There are 7 principles to the Constitution. They are Popular Sovereignty, Republicanism, Federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, Limited Government and Individual Rights.
The principle that gives the government its power is Popular Sovereignty … a government in which the people rule. This is stated in the Preamble “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union …establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The principle of Federalism is splitting the power between the federal and state governments. The Constitution assigns certain powers to the national government which are called delegated powers. Powers assigned to the states are called reserved powers and powers shared by both federal and state governments is called concurrent powers.
The Framers of the Constitution, in order to make sure that one group didn’t have too much power, built in the principle of Separation of Powers. They divided the basic government into three branches … the Legislative Branch (Congress), the Executive Branch (President) and the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court).
The principle of Checks and Balances refers to how each branch of the government can check on the other two branches of the government so that no one branch can work independently from the others. An example would be if Congress passed a law but the President doesn’t sign it into action, or if Congress passes a law and the President signs it but the Supreme Court can determine the law violates the Constitution.
The principle of Individual Rights is demonstrated in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which is called the Bill of Rights. This guarantees personal liberties and privileges such as Freedom of Speech and Religious Freedom.
