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Lesson 5: How Can We Organize Government to Prevent the Abuse of Power?
Lesson Purpose
Constitutional governments are designed to protect the people from abuses of government power. In this lesson you learn how people might organize government to make the abuse of power less likely.
Lesson Objectives
When you finish this lesson you should be able to explain the ideas of separation of powers and checks and balances, explain the Founders' reasons for creating a system that limits governmental power, and list some powers of the three branches of government.
Lesson Terms
bill
A proposed law given to the legislature for approval.
checks and balances
executive branch
judicial branch
legislative branch
separation of powers
