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American Government - Coggle Diagram
American Government
CONSTITUTION: Principles established when the United States were formed.
Principles of US Constitution
LIMITED GOVERNMENT: Government can only do what we the people give it power to do.
POPULAR SOVERIGNTY: Majority rules. Power comes from the people.
REPUBLICANISM: Voters hold the power and elect representatives.
SEPARATION OF POWERS: Each branch of government has its own responsibilities and limitations.
BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
LEGISLATIVE: Job is to make laws.
CONGRESS
BICAMERAL: Two branches of congress.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: The lower house. 435 representatives at the federal level.
SENATE: The upper house. 2 representatives per state.
EXECUTIVE: Job is to enforce the law.
PRESIDENT: Elected person to be the leader of America.
VICE PRESIDENT: Selected by the president.
PRESIDENTIAL CABINET: Presidential advisors, there are 15 cabinet members.
JUDICIAL: Job is to interpret laws.
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Makes decisions on cases.
CHIEF JUSTICE: The chair of the court.
CHECKS AND BALANCES: Each branch of the government has an amount of power over the others, sharing power among them to prevent abuses. Way of checking that the other branches do not have too much power.
LEGISLATIVE POWERS
IMPEACHMENT: Questioning the validity of judges, justices, and presidents.
OVERRIDE: Refusing a decision.
EXECUTIVE POWERS
NOMINATION/APPOINTMENT: to select an individual to certain positions.
VETO: When the president says no. A very powerful position.
JUDICIAL POWERS
JUDICIAL REVIEW: Can say if laws are unconstitutional.
FEDERALISM: The government is broken up into three tiers (federal, state, and local).
FEDERAL LEVEL: National government.
STATE LEVEL: State government. Example: Education and local control of schools. Reserved powers.
LOCAL LEVEL: Concurrent powers. Con = with/together.
RATIFY: to sign or give formal consent to.