How the American Government Was Different
Part
3: How It Was Unique
The
American government was unique in several ways:
- Its leaders served for
only a few years. Kings and emperors served for life;
then, their sons or daughters took over.
- They
had to be elected in the first place, by a majority of
the American people who voted. They had to be elected
every time in order to stay in office. Monarchs
weren't elected; they got to be head of the government
because tradition (and usually the army) said they
were.
- The powers of
government were divided into Three Branches: Legislative,
Executive, and Judicial. Other countries had courts and
maybe lawmaking bodies (England had Parliament, for
instance.), but nothing like what the Founding Fathers
came up with.
- The Constitution could
be changed, or amended, if enough lawmakers and
people at large agreed on it. In other countries at that
time, what the king said (or what Parliament's laws said)
was the law.
The
American government had more in common with the ancient
Greek and Roman governments than it did with the modern
European and Asian governments. The Constitution was every
bit as much of a revolution as the initial separation from
England and, some would argue, even more important and vital
to the success of the new nation.
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Graphics
courtesy of ArtToday