division of powers
Distributed governmental authority
Division of powers is the principle of distributing governmental authority among separate branches or levels rather than concentrating it in one body.
In the United States, this means federal powers divided among executive, legislative, and judicial branches, with additional division between federal and state governments.
The arrangement creates checks against any single entity gaining too much control: The Constitution established a division of powers to prevent tyranny.
- constitutionalismGovernance bound by fundamental laws
- constitutional lawLegal principles from founding documents
- legislativeConcerning the creation of laws
- state rightsPowers retained by provinces
- executiveSenior organizational leader
Montesquieu · Locke · founding fathers · rule of law · limited government · bicameralism · Tenth Amendment · judiciary · sovereignty · administrative law · federalism · federal system · subsidiarity · separation of church and state · republicanism · democracy · decentralization · local government
- governancegovernance, government, democracy, vote, parliament
- Canadian GovernmentHouse of Commons, Senate, Prime Minister, federal government, parliamentary democracy
- Canadian HistoryConfederation, Rupert's Land, colonial era, colonial government, self-government
- Canadian lawfederal laws, criminal code, court decisions, Supreme Court of Canada, judgments
- Canadian Constitutionconstitutional amendment, 1867, 1982, Confederation, constitutional law
- Indian Constitutionpreamble, fundamental rights, articles, schedules, amendment process
division of powerscentralized control
Authority concentrated in one body
autocracy · absolutism · dictatorship · authoritarianism · totalitarianism
division of powersabsolute power
Unrestricted governmental control
centralized authority · supreme authority · unlimited power · one-man rule
division, divisions, divisional, divide, divided, divides, dividing, divisible, divisibility