popular sovereignty

elections

Formal choosing of officials

• votingFormally registering a choice
• suffrageRight to cast ballots
• ballotVoting document

referendum · plebiscite · electorate · enfranchisement · mandate · consent of the governed · civic participation · citizenship · representative government · self-determination

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 territorial organization law

• antebellumBefore a war's start
• Missouri Compromise1820 slavery boundary legislation
• Compromise of 1850Five bills balancing slave-state interests

free state · slave state · westward expansion · territories · statehood · settlers · frontier · admission · Dred Scott · Lincoln-Douglas debates

consent of the governed

Rulers need citizen approval

• social contractAgreement exchanging freedom for order
• natural rightsFreedoms inherent to personhood
• LockeEnglish empiricist philosopher's surname

Rousseau · legitimacy · self-governance · collective will · inalienable rights · Enlightenment · Montesquieu · republicanism · liberty · tyranny of majority

ratification

Formal approval by authority

• preamblePreliminary statement before content
• federalismDivided governmental authority system
• amendmentChange to official text

judicial review · checks and balances · separation of powers · bill of rights · constitutional convention · enumerated powers · supremacy clause · due process · bicameral · representative government

• democracyvote, voting, election, elections, ballot
• governancegovernance, government, democracy, vote, parliament
• US Politicsconservatism, ballot, liberalism, bill, constitutionalism
• political philosophypolitical philosophy, political theory, political thought, social contract, natural rights
• Antebellum Americaantebellum era, Compromise of 1850, sectionalism, states' rights, Fugitive Slave Act
• Antebellum Politicsmanifest destiny, states' rights, nullification, secession, sectionalism