Limited government - wikipedia Limited government 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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Tawney Johan Rudolf Thorbecke Henry David Thoreau Alexis de Tocqueville Antoine Destutt de Tracy Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Voltaire Lester Frank Ward Max Weber Mary Wollstonecraft Tao Xingzhi Gu Zhun Organizations Liberal parties Africa Liberal Network ( ALN ) Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ( ALDE ) Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party ( ALDEP ) Arab Liberal Federation ( ALF ) Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats ( CALD ) European Democratic Party ( EDP ) European Liberal Youth ( LYMEC ) European Party for Individual Liberty ( EPIL ) International Alliance of Libertarian Parties ( IALP ) International Federation of Liberal Youth ( IFLRY ) Liberal International Liberal Network for Latin America ( RELIAL ) Liberal South East European Network ( LIBSEEN ) Regional variants Europe Latin America Albania Armenia Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Chile Colombia Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech lands Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Iran Israel Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Mexico Moldova Montenegro Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Senegal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain South Africa South Korea Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela Zimbabwe Related topics Democratic capitalism Democratic education Liberal bias in academia Liberal conservatism Liberal socialism National liberalism Regressive left Liberalism portal Politics portal In political philosophy, limited government is where the government is empowered by law from a starting point of having no power, or where governmental power is restricted by law, usually in a written constitution. 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. 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 reasons why the authors of the Constitution saw fit to limit the power of the government are set forth in the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson. Here, Jefferson outlines three basic assumptions widely held in the American colonies that supporters of the Declaration believed were not held by the English monarchy. In other words, Colonists felt that the British had treated them unfairly. In order to prevent this from happening again the framers made limited government a principle in the constitution. These assumptions are that all men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and governments are instituted in order to preserve these rights. It was the fact that the English government was not adhering to these premises that the colonies saw fit to establish their own government in which all three 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. It is the implementation of 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 public becomes disenchanted with the actions of those in power and the rules that have been created, 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. access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ 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 ^ Barth, Alan. `` The Roots of Limited Government ''. The Future of Freedom Foundation. 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 ^ 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=836885802 '' Categories : Classical liberalism Political ideologies Libertarian theory Minarchism Paleoconservatism Paleolibertarianism Hidden categories : Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL 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 17 April 2018, at 12 : 57. 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: the main idea of limited government is that
Answer: the government is empowered by law from a starting point of having no power, or where governmental power is restricted by law, usually in a written constitution; governmental power is restricted by law; protection of individual liberty from government intrusion; government is empowered by law from a starting point of having no power, or where governmental power is restricted by law, usually in a written constitution