To implement its essential democratic ideals, the United States has built its government on four elements:
Popular sovereignty, meaning that the people are the ultimate source of the government’s authority.
Representative government, which means that the people delegate their powers to an elected official.
Checks and balances; which means that there are three branches of government—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial— and they restrain and stabilize one another through their separated functions .
Federalism, an arrangement where powers are shared by different levels of government. In the American federal system, the states and the national government divide authority. This division of power helps curb abuses by either the national or the state governments.
