Limited government

Limited government is a system in which law, constitutional rules, or other institutions restrict public authority to protect rights and prevent arbitrary rule.

Constitutionalism: The principle that government authority is established and constrained by a constitution. Constitutional limits give public power rules it cannot lawfully exceed.
Individual rights: Claims or freedoms held by individuals that governments are expected to respect or protect. Rights supply the interests that limits on government are meant to safeguard.
Magna Carta: A 1215 charter that imposed concessions on King John and influenced later constitutional traditions. Its limits on royal authority became a lasting symbol of government under law.
Absolute monarchy: A monarchical system in which the ruler holds extensive authority with few effective legal or institutional restraints. It represents concentrated sovereignty against which limited government is often defined.
Civil disobedience: The deliberate, public breach of law to protest injustice, typically undertaken nonviolently and with willingness to accept legal consequences. It tests whether legal limits and rights protections are meaningful when officials violate them.
Separation of powers: The division of governmental authority among distinct branches with separate functions. Dividing authority makes it harder for one institution to rule without restraint.
Constitution: A body of fundamental rules establishing a political system and defining public authority. A constitution is the primary framework within which limited government is organized.
John Locke: An English philosopher whose political theory grounded government in consent and the protection of natural rights. Locke argued that political power is limited by the rights it exists to protect.
Authoritarianism: A political system that concentrates power and restricts meaningful political competition and civil liberties. Authoritarian rule weakens the institutional restraints central to limited government.
Constitutional democracy: A democratic system in which constitutional rules constrain public authority and protect rights. Limited government is a defining feature of this broader form of democratic rule.

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