Theidea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution.

Introduction to the United States

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  • 3. Theidea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution.

  • What are these words?

  • Answer:

  • We the People

  • Explanation:

  • The idea behind the words “We the people”

  • is one of the most important ones in a democracy.

  • A democracy is a government

  • where the citizens (the people who are part of a country) vote for and elect (or choose) the people

  • who will govern (or lead and make decisions for) them.

  • The United States has a representative democracy,

  • which means that citizens vote for people who then represent them in the government,

  • making laws and decisions that reflect (or are the same as) what the citizens want.

  • These first three words of the Constitution,

  • “We the people,”

  • also tell us about the main difference between the United States and the European countries

  • that most of the United States’ first citizens came from.

  • Back in the 1700s,

  • countries like England and France, where many of the first Americans came from,

  • were ruled by a monarch (or a king).