Comparing the US form of government to that of Bulgaria
Completion requirements
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic consisting of 50 states, one federal district and 14 territories. The supreme law of the USA – the United States Constitution was ratified and adopted in 1787 and is one of the oldest written democratic national constitutions. It establishes the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, determines the powers of the states and the federal government, and provides for its own development and amendment. There are 27 amendments to the United States Constitution. The first 10 are collectively known as the Bill of Rights and were ratified simultaneously, while the remaining 17 were adopted separately. The majority of these amendments expand individual civil or political liberties and limit the power of the federal government.
At the time of creation of the United States Constitution one of the main objectives of the Founding Fathers was to avoid tyranny. In order to achieve this, they set up several different systems to prevent the abuse of power. The most important of them was the system of “checks and balances”, or “the separation of powers”. According to this system, the government was divided into three branches, each branch having certain powers over the other two. This is done to keep them balanced and to prevent one branch from gaining too much power.
Find out more information about the US System of Checks and Balances and write a text comparing it to the corresponding situation in Bulgaria. Make use of the following words and expressions:
like
similar to
(amost) the same as
equivalent to
unlike
different from
as opposed to
in contrast to
and/or the handout on Linking Words and Phrases.
At the time of creation of the United States Constitution one of the main objectives of the Founding Fathers was to avoid tyranny. In order to achieve this, they set up several different systems to prevent the abuse of power. The most important of them was the system of “checks and balances”, or “the separation of powers”. According to this system, the government was divided into three branches, each branch having certain powers over the other two. This is done to keep them balanced and to prevent one branch from gaining too much power.
Find out more information about the US System of Checks and Balances and write a text comparing it to the corresponding situation in Bulgaria. Make use of the following words and expressions:
like
similar to
(amost) the same as
equivalent to
unlike
different from
as opposed to
in contrast to
and/or the handout on Linking Words and Phrases.