Our Government
Formally, the government of the U.S. is a democratic constitutional republic.
("Republic" meaning that most authority is in the hands of office-holders whose terms and scope
of office are limited, "constitutional" meaning that this power is explicitly limited by written law,
and "democratic" meaning that power derives from the choice of the people as expressed through a fair
voting system.)
In practice, however, it doesn't always seem to work the way it was originally intended. For example: the U.S.' voting system is far from completely fair, the constitution (and the on-going debate of 'original intent') is often under attack, and the powers of office-holders often have quite 'smudgy' boundaries. Nonetheless, it is the system we have and, so far, it has proven to be better than many other systems in place around the world.
-- (paraphrased from comments made by Matthew Smedberg on Quora.com)
In practice, however, it doesn't always seem to work the way it was originally intended. For example: the U.S.' voting system is far from completely fair, the constitution (and the on-going debate of 'original intent') is often under attack, and the powers of office-holders often have quite 'smudgy' boundaries. Nonetheless, it is the system we have and, so far, it has proven to be better than many other systems in place around the world.
-- (paraphrased from comments made by Matthew Smedberg on Quora.com)
Elected Officials and Voter Services
As outlined above, our country was founded on the democratic principle of being a representative-style
government. Clicking on some of the links on the left will provide information about those who have been elected to
represent us at the various levels of government. Clicking on other links will help you with some common tasks
associated with the overall voting process.