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Adelphi University

Voting and Election Guide

Guide to the U.S. electoral system with a focus on upcoming elections and how to register and vote.

The Three Branches of Government: Checks and Balances

The U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1788, created the basic framework for the federal government. To prevent any individual or group from acquiring too much power and thereby threatening the people's basic liberties, the Constitution separated the government into three branches: 

  • The Executive Branch, led by the president, which administers the laws
  • The Legislative Branch, or Congress, which drafts and enacts laws
  • The Judicial Branch, consisting of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, which interprets the laws and determines whether they are constitutional.

 

Image source: Viva La France! Support Our Revolution! Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Separation_of_Powers.jpg

The video below discusses the three branches of government in the United States and the system of checks and balances incorporated into the U.S. Constitution to ensure one branch does not become more powerful than another:

Video source: Lincoln Learning Solutions.