Political system Three Branches of Government

The United States government is divided into three branches, and all three share equal amounts of power. The easiest way to understand the divisions of American government is to think of the government as a tree, with three branches of the same size growing from the trunk.

The government was set up this way in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers so that no one branch of government would be able to have absolute power over another.

The first of the three branches of government is Congress, which is also known as the legislative branch. Legislative is another word for lawmaking, so Congress is the branch that makes and passes (or approves) laws. Congress also has the power to control how the government spends its money, known as appropriations. The legislative branch is located in the U.S. Capitol building, a famous building with a dome roof in Washington, D.C.

The second branch is the executive branch, which is the president of the United States. Executive means “leader,” so it is the president’s job to lead the country and its military. The vice president, the president’s top advisor, is also an important part of the executive branch. The president lives and works in the White House, which is also located in Washington, D.C. The executive branch also includes all of the departments, agencies, and government organizations that help carry out or put into practice the laws of the United States.

The third branch of government is the judicial (or legal) branch, also known as the courts. The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. is the highest or most powerful court in the judicial branch, but there are also many smaller federal (or national) courts. All of these courts interpret and explain the laws passed by Congress.

Each division of the government holds separate and different powers, but the three branches are all part of the same tree and are all necessary for making sure that the United States’ system of government continues to work.

Congress

In the United States, the word Congress is used to refer to the legislative part of American government. Most people know this meaning of the word. But did you know that there is another meaning of the word congress? Congress also means a meeting of legislators (the people who make laws). In the U.S. government, you will hear both meanings of this word used. In fact, a new congress – meaning a new meeting – starts every two years. The first congress was held in 1774. The 110th Congress, for example, first convened on January 4, 2007.

When the first congress was held in 1774, Congress was still unicameral, meaning that it had only one part or group of legislators. However, the leaders of the country very quickly realized that the new American government was not very efficient, so they wanted to change the system.

One of the major disputes about Congress was how the 50 states would be represented in the federal (or national) government. People from small states thought that each state should be represented equally. People from large states thought that states with a higher population should have more power to make decisions. The solution was to write a new constitution and make the Congress become bicameral (or with two parts).

How does a bicameral Congress allow people in large and small states to have better representation? The answer is in how the Congress works. The two parts of the Congress are the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has equal representation, which means that each state has two representatives. The House of Representatives is different: larger states have more representatives and smaller states have fewer. The Senate and the House of Representatives have to work together to make new laws. This way, neither big nor small states have more power than other states. With this solution, both sides of the dispute were satisfied.