A legislature is the part of a government that is responsible for creating laws. The term is a general one that usually refers to a particular governmental body, such as Congress in the United States or Parliament in Great Britain and many other countries. Legislatures came into being with the rise of constitutional governments, which define the limits of their power and the rights of their people in a constitution. For example, the U.S. Constitution identifies the legislative branch (Congress) as one of three main areas of the federal government. The other branches are the executive branch (the president) and the judicial branch (the Supreme Court). They were deliberately made separate branches so that no one group would have too much power. In other countries, the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of government are often combined. In these places power may be balanced in other ways or not at all. The creation of laws is not the only responsibility of a legislature. Modern legislatures also carry out tasks such as approval of executive appointments, supervision of government administration, and declarations of war. And the role of making laws does not belong solely to legislatures. Many presidents and other national executives have the power to veto (or cancel) a law proposed by the legislature, and judges share in the process of lawmaking by reviewing and interpreting the laws. (See also political systems.) |