The United States is best described as a constitutional federal republic with a representative democracy system. This means:
- It is a republic because citizens elect representatives who make laws and govern on their behalf rather than voting directly on every issue
- It is a democracy because the ultimate political power resides with the people, who participate by electing these representatives
- It is constitutional because the powers of government and representatives are limited and defined by the U.S. Constitution
- It is federal because power is divided between the national government and individual state governments, each with their own constitutions and branches of government
The U.S. government is structured into three branches-legislative (Congress), executive (President), and judicial (Supreme Court and federal courts)-which share and check each other's powers
. In summary, the U.S. system is a federal constitutional representative democracy , or equivalently, a federal constitutional republic where citizens elect officials to represent their interests within a constitutional framework
