Because the people are the source of government power, the government has only as much authority as the people give it. Much of the Constitution, in face, consists of specific limitations on government power. Limited government means that neither the government itself nor any government official is "above the law" and can overstep these constitutional bounds
what lead to the idea of limited government?
greek philophers |
Magna carta |
Aristotle wrote Politics, in which he discussed the three forms of "good government" and stated that a constitutional government is the best form of government. He believed that the best way to guard against tyranny is to have a smaller government.
The glorious revolutionThe Glorious Revolution introduced the principle that the king must bow to the representative body in a nation. Because many kings believed that their power was given to them by God, and many abused this power. The Glorious revolution established that the king is not above the law and has to bow to a legislative branch of government.
english bill of rights |
In England in 1215, the nobles forced the king to sign the Magna Carta, a document which gave restrictions on the king's power and gave more rights to the nobles. This limited the power of the monarch.
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS |
The English Bill of Rights effectively destroyed the "divine right of kings theory" and instead touched on "natural rights." It stated that all people are born with certain rights and the government should not be able to squash those rights.
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The ideas of enlightenment philosophers like John Locke, and Baron de Montesquieu, also led to the idea of limited government. Locke believed that a government with great power may abuse that power and thus we should have a limited, democratic government. Montesquieu was a critic of an absolute monarchy and believed that the governments power should be separated to guard against tyranny.
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examples of limited government in the Us
freedom of speech Clearly protected in the First Amendment to the constitution, the government can not, under any circumstances, infringe on the freedom of speech. The constitution places this limit on the government to insure that all people possess this liberty.
This is an example of limited government, it's one of the many things that the constitution protects. Though there are certain small restrictions on freedom of speech, the government is not allowed to limit this liberty beyond those restrictions. |
McCulloch v. Maryland
A landmark supreme court case that touched on the issue of limited government. They argued on whether or not the US government should be allowed to create a bank. The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government did have the power to create a bank even though it didn't specifically imply it.
This is an example of limited government because it was a question of whether or not the government had the power to perform a certain action. Although, in this case it was ruled that they could. |