The American goverment - A lecture by Lee Ann Potter

Today Lee Ann Potter visited our class and had a lecture about how the government in America is build up. Lee Ann potter is a director of education and volunteer programs at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, DC. Thanks to the Fulbright Commission Potter is working in Norway this year as a Roving Scholar of American Studies. Click here to see here blog. This is my summary of Potters lecture:

The American form of government was written down in a Constitution which was adopted in 1787. The American Constitution is the oldest Constitution still in use and it has only been emended 17 times. The Constitution establishes some main points. They are as follow. The united states of America have a representative democracy to make sure that the powers are in the hands of the people. Every states have only given certain specific powers to a central government. This is known as Federal System ore Federalism. The power in the central government ore the federal government have been divided in three. All the branches keeps track of the other two so none of them grow to powerful ore abuse there power. This system is known as the Seperation of powers. The term Separation of powers is known as Maktfordelingsprinsippet in Norway and was inspired by the French philosopher Charles-Louis Montesquieu (1680 - 1755). Montesquieu’s theory about the Separation of powers was not only a inspiration in the making of the American Constitution , but also in the making of the Norwegian Constitution in 1814. Today, all the modern democratic societies have divided there power in different branches. In America the congress is the legislative power, the president is the executive power and the Supreme Court is judicial power.