Do Now: Checks and Balances

The 3 Branches of Government

When delegates at the Constitutional Convention were creating our government, they were trying to figure out how to organize power in a way that would make the government powerful enough to protect people’s rights, but limited enough that it couldn’t become too powerful and take away people’s rights.

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When the ​

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was written , the goal of the author's was to create a government that had ​

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power to protect people’s rights, but ​

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enough that the government could not use its power to take away people’s rights.

Separation of Power

• Create multiple parts in a government (we call these different parts branches)

• Give different parts of the power of government to those branches

• No one person/group is too powerful

​Two Big Ideas that Helped Organize Power in the Constitution

​Checking Power

• Build in actions that different branches can take to limit each other's power

• If one branch tries to do something they shouldn’t, other branches can take action to stop them

Match

Match each of the phrases with the correct description.

• The document that created the government of the United States

• A system of government that allows different branches of government to limit the power of the other branches and prevent them from doing things they should not.

• A system of government that divides the government into pieces and gives each piece different powers

The Constitution

Checks and Balances

Separation of Power

• The Constitution

• Checks and Balances

• Separation of Power