[MUSIC PLAYING]

- The United States Constitution incorporates four main principles-- republicanism, federalism, the separation of powers, and checks and balances.

Republicanism-- or the idea that ultimate authority in a country should rest in the hands of the people but that actual decision making should be done by a group of individuals elected by the people to represent them-- was a central idea at the Constitutional Convention. The Constitution established a Republican form of government also called a representative democracy by creating elected officeholders who serve. set terms, and who face election at regular intervals. The goal of this system of government is to protect individual freedoms or liberties from the abuses of an authoritarian ruler or dictator.

The framers of the Constitution also created a federal system. Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided and shared between at least two entities, in this case, the national government and state governments. This structure reflected the delegates experiences with both the weaknesses of the central government under the Articles of Confederation, America's first constitution, and what they perceived as too much central control under Britain's unitary system of government. In a unitary system, the central or national government holds most or all of the governing power. The Constitution's federalism established a strong central government attempting to improve on the Articles of Confederation but still gave many powers to the states to prevent the potential abuses of unchecked national power.

To prevent any branch of the National government from becoming too powerful, the Constitution also includes a horizontal separation of powers. That is, the Constitution divided power among independent legislative, executive, and judicial branches. In general, Congress was established as the legislative branch responsible for making the laws. The President, as head of the executive branch, is responsible for enforcing the laws. And the judicial branch, atop which sits the US Supreme Court, interprets the laws.

In parliamentary democracies, it is common for there to be a fusion of branches and for the executive branch and/or a judicial branch to actually be a part of the legislature. Buttressing the separation of powers in the US system and serving to prevent the abuse of power by any one branch, the Constitution also instituted a system of checks and balances. This fourth founding principle ensures that the different branches of government have the ability to stop actions of the other branches under defined conditions.

Checks and balances also dictate how the branches work together. For example, while the legislative branch makes laws, the President can veto a law. The judicial branch, in turn, can check the legislative branch by ruling a law unconstitutional. In turn, the President appoints judges, keeping a check on the judicial branch. And the Senate must approve those appointments, providing a check on executive power, et cetera.

[MUSIC PLAYING]