7 Principles

FONTS

7 Principles

Colin Wong

Limited Government

Separation of Powers

The division of power among multiple parties: no one group or person gets all the power.

Example: The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches hold different areas of power to run the government and uphold its responsibilities.

The government's extent of power is limited by the Constitution.

Example: The principle of Laissez-Faire limits the government's extent that it can interfere with our capitalist economy.

Popular Sovereignty

Checks and Balances

Republicanism

People's power is shown through voting for representatives.

Example: MTV Video Music Awards are voted on by the audience. If only a few, non-prominent people voted, the award would hold little value, but because so many people vote, the award holds a lot of value in pop culture.

Powers given to each branch allow them to hold other branches accountable for their jobs.

Example: Although the executive branch can control the armed forces, the legislative branch must approve any military action before sending out troops (or they must return after 60 days without approval), ensuring accountable and responsible usage of military force. Additionally, the judicial branch has the power to check the legislative branch's extent of war powers and to declare them as overreaching.

The government derives its power from the people - without popular consent, there is no social contract to bind the people to the government, and the government won't exist.

It is the most important because if the people don't consent, any framework put in place will fall apart or simply not be followed. The core principle of government is that the people consent to be governed.

History: Prior to the French Revolution, the idea of popular sovereignty emphasized individual rights in Locke's "social contract." However, after the French Revolution, it became largely emphasized on the right of a nation to self-governance. The original term "popular sovereignty" was coined during Democratic presidential candidate Lewis Cass's campaign with reference to determining the status of slavery for each state. Cass decided to create a system that would allow each state to vote within themselves whether they wanted slavery. As political theory developed further, though, the meaning shifted to mean the phrase we know, "consent of the governed."

Future: Currently, voting fraud is a big issue that seems to threaten the belief in popular sovereignty. If this trend continues, it's likely that the government will lose a lot more credibility/belief, and thus, power, as less people consent to being governed (at least by this particular government). The meaning of popular sovereignty could just end up being boiled down to voting rights and the security of a voting system in a government. It could also lead to a voting system reform, like using the ranking method of voting.

Federalism

Individual Rights

Power is divided between a central government and several smaller governments.

Example: Plano ISD is a central authority in the education of Plano and surrounding areas, but each school has their own authority over their own building and students. The district can make decisions that affect all schools (wages, mask policy, holidays), but schools can make their own rules and schedules (clubs, daily schedules, offered courses).

People are entitled to certain rights that the government cannot take away - e.g., the Bill of Rights

Example: Privacy is considered an important individual right that social media in particular should not be able to take away. Social media has an expected right to its users to use data according to its privacy policy, and it cannot broach said policy for any reason.

Connections and Comparisons

• Limited Government and Individual Rights are closely related, in that the government cannot breach unalienable rights of an individual, especially as specified by the first 10 amendments.
• Federalism follows the same idea as Separation of Powers in that power is distributed among several parties, and certain actions and responsibilities are given to each division.
• Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances are naturally linked, in that both regulate the division of power in the federal government.
• Popular Sovereignty is related to Individual Rights, in that if individuals don't have enough rights, they can decide to revoke popular sovereignty. This "threat" ensures that Individual Rights are adequately protected throughout the government's limitations.
• Republicanism works through Popular Sovereignty, as without people consenting to be governed by the representative (voted by them), the representative has no power.