lincoln that reframed the Civil War as a test of whether a government founded on equality and popular sovereignty could endure.