Vocabulary:
Popular Sovereignty: A regime in which the government must respond to the wishes of the people.
Federalism: A system of government in which power is shared by national and state governments.
Separation Of Powers: Dividing up governmental power among several branches.
Checks and Balances: The ability of different branches of government to stop each other from acting; designed to prevent one branch from gaining too much power.
Judicial Review: The power of the courts to declare laws and presidential actions unconstitutional.
Limited Government: A government that places few restrictions on its citizens’ choices and actions, and in which the government is limited in what it can do.
Bill Of Attainder: A bill passed by the legislature that declares a person guilty of a crime.
Elastic Clause: Clause in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution that says the Congress has the power to do anything that is necessary and proper in order to carry out its explicit powers; also called the necessary and proper clause.
Supremacy Clause: The part of Article VI of the Constitution that specifies that the federal Constitution, and laws passed by the federal government, are the supreme law of the land.
Full Faith and Credit: A clause in Article IV of the Constitution that declares that state governments must give full faith and credit to other state governments’ decisions.
Privileges and Immunities: Part of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids state governments from taking away any of the privileges and immunities of American citizenship.
Extradition: The action of extraditing a person accused or convicted of a crime.
Republic: A regime that runs by representative democracy