Government

Government Each branch of government -- the legislative, executive, and judicial -- has a distinct role that complements the functions of the other branches. However, the three branches are interdependent, and, to some extent, their roles may overlap. The following concept paper describes in brief the role of each branch, and then posits a hypothetical situation involving a government’s desire to encourage foreign investment to illustrate the difference in how each branch operates. Legislature The legislative branch is responsible for passing laws that are reflective of the popular will. The popular will is difficult to determine, however, because there is rarely consensus among the citizens on a particular issue. This lack of consensus is institutionalized in a presidential form of government, where the executive and legislative branches are elected independent of each other, and is minimized in the parliamentary system of government, where executive authority arises out of the legislative branch. More specifically, it is common in a presidential system for the president and legislators to be from different political parties, with different policy agendas and political platforms.1 Because the president has the power to veto legislation, the legislators must consider the executive branch’s executive, law, foreign, legislative, branch, legislature, system, party, laws, judiciary, investment, local, investors, branches, whether, should, respect, required, political, passed, government, each, different, authority, typically, suppliers, role, responsible, prime, president, power, popular, particular, order, minister