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Ratification
| Formal approval or consent given to a constitution, constitutional amendment, or treaty before it goes into effect. |
Limited Government
| A basis principle of American government by which the government is restricted in what it may do, and that each person has rights the government cannot take away without due process. |
Popular Sovereignty
| Rule by the people. Basic principle of the American government in shich the people are the source of any and all governmental power, and that government can exist only witht the consent of the governed. |
Federalism
| A form of political organiztion in which government power is divided between a central (national) governemtn and the state governments. |
Separation of Powers
| The division of governmental power among the three branches (legislatve, executive, and judicial) that must cooperate in decision-making. |
Framers of the Constitution
| Group of delegates who drafted the United States Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. |
Reserved Powers
| Those powers that the Constitution does not grant to the national (federal) government and belong only to the states. For example: marriage and divorce laws, driver liscenses, requirements for high school diplomas. |
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