Who says the U.S. government has to have three branches, anyway? It’s not exactly a who. It’s more of a what: the U.S. Constitution. 

Though the people who wrote the Constitution back in 1787 were whos, of course. Whos who still wore fluffy white wigs! The wigs went out of fashion long ago. But the Constitution stuck.

Why? Because it is law, and because it contains wisdom. The Founders of the United States understood that one person should never have too much power. People are sinful. They often use absolute power for evil. So the Founders had a plan. They decided that in their new nation, people would share power. They wrote down their plan in the U.S. Constitution, a document that explains how American government must work.

The Constitution says the U.S. President shares his or her power with the other two branches of government—the lawmakers and the courts.

The American government is full of other examples of sharing power too. In a country with a king, the king’s son would be a prince. One day, he might become a king. That doesn’t happen in America. Instead, people have power to vote for leaders. Even political parties must share power. Republicans and Democrats control different parts of government at different times. That means no one party gets its way without a fight. 

Often, decisions are made slowly while many people debate. It takes patience to get things done. But that’s how the Founders wanted things to work. 

Their system of shared power has “checks and balances.” One branch can keep extremes in another branch “in check.” The three branches balance one another.

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. — Proverbs 11:14