Federal government of the United States

U.S. Federal Government

Great Seal of the United States
Quick Facts
Created	1789
Governs	United States of America
Website	www.usa.gov
Executive Branch
Leader	President
Chosen By	U.S. Electoral College
Headquarters	The White House
Judicial Branch
Court	Supreme Court
Location	Washington, D.C.
Legislative Branch
Legislature	Congress
Meeting Place	Capitol
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The federal government of the United States has three branches of government: the legislature, executive, and judiciary, as established in the United States Constitution.

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they wanted to make sure that their new government would not have any of the problems that the colonial British government did.^[1] For example, they did not want there to be any person in the government who had complete power and could do whatever he wanted, like a king. They also did not want any part of the government to get so powerful that nobody could control it. Because of this, they split the government's power into three different branches. Each branch has ways of balancing out the power of another branch if it gets too powerful. This is called the system of checks and balances.^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "Checks and Balances: Political Science". Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved March 13, 2016.