| separationofpowers | | a political system under which legislative and administratvie powers are divided between national and regional governments (2 wds) |
| residualpowers | | a system of government in which the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government are constitutionally vested with the right to check one another's actions in order to prevent a concentration of power (3 wds) |
| coalitiongovernment | | a government in which no one party has a majority of the seats in the legislature (2 wds) |
| unitarysystem | | a national representative body having supreme legislative powers within the state; the national legislature of various countries |
| Parliament | | most important group within the House of Commons, consisting of the prime minister and the heads of government departments such as finance, health care, national defence, etc. |
| HouseofRepresentatives | | a legal document that outlines the basic rules for government and assigns different functions to each governing body of a country |
| Congress | | a political system under which all geographic regions are governed directly by the central government (2 wds) |
| Senate | | a government that stays in power by combining with another political party or parties to form a majority (2 wds) |
| constitution | | a legislature that consists of two houses of parliament (2 wds) |
| minoritygovernment | | a political system in which the executive, legislative, and judical powers of government are distinctly divided (3 wds) |
| parliamentarymonarchy | | a political system in which the head of state is a non-hereditary official, usually a president |
| notwithstandingclause | | a system of parliamentary government in which the executive functions at the will of the legislative body (2 wds) |
| bicamerallegislature | | name for the elected and effective legislative body in Canada's parliamentary system of government (3 wds) |
| responsiblegovernment | | a political system in which the head of state is a king or queen, but political power resides in an elected parliament (2 wds) |
| republic | | part of the Canadian Charter of Rights which allows governments to disregard the Charter in certain instances (2 wds) |
| HouseofCommons | | name for the upper chamber in both the U.S. and Canadian systems of government; the U.S. chamber is elected whereas Canada's is not |
| Cabinet | | the highest court of appeal; the final authority in the interpretation of laws (2 wds) |
| SupremeCourt | | authority to make laws in areas that were not specifically assigned to either level of government in the consitution of a federal system; in Canada these powers are given to the federal government, whereas in the U.S. these powers are given to individual states (2 wds) |
| federalsystem | | lower house of Congress (3 wds) |
| checksandbalances | | another name for the combined houses--Senate, House of Representatives--of the U.S. government |
