How do citizens participate?

A citizen is a person born in the United States or parent(s) are born in the United
States. Citizens can participate by getting information from reliable sources about
the laws or even elected officials. There is also voting in elections, participating in a
political discussion, persuading others to believe a certain way, lobbying for certain
laws, donate to parties or candidates, protest, even to break the law and take the
punishment to show its unjust is a way to participate.

Citizen choices

Choices we make as citizens decide who is elected, what laws are passed, and how
we define and protect human and civil rights. Look at womens suffrage, their
choice was to use their voice and protest, and the consequence was that woman
got to the right to vote.

Civic Values

Civic Values are the values are set in the Bill of Rights and our amendments of the
Constitution. We show this through our laws and change them to fit the time period
and its what the nation believes in. We protect civic values by passing laws to make
sure every American is equal to another.

Politics

Our political culture is our widely shared values, beliefs, and norms. It defines the
relationship between citizens to government and citizens to citizens. It We have a
system (checks and balances) to defend our political culture to make sure we dont
have an absolute government.

Government

Our government was setup to be a indirect democracy (democratic-republic). Our

founding fathers wanted a government that could represent what the people
wanted because they didnt believe that common-citizens could be educated
enough to make the choices for themselves. We protect our government by
enforcing local laws and foreign affairs, by watching our border and enforcing cyber
security.

How is everything tied together?

Citizen participation can lead to choices which could challenge our civic values and
possibly change our civic values (consequences). Citizens can vote, lobby, donate,
and even be involved in special interest groups to be involved with politics. Our
government and citizens interact by looking through the Bill of Rights. We can add
amendments to the constitution if see fit to protect American values.
 Definitions

Political Parties- A group of people who want to control government through

elections and holding office.

Oligarchy- Power of government is upon a small group of elites

Monarchy- Hereditary rulers lead the government

Democracy- Government is ran by the people