Division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of government among separate and independent bodies.
Such a separation limits the possibility of arbitrary excesses by government, since the sanction of all three branches is required for the making, executing, and administering of laws. The concept received its first modern formulation in the work of Constitution of the United States , who in turn influenced the writers of 19th-and 20th-century constitutions. See also checks and balances .