A Three Tiered System

Jonathan Crook

Federal Government Paper

PO 141 American Federal Government

2 November 2011

A Three Tiered System

In our system of government we use three branches to spread power evenly among our leaders.

The three tiered system we use helps our government to use their power without absolute control of all power in one place. These three branches or tiers of government are: Judicial, Executive, and Legislative.

In the Legislative branch we have a two part representative congress to make the laws of the land. The two parts are the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House representation is based on population of each state and in the Senate each state has two representatives. The two parts work together to make laws and regulations for the country as a whole. Today the sessions of Congress are televised and reported very thoroughly by the media. The effect is to make Congress accountable for their decisions and inform the people of the issues being discussed. Interest groups use this to push their ideas forward and make legislation favor their position. Congress uses interest groups to make decisions based on what their constituents believe.

The Executive branch has the task of enforcing the laws and regulations that Congress makes. In the Executive branch the President and Vice President have the responsibility of making sure the laws are followed and for deciding if they will enforce them. The President can decide to veto legislation or not based on what he/she believes is right for the country at the time. The media places a huge spotlight on the President to keep him accountable to the people.

The Judicial branch uses its power to decide if legislation is constitutional or not and then interprets the laws and how they will be applied. This branch is also in charge of the courts and makes decisions on exact interpretation of the laws on a case by case basis. The media uses the Supreme Court’s cases to inform people on how...