Lesson Goal: Students will be able to explain the ideas of a constitution, constitutional government, and higher law.

Students will be able to explain some of the important differences between constitutional governments and autocratic and dictatorial governments.

LESSON 4WHAT IS A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

Rap: Without looking back in your notebook:

What is a constitution?

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

• Every nation has a constitution

• Most are written, but some have written and unwritten parts.

• Having a constitution does not mean it has a constitutional government

• Limits power

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

1. Lists the basic rights of citizens to life, liberty, and property

2. Establishes the responsibility of government to protect the rights

3. Places limits on how powers are used

• Citizen’s rights

• How resources are distributed

• How conflicts are handled

4. Establishes the principle of private domain

5. Can only be changed

• widespread consent of citizens

• According to set of procedures

HIGHER LAW IN A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT• Set of laws that establish and limit the power of government

• All the people, INCLUDING government leaders, must obey the higher law of the land

• Constitution describes ways to limit power

• The constitution is the higher law

CONSTITUTION WITHOUT LIMITS

• A nation is NOT a constitutional government

• It may provide unlimited use of power

• It might say that that the power is limited, but not say how the limits are enforced

• A government with unlimited power is a autocratic or dictatorial government

WIO

Draw a cartoon that illustrates the difference between a constitutional government and a dictatorial government.

YOU ARE ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS. YOU ARE MEETING TO DISCUSS THE CREATION OF A NEW GOVERNMENT. BEFORE YOU CAN GO INTO TO MUCH DEPTH, SOME BASIC QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWERED. YOUR JOB IS TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BY COMING TO A CONSENSUS IN YOUR GROUP. EACH MEMBER OF YOUR GROUP MUST PARTICIPATE IF EVERYONE IS TO BE REPRESENTED.

QUESTIONS ABOUT GOVERNMENT:

• What are the purposes of government?

• What is the organization of government? What parts does it have? What does each part do?

• How is government supposed to go about doing its business? For example, how does the government make its laws?

QUESTIONS ABOUT CITIZENS

• Who is a citizen

• Are citizens supposed to have control over their government? If so, how is this control supposed to work?

• What rights and responsibilities if any, are the citizens supposed to have?