Government Standard 1 Vocabulary 1

The theory that the first governments formed as a result of people agreeing to submit to the authority of a state.

• Divine Rights of Kings

• Sovereignty

• Social Contract Theory

• Separation of Powers

The idea that government is created by and subject to the will of the people.

• Judicial Review

• Popular Sovereignty

• Federalism

• Sovereignty

The formal structures and institutions through which a territory and its people are ruled.

• Government

• Policy

• Federalism

• Limited Government

Right and proper.

• Sovereignty

• Legitimacy

• Federalism

• Policy

The principle that the powers and functions of government are 

restricted by the U.S. Constitution and other laws.

• Popular Sovereignty

• Federalism

• Government

• Limited Government

The theory that a monarch rules by the sanction or approval 

of God.

• Fascism

• Popular Sovereignty

• Divine Right of Kings

• Government

The power of the judicial branch to check the power of the 

legislative and executive branches by declaring their acts unconstitutional.

• Judicial Review

• Checks and Balances

• Separation of Powers

• Limited Government

The process by which government makes and carries out decisions.

• State

• Power

• Politics

• Policy

A system in which each branch of government is able to limit the 

power of the other branches.

• Separation of Powers

• Federalism

• Checks and Balances

• Judicial Review

Supreme power in a state; in the U.S., sovereignty rests 

with the people.

• Sovereignty

• Federalism

• Politics

• Power