branches of government

1. The division of government into executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In the case of the federal government, the three branches were established by the Constitution. The executive branch consists of the president, the cabinet, and the various departments and executive agencies. The legislative branch consists of the two houses of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and their staff. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and the other federal courts.

Example Sentences

The collective careers of the group’s members span decades of service across Republican and Democratic administrations in all three branches of government — as senior Defense Department officials, ambassadors, foreign service officers, intelligence officers, policy advisors, oversight officials, congressional staffers and prosecutors.

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All three branches of government are, at least in theory, in the hands of Republicans who believe that life begins the moment an egg is fertilized.

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But because the US has equal and often divided branches of government, that is not the case.

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While the news media is sometimes referred to as the fourth estate, alongside the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, few think of stand-up comedy as a pillar of democracy.

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Voters can hold incumbents accountable in elections — political scientists call this “vertical accountability” — as can coequal branches of government, which we call “horizontal accountability.”

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