Term

Definition

Amendment

An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document.

Bill of Rights

A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement.

Civil Liberties

Civil liberties are personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge, either by law or by judicial interpretation.

Civil Disobedience

Breaking laws that are seen as unjust to prove a point and to cause political changes, the Jim Crow laws are a good example of this.

Commerce Clause

The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas of commerce as a separate power granted to Congress.[1]

Consent of the Governed

In political philosophy, the phrase consent of the governed refers to the idea that a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power is only justified and legal when derived from the people or society over which that political power is exercised

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed.

Constitutionalism

Constitutionalism is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law".[1]

Dictatorships

Dictatorship is a form of government where political authority is often described as monopolized by a single person or a political system, and exercised through various oppressive mechanisms.[1][2]

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces)

Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution.

Liberty

The quality individuals have to control their own actions.

Mayflower Compact

The first governing document of Plymouth Colony.

Monarchies

A monarchy is a form of government in which sovereignty is actually or nominally embodied in a single individual (the monarch).[1]

Popular Sovereignty

Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the principle that the authority of the government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives (Rule by the People), who are the source of all political power.

Proper Clause

The Necessary and Proper Clause, also known as the Elastic Clause, the Basket Clause, the Coefficient Clause, and the Sweeping Clause,[1] is a provision in Article One of the United States Constitution, located at section 8, clause 18.

Representative Democracy

Representative democracy (also indirect democracy) is a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy.[1]

Rights

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory.

The Declaration of
Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.

Theocracies

Theocracy is a form of government in which a deity is officially recognized as the civil Ruler and official policy is governed by officials regarded as divinely guided, or is pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religion or religious group.[1][2][3]

Virginia Declaration of
Rights

The Virginia Declaration of Rights is a document drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men, including the right to rebel against "inadequate" government.

Virginia Statute for
Religious Freedom

The statute disestablished the Church of England in Virginia and guaranteed freedom of religion to people of all religious faiths, including Catholics and Jews as well as members of all Protestant denominations.[2]