3.1 NOTES Basic Principals of The Constitution

Five Basic Principals The Constitution is based on five basic principals These ideas form the basis for the rules that the Constitution establishes

Popular Sovereignty 1. Popular Sovereignty means that the government’s authority comes from the people The first lines of the Constitution read “ We the People of the United States…” The Constitution establishes a republic where the leaders are elected by the people

Limited Government 2. The Constitution sets up guidelines for how the government can act It establishes limits to their power and states what they can and can’t do

Separation of Powers 3. Divided the powers of the federal government between three branches Legislative, Executive and Judicial

Checks and Balances 4. Checks and Balances allow branches of government to restrain each other’s powers To be sure no one branch becomes too powerful

Federalism 5. Federalism balances the power between national and state governments There are also powers that are shared between the two these are called concurrent powers

Assignment Complete questions 2-5 on page 67