Types of Governments

A government chosen by the people is called a democracy. A direct democracy is a type of government in which citizens vote directly, not through representatives, on government decisions. New England town meetings are current examples of direct democracy in the United States. In this type of gathering, all members of a community come together to make decisions for the group. In contrast, in a representative democracy, citizens vote for representatives who then vote on proposed laws and policies. A representative democracy is a type of government in which citizens elect representatives to make decisions about laws. The U.S. Congress is the legislative branch of the United States, which is a representative democracy. In addition, the United States is a constitutional democracy. In a constitutional democracy, a document called a constitution establishes the organization of government and describes powers of each of the branches.

The U.S. Constitution is the basis of U.S. law and government and is considered the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution is made up of seven articles that describe how the power of the government is distributed:

• Article I describes the power of the legislative branch, made up of Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives).
• Article II describes the power of the executive branch, made up of the president and advisers.
• Article III describes the power of the judicial branch, made up of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts.
• Article IV describes the responsibilities of each state along with what each state can expect from the federal government.
• Article V describes how the Constitution can be amended, or changed.
• Article VI says that the country must respect its debts and also states that the Constitution is the highest law of the land.
• Article VII describes the process for ratifying the Constitution.

The Constitution both gives power to the government and efficiently limits that power to protect the basic rights of American citizens. To accomplish this, concepts such as separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism are written in the Constitution.

Separation of powers is the idea of splitting the power of the federal government into separate branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—so that no one branch can abuse its power.

Checks and balances is the idea that each branch monitors the actions of the others. The Supreme Court interprets the law. The president can veto a law, but if Congress has enough votes, it can override a presidential veto. Rules like these keep government officials in check.

Federalism is the idea that the power of a country should be divided between the central federal government and smaller units, for example, states.