Question

Which statement most closely matches the ideas expressed in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution? Political parties are the means that the people should use to express their will. The creation of laws is the means by which the people should express their will. Government derives its power from the people and it exists to serve the people. Government derives its power from just laws and it exists to serve the people.

Answer 1

"Government derives its power from the people and it exists to serve the people" most closely matches the ideas expressed in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

Answer 2

Correct answer:   Government derives its power from the people and it exists to serve the people.

Explanation:

When the Constitution of the United States begins with the words, "We the people," it is asserting that the power to organize a government is vested in the people of the country that is to be governed.  This was an idea that the American founding fathers took from Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke.  In his Second Treatise on Civil Government, Locke set forth the idea of a "social contract."  According to his view, a government's power to govern comes from the consent of the people themselves -- those who are to be governed.  This was a change from the previous ideas of "divine right monarchy" -- that a king ruled because God appointed him to be the ruler.  Locke repudiated the views of divine right monarchy in his First Treatise on Civil Government.  In his Second Treatise, Locke argued for the rights of the people to create their own governments according to their own desires and for the sake of protecting their own life, liberty, and property.  The American founding fathers adopted Locke's view about government, and sought to form a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.