1. Unit 2: Limited and Unlimited Government
Vocabulary

2. 1. MAGNA CARTA
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The document they made John II sign was called the Magna Carta, which is Latin for the Great Charter. The MAGNA CARTA was a list of things that the British monarchy was no longer allowed to do, making it the first time a king or queen had power taken away from them. It set limits on royal power to collect taxes, take property, and throw people in jail. Even though it only applied to the nobility (tough luck, peasants!) it still laid the foundation for all future limited governments.

3. 2. DIVINE RIGHT
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According to the concept of DIVINE RIGHT, the monarch got their power directly from God. Therefore anything the king said or did was God’s will. King takes your sheep? God’s will. King takes your house? God’s will. King takes your life? God’s will. People didn’t question the king because that would be questioning God. Considering that the only chance at a better life that most people had involved pearly gates and choirs of angels they wanted to stay in the good graces of the Lord.

4. 3. LEGISLATURES
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The monarchs of Russia and France could also get rid of their LEGISLATURES (the part of government that makes laws), even if the members of the legislature had been elected by the people. If anyone had a problem with it the king could send the military to keep people in line. In other words, going against an absolute monarch was like trying to win a fight with both hands tied behind your back, your feet stuck in a cement block, and a blindfold on. Unless you managed to get a lot of help, you were going down.

5. 4. REASON
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But as time went on evidence started piling up that made people question these beliefs. Scientists began using REASON (making conclusions based on evidence) instead of just accepting what they were told. The SCIENTIFIC METHOD gave them a way to find the evidence that reason required. They started with a question, then created a hypothesis that they would test with experiments before analyzing the data to reach a conclusion. This proved many things the Church taught were incorrect and challenged it’s power and authority.

6. 5. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
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But as time went on evidence started piling up that made people question these beliefs. Scientists began using REASON (making conclusions based on evidence) instead of just accepting what they were told. The SCIENTIFIC METHOD gave them a way to find the evidence that reason required. They started with a question, then created a hypothesis that they would test with experiments before analyzing the data to reach a conclusion. This proved many things the Church taught were incorrect and challenged it’s power and authority.

7. 6. THE ENLIGHTENMENT
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THE ENLIGHTENMENT was a movement based on using reason to understand government the same way that scientists had used reason to understand the natural world. This would have a major impact on the way that governments were organized and the way people saw their role in society.

8. 7. ABSOLUTISM
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Until the Enlightenment most people believed in ABSOLUTISM. That meant they thought their government should have total, unlimited (some might even say absolute) power over them. They had their absolute monarchs and believed in their divine right to rule and all that stuff we talked about few sections ago. Even if they didn’t personally like it they just accepted it as the natural order of the world.

9. 8. PHILOSOPHER
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Then the Enlightenment comes along and everything starts to change. The PHILOSOPHERS (people who think up new ideas) of the Enlightenment said it didn’t have to be that way. They said that people should have their rights protected and that they should have their governments limited.

10. 9. STATE OF NATURE
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The Enlightenment philosophers believed that before there were governments or societies people lived in something called the State of Nature. They saw the STATE OF NATURE as a good thing because it was a time when people were naturally good and took care of each other. Governments - especially those no good, dirty, rotten, absolutist governments - took people away from that. Getting back to that state would benefit all of us.

11. 10. SOCIAL CONTRACT
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The SOCIAL CONTRACT said that governments and the people they are over have to reach some sort of agreement. The people have to agree to give the government the power to rule. This agreement makes sure the government protects the rights of the people.

12. 11. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
Paragraph 35 Which leaves POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. Basically this means that people have the power over themselves. In other words, government’s power is limited by the power people want to give it.

13. 12. NATURAL RIGHTS Chart (John Locke)
The state of nature is a good place.
People voluntarily agree to the social contract because it makes their lives better.
All people are born with NATURAL RIGHTS - such as life, liberty, and the ownership of property.
Government’s job is to protect the rights of its citizens. A government that doesn’t do its job needs to be altered or abolished.
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED: Government gets its permission to rule from the people.
Locke’s ideas became a major part of the United States government. The Declaration of Independence is based almost entirely on Locke’s work.

14. 13. CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED
Chart (John Locke)
The state of nature is a good place.
People voluntarily agree to the social contract because it makes their lives better.
All people are born with NATURAL RIGHTS - such as life, liberty, and the ownership of property.
Government’s job is to protect the rights of its citizens. A government that doesn’t do its job needs to be altered or abolished.
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED: Government gets its permission to rule from the people.
Locke’s ideas became a major part of the United States government. The Declaration of Independence is based almost entirely on Locke’s work.

15. 14. GENERAL WILL Chart (Rousseau) The state of nature is a good place
Government’s job is to protect the GENERAL WILL of the people (meaning do what’s best for the majority of the citizens).
People who were not in the majority would have to either go along with it or be removed from the group.
Government’s power was limited by what the majority of people wanted.
Rousseau’s ideas were mostly rejected by the United States, but other governments, especially unlimited totalitarian ones. That’s called irony, kids.

16. 15. SEPARATION OF POWERS Chart (Montesquieu)
SEPARATION OF POWERS: spread government power around so one person or group doesn’t have too much.
Power should be separated into three branches, or parts, of government: Legislative (makes laws), Executive (enforces the laws), and Judicial (interprets and applies the laws)
CHECKS AND BALANCES: make sure each part of the government can keep the other parts in line.
Major influence on the United States Constitution and the design of the U.S. government.

17. 16. CHECKS AND BALANCES Chart (Montesquieu)
SEPARATION OF POWERS: spread government power around so one person or group doesn’t have too much.
Power should be separated into three branches, or parts, of government: Legislative (makes laws), Executive (enforces the laws), and Judicial (interprets and applies the laws)
CHECKS AND BALANCES: make sure each part of the government can keep the other parts in line.
Major influence on the United States Constitution and the design of the U.S. government.

18. 17. CIVIL LIBERTIES Chart (Voltaire)
Focused on CIVIL LIBERTIES (freedoms had by people living in a society).
Freedom of speech and freedom of religion were two civil liberties he thought were especially important.
Wrote books and plays to show people the importance of reason and the need to fix society and government.
Wanted to keep the Church’s power separate from the government and allow people to freely express their opinions about it, both of which are part of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

19. 18. CIVIL WAR
Paragraph 38 Any time you’re talking about a CIVIL WAR (a war where both sides are from the same country) you’ve got to know the people in that country have problems. People in the United States almost always default to the U.S. Civil War whenever the term comes up, but that wasn’t the first one ever fought in the world, and it wouldn’t be the last. Even the one we’re talking about in this section was far from the first, though it was one of the more important ones in terms of its effects on the world.

20. 19. PARLIAMENT
Paragraph 40 In the British system of government, the limited monarchy was represented by the King, while the people were represented by PARLIAMENT (Britain’s legislature). Parliament and the monarchy had argued for years over how much power each one had, but in the 1600s the legislature began making more demands of the King. Specifically, they wanted more power to make decisions on laws, something that would limit the monarch’s powers AND challenged the whole idea of the divine right. As far as Parliament was concerned this was a natural extension of the Magna Carta.

21. 20. ROYALISTS
Paragraph 48 The British people reacted to the attack on Parliament like it had been an attack on themselves. They felt Charles I had come after them personally and quickly raised an army. A full-scale war broke out between the ROYALISTS (supporters of the monarchy) led by Charles I and the forces of Parliament, led by a man named Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army.

22. 21. ENGLISH BILL OF RIGHTS
Paragraph 66 Upon becoming king and queen, William and Mary kept their part of the bargain. They signed the ENGLISH BILL OF RIGHTS, which put more limits on the king’s power and gave Parliament the power to make decisions on laws and approve taxes. It also made sure the individual rights of the people of Britain would be protected by their government.

23. 22. GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
Paragraph 67 William and Mary’s bloodless takeover of Britain and their surrender of royal power became known as THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. It would inspire all limited governments that followed, including that of our own. It also inspired the Enlightenment philosophers and influenced their ideas.

24. 23. CONSTITUTION
Paragraph 75 Let’s go back to that idea of a constitution. CONSTITUTIONS are a real-life version of the social contract that Locke described. They are the agreement between the government and its people. They limit the government’s power by specifically saying what the government can and cannot do. That way governments can’t possess all the power, just the ones that the constitution would allow. They explain what the government will look like, what jobs different parts of the government would have, and what relationship the government has towards its people. They are the law that the government has to follow.

25. 24. LEGITIMACY
Paragraph 76 This is important because they give the government LEGITIMACY. That means the people accept that the government has power over them. Governments that are not legitimate don’t tend to last for a long time.

26. 25. WRITTEN CONSTITUTION
Paragraph 79 A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION looks like the one the United States. It’s a document, written on paper, that you could pick up and hold. It was created specifically to be a constitution. The United States had the first of these, and most nations that have written them since have taken inspiration from the United States.

27. 26. UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION
Paragraph 80 An UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION is a collection of documents. This is similar to the constitution used in Great Britain. Different documents (like the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights), court rulings, social traditions, and many other things combine together to make up an unwritten constitution.