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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Although in the United States all 50 states except Nebraska have bicameral legislatures, their governmental systems are unitary. In the 49 U.S. states with bicameral legislatures, the two houses have equal legislative authority, but the so-called upper houses—usually called senates—have the special function of confirming the governors ...
Constitutional lawof the United States. Separation of powers is a political doctrine originating in the writings of Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws, in which he argued for a constitutional government with three separate branches, each of which would have defined abilities to check the powers of the others.
The Preamble's reference to the "United States of America" has been interpreted over the years to explain the nature of the governmental entity that the Constitution created (i.e., the federal government). In contemporary international law, the world consists of sovereign states (or "sovereign nations" in modern equivalent).
In the United States, the federalist system emerged because the states evolved from separate colonies, which had diverse populations and different needs. The Framers of the Constitution envisioned that state governments, not the national government, would be the main unit of government for citizens on a day-to-day basis.
The Old Swiss Confederacy was an early example of formal non-unitary statehood. [citation needed] Several colonies and dominions in the New World consisted of autonomous provinces, transformed into federal states upon independence such as the United States, and various countries in Latin America (see Spanish American wars of independence).
However, as in all federal states, including Australia, India, and the United States of America, the central or national government of Germany is supreme within the sphere of authority granted to it through the constitution. Unitary states, like federal states, can be constitutional democracies or unfree non-democracies.
