The Three Branches Of Democracy

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Democracy, as defined by Marjorie Tallman in “Dictionary of American Government”, is the rule by the people. It is a system of government in which the people have representatives in the government so that the government does not have absolute power. The United States government follows the democratic form because they wanted to avoid the same ruling they had under the British (Trethan). They have three principles stated in their constitution that define their democratic government. Having three branches of government, using the system of checks and balances, and having a living constitution define their democratic form of government.

As stated in their constitution, the U.S. government is divided into three branches. Article 1 of the constitution states the legislative branch, which
This is so that all the branches have equal power and there is no dominating branch (Israel). For example, when the legislative branch makes a law that has to be approved by the president, the president may veto the law. When this happens, the legislative branch can still pass a law if two-thirds of the senate votes for approval of the law. The judicial branch then judges if the law is unconstitutional or not (Overview of United States Government and Politics). This is how the system of checks and balances work to maintain equal power among the three branches.

The US constitution is considered a “living constitution” because it didn’t go through major changes throughout the years. It has been relevant from generation to generation. Many advocates believe in different ways the constitution can be considered a living document (Wandrei). Some believe that it changes according to how the society changes. Others think that the language used in the constitution is broad, and so it is open to many interpretations as the generation changes

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