BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT.
Regulations and Laws.--When the school officers, acting for the people of
the district, state formally what may and what may not be done by teachers
and pupils, the formal expressions of governing will are called rules and
regulations. Similar expressions by the town, village, city, or county
authorities are called ordinances or by-laws. But when the state expresses
its will through the regular channels, the formal expression is called a
law.
The Three Branches of Government.--After a law is made it needs to be
carried into effect. Incidentally questions will come up as to its meaning
and application. Government, then, has three great functions or powers
with regard to law.
In our government, and to a greater or less extent in all free countries,
these powers are vested in three _distinct_ sets of persons. If one person
or group of persons could make the laws, interpret them, and enforce
obedience to them as interpreted, the power of such person or persons
would be unlimited, and unlimited power begets tyranny. One of the
purposes of a constitution is to limit the power of the government within
its proper sphere, and to prevent misuse of authority; and this
organization of the government in three departments, each acting
independently so far as may be, and acting as a check upon the others, is
one of the modes of limitation.
The law-making, the law-interpreting, and the law-enforcing branches are
called respectively the legislative, the judicial, and the executive
branches.