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Government the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies public policies all of those things a government decides to do state a body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority sovereign having supreme and absolute power within its own territory unitary government a government in which all powers held by the government belong to a single, central agency federal government is one in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments confederation is an alliance of independent governments, the central organ has the power to handle only those matters that the member states have assigned to it presidential government features a separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of the government parlimentary government the executive is made up of the prime minister or premier and that official's cabinet dictatorship exists where those who rule cannot be held responsible to the will of the people democracy supreme political authority rests with the people direct democracy exists where the will of the people is translated into public policy directly by the people themselves, in mass meetings representative democracy a small group of persons chosen by the people to act as their representatives expresses the popular will compromise the process of blending and adjusting, of reconciling competing views and interests in order to find the position most acceptable to the largest number anarchy total absence of government limited government a government that is limited in what they can do representative government government should serve the will of the people had also been developing in England for centuries Magna Carta the great charter, gave the people protection from arbitrary acts by the king Petition of Right limited the king's power by demanding that the king not imprison political critics without trial by jury English Bill of Rights prohibited a standing army in peacetime, except with the consent of Parliment, and required that all parlimentary elections be free charter a written grant of from the king bicameral two-house unicameral one house Albany Plan of Union proposed by Ben Franklin, suggested the formation of an annual congress of delegates from each of the 13 colonies, and that body would have the power to to raise military and naval forces, make war and peace with the Native Americans, regulate trade with them, levy taxes, and collect customs duties boycott refusal to buy or sell certain goods constitution bodies of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of their governments popular soverignty government can exist and function only with the consent of the governed ratification formal approval articles of confederation first constitution of the US Framers the people who helped to develop the US constitution Virginia Plan called for new government with three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial New Jersey Plan wouldve kept the unicameral Congress of Confederation, with each of the States equally represented Connecticut Compromise made Congress bicameral 3/5 compromise all free persons should be counted, and also 3/5 of all other persons should be counted towards a state's population Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise congress was forbidden the power to tax the export of goods from any state Federalists favored radification Anti-Federalists opposed radification