Foundation Basics
Learning Objectives
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Explain how governments get their power, authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty
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Analyze governments for key characteristics
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Describe the relationships power, authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty share
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Consider a government’s legitimacy
Overview
What's the relationship between government and power? And how do the concepts of authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty influence that relationship? In this lesson, students are introduced to these key characteristics of government, consider how governments establish and maintain them, and analyze government forms to determine if and how each characteristic exists.
iCivics en español! Student and class materials for this lesson are available in Spanish.