1. The separation of powers is a model for the governance of a state.
2. The executive officer is supposed to make laws or interpret them.
3. The role of the judiciary is to enforce the law as written by the legislature and interpreted by the judicial system.
4. The model was first developed in ancient Rome.
5. The term tripartite system is ascribed to French Enlightenment political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu.
6. Montesquieu discerned a separation of powers among the monarch, Parliament, and the courts of law.
7. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.
8. The typical division of branches is into a legislature, an executive and an auditory.
9. The executive branch executes, or enforces the law.
10. Legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process.
11. The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state.
