Limited government

Limited government is a concept in political philosophy in which governmental power is restricted by law, usually in a written constitution. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism. The Magna Carta and the United States Constitution represent important milestones in the limiting of governmental power. The earliest use of the term limited government dates back to King James VI and I in the late 16th century.

Today, limited government is a common practice throughout Western civilization. It is an important political principle in classical liberalism, libertarianism, and some tendencies of conservatism in the United Kingdom and conservatism in the United States.

Added following the bitter and contentious Constitutional Convention, the Bill of Rights today are a key part of the American Constitution. After enumerating specific rights retained by the people in the first eight amendments, the Ninth Amendment and the Tenth Amendment summarily spelled out the principle of limited government. Together, these two last Amendments clarify the differences between the unenumerated (as well as enumerated) rights of the people versus the expressly codified delegated powers of the federal government. The Ninth Amendment codified that the rights of the people do not have to be expressly written in the Constitution (i.e., do not have to be enumerated) to still be retained by the people. In the reverse, though, the Tenth Amendment codified that any delegated powers of the federal government are only authorized to do be performed so long as such delegated powers are expressly delegated to the federal government specifically by the U.S. Constitution.

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