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Home > Resource Library > Foundation Basics
Lesson Plan
Foundations of Government
Available in Spanish

Foundation Basics

9-12
One class period
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Learning Objectives

  • Explain how governments get their power, authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty

  • Analyze governments for key characteristics

  • Describe the relationships power, authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty share

  • Consider a government’s legitimacy

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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.

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Tags

Pedagogy Tags
Group Work
Primary Source
EL/ML
Spanish
Tech Options
No Tech Required
Web browser
Integrations
Kami
PDF
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