*Click on the pictures to see a real life example*
Popular Sovereignty
Popular Sovereignty is defined as "a doctrine in political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people". This simply means that the citizens of the country are in charge of the government and how it is run. People are allowed to vote on who represents them in a government position. Then the person who was elected represents the people of their area and their opinions.
Separation Of Powers
The separation of powers allows for the government to be separated into different groups. This allows them all to focus on one job only. This also makes it so one group not to have all the power. They are separated into the Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Legislative is in charge of making laws; the executive is in charge of enforcing the laws; the judicial decides on the punishments for those who break the law.
Judicial Review
Judicial review allows for the Judicial Branch to decide on punishments that government officials deserve. If the President broke the law the Judicial review allows for a court to decide what consequences the president deserves to have. No government official is above the law of the citizens.
Limited Government
A limited government defines how much power the government can have, which is decided on how much the people give them. This is why we vote on how much taxes are, we decide how much money the government can take from us. This is all decided on by a majority of the population.
Checks and Balances
The system of checks and balances was designed to keep one branch of the government from getting to much power. If one branch has more than the other groups, the others either help do decrease the powers of that group, or build themselves up so they are on the same level.
Federalism
Federalism is the idea of splitting political power between a large group and smaller groups. In the case of the united states, there is state government and a national (or federal) government. The state government is in charge of a small portion of people who live within their state, and the national government controls everyone who lives in the nation.