Hi Students, welcome to your podcast lecture. Please pull up the presentation entitled We the People the link is on the course website.

This lecture will cover why the framers of the constitution made three separate branches of government, what type of government we have, discuss the three branches of government and their characteristics, and will have a few questions for you to look up and answer. We will discuss your answers in class tomorrow.

The framers of the constitution also called founding fathers wanted a form of government that did not allow one person to have too much control over the country. They had experienced this with other governments before immigrating over to the American colonies. With this in mind the framers wrote the constitution to provide for a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. The branches of the government have their own jobs and responsibilities and at the same time work together to run the country. The branches also ensure that the American citizens rights are not ignored or disallowed.

With this said, the framers formed our government not only to make one government run by the people but so that we would have one currency to be used throughout the states, to run the military, provide safe food and water. These branches of government are also tasked to maintain the balance by checking each other’s powers. This is called checks and balances.

The American government is called a democracy which is a form of government that allows the citizen to elect leaders and tell them what kind of laws they want.

Originally the framers formed the government to be a Republic which is a form of government that includes a federation of states with a constitution and self-governing subunits. Although we still have traits of a Republic most people consider us only as a democracy.

The three branches of government are the:

  • Legislative Branch
  • Executive Branch
  • Judicial Branch

The legislative branch makes the laws. It is composed of two parts:

  1. The Senate which is composed of 100 elected senators, 2 per state. Each Senator serves a 6 year term and has no term limits.
  2. The 2nd part is the House of Representatives has 435 voting representatives; the number of representatives from each state is based on the state’s population. Each representative serves a 2 year term and may be re-elected for numerous terms.

The Executive Branch carries out the laws and is composed of the President, Vice President and Cabinet Members.

  1. The President is the head of state, head of the U.S. Government and the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed forces.
  2. The Vice president not only supports the president but also acts as the presiding officer of the senate.
  3. The cabinet members are nominated by the president and must be approved by the senate with at least 51 votes). They serve as advisors and heads of various departments and agencies.

The Judicial Branch of the government is made up of the court system. Which includes the supreme court and other federal courts.

  1. The supreme court is the highest court in the country. The 9 justices are nominated by the president and must be approved by the Senate (with at least 51 votes).
  2. Other Federal Courts also called the lower courts were not created by the constitution. Congress deemed them necessary and established them using power granted from the Constitution.

As we continue the study of the Three Branches of Government. Use the Student Resources provided on slide 9 to see if you can answer the following questions:

  1. Who are the Senators of Mississippi?
  2. Who are the Representatives of Mississippi?
  3. What district do you live in?
  4. Who is the Senator and Representative covers your district?
  5. Who is the President of the United States?
  6. Who is the Vice President of the United States?

This is the end of the lecture. Your last assignment will be to form questions to be answered tomorrow. Please form at least 3 questions each. You will help each other in discussion groups to answer them. Your questions can be about the three branches of government, questions about the president, vice-president, senators and representatives, or questions about the constitution and/or the framers of the constitution.