Limited government - wikipedia Limited government This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia 's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. ( August 2018 ) The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page. 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It is a key concept in the history of liberalism. The United States Constitution presents an example of the federal government not possessing any power except what is delegated to it by the Constitution - with the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution specifically stating that powers not specifically delegated to the federal government is reserved for the people and the states. The Magna Carta and the United States Constitution also represents important milestones in the limiting of governmental power. The earliest use of the term limited government dates back to King James VI and I in the late 16th century. Limited government put into practice often involves the protection of individual liberty from government intrusion. Part of a series on Conservatism Variants Cultural Fiscal Green Liberal Libertarian National Neo - New Right One - nation Paleo - Social Traditionalist Concepts Familism Family values Free markets Limited government Private property Rule of law Small government People Burke De Maistre De Chateaubriand Von Metternich Organizations International Democrat Union ( IDU ) European People 's Party ( EPP ) Religious conservatism Christian right Christian fundamentalism Jewish right Islamic fundamentalism Traditionalist Catholic National variants Australia Canada China Colombia Germany Hong Kong India New Zealand Pakistan Serbia South Korea Taiwan Turkey United Kingdom United States Related topics Aristocracy Capitalism Center - right Corporatism Counter-revolutionary Fascism Monarchism Neoliberalism New Right Radical centrism Radical right ( Europe ) Reactionary Right - wing politics Toryism Conservatism portal Politics portal Contents 1 Limited government and the United States 1.1 Justification 1.2 The Bill of Rights 1.3 Republicanism 1.4 Checks and balances 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Limited government and the United States Justification The original authors of the United States Constitution saw fit to limit the powers of government, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Here, Jefferson outlined three basic statements widely adhered to by the people of the American colonies. Supporters of the Declaration believed that these statements were not sufficiently adhered to by or through the English monarchy. In order to prevent this travesty the framers of the constitution made limited government a principle tenet of the constitution. Among the assertions were that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that governments are instituted in order to preserve these rights. It was the colonial experience of many Americans that the English government was not adhering to these premises, and it was for this reason that the colonies saw fit to establish their own government in which all three of these assertions would be respected. The Preamble to the Constitution serves to communicate the goals sought to be accomplished by specifically enumerating the powers of the United States government -- the promotion of `` the general Welfare '' is one of these goals. The Preamble does not grant any power to the government, rather it serves to explain the limits of the delegated powers listed later in the Constitution. This is to say, in the case of the general welfare clause, that the government is not allowed to exercise its powers on a whim, rather they must be exercised for the general welfare of the country. The Bill of rights With the ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights came a new era of government in which the powers and restrictions of government were both explicitly outlined. The Bill of Rights added to the American Constitution, along with other constitutional amendments, limits the power of government in two ways. First, it restricts the range of governmental authority by prohibiting the government from intruding in certain areas, like religious worship or freedom of speech, and grants the government authority over specifically enumerated aspects of life, like regulating the economy and collecting taxes. Second, it sets certain procedures the government must follow when dealing with the people. Examples of this include the protection from unreasonable search and seizure of property and protection from cruel and unusual punishment for crimes for which one is convicted. The explicit outline of what the government is permitted to do and barred from doing combined with the power of common people to seek repairs for breaches of their constitutional rights is what protects the rights of the people. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution are examples of how the government acknowledges it does n't have complete dominion over every facet of the people 's lives, and that the federal government is not the only entity with governmental power in the United States. The Ninth Amendment reads `` The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others held by the people. '' This shows the federal government does n't have the ability to infringe upon the rights of the people in any circumstance, even if the rights are n't explicitly protected by the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment states `` The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. '' This limits the authority of the United States government to those powers listed in the Constitution and concedes the premise that individual States retain the powers not granted to the national government but that are also not barred to the States by the Constitution. Also, it grants that the people themselves retain power under this system of government as well. These are key points of the concept of limited government established by the Constitution in the United States because they overtly state the power of the federal government is not unlimited. Republicanism Where the government oversteps its authority, the people have the right, as listed in the Constitution, to make their grievances known through petition and through public elections for government office. As 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln once said, `` Our government rests in public opinion. '' A principle tenet of the Republican conception of limited government is what Lincoln called self - government, a `` sacred right (... ) at the foundation of the sense of justice. '' The rationale behind this is simple : `` No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other 's consent. '' It is the adherence to republicanism that allows citizens to perpetuate the idea that the government must not only adhere to the Constitution, it must also listen to the will of the people. If the people disapprove of the actions of those in power and the rules they legislate, they have the ability to put new people in power who will better represent the public interest. Since, under the Constitution, the government is ultimately held accountable by the people, the public always has the opportunity to keep the government 's power in check. Checks and balances The Constitution also partially prevents the government from expanding its own power by creating a system of checks and balances through the separation of powers. Articles One, Two, and Three of the Constitution create three separate branches of government, equal in level power, but different in responsibility, that all control the government. In assuming each branch would want to expand its powers, it was necessary that each have the ability to fend off power grabs from other branches. The three branches -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- compete with each other through certain powers that allow them to `` check '' the others and `` balance '' the government. Examples of this include the legislative branch 's power to override Presidential Vetoes and the judicial branch 's power to declare laws created by the legislative branch unconstitutional. James Madison writes in Federalist No. 51 `` But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others. '' Without the capacity of each branch to check the others, power would concentrate with a small minority and could potentially allow the minority to infringe upon the rights of the people. This would be antithetical to the purpose of the Constitution, hence a system of checks and balances was set in place. See also Social contract Natural and legal rights Constitutionalism Enumerated powers References Jump up ^ `` limited government ''. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved June 27, 2016. Jump up ^ Cima, Lawrence R. ; Cotter, Patrick S. ( 1985 ). `` The Coherence of the Concept of Limited Government ''. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 4 ( 2 ) : 266. doi : 10.2307 / 3324630. JSTOR 3324630. ^ Jump up to : Barth, Alan. `` The Roots of Limited Government ''. The Future of Freedom Foundation. Jump up ^ Jay, John ; Madison, James ; Hamilton, Alexander. The Federalist Papers. Jump up ^ United States Government Printing Office. `` Unenumerated Rights -- Ninth Amendment '' ( PDF ). gpo.gov. Jump up ^ United States Government Printing Office. `` Tenth Amendment -- Reserved Powers -- Contents '' ( PDF ). GPO.gov. ^ Jump up to : Guelzo, Allen C. ( 2012 ). Lincoln Speeches. New York, NY : Penguin Books. p. 48. Jump up ^ Madison, James. Federalist No. 51. p. 268. External links Barth, Alan, 1991, The Roots of Limited Government Unknown, Limited Government Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Limited_government&oldid=866186544 '' Categories : Classical liberalism Political ideologies Libertarian theory Minarchism Paleoconservatism Paleolibertarianism Hidden categories : Wikipedia articles needing rewrite from August 2018 All articles needing rewrite Articles with limited geographic scope from June 2016 USA - centric Talk Variants Contents About Wikipedia Dansk Español فارسی 日本 語 Simple English தமிழ் Türkçe 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 28 October 2018, at 20 : 48 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: where did the idea of limited government first appear
Answer: dates back to King James VI and I in the late 16th century