--- title: Laws, voting and how a country is run — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Laws, voting and how a country is run», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A country has millions of people, so they cannot all meet in one room to decide things. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Laws, voting and how a country is run # Laws, voting and how a country is run Lesson 96 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/96-laws-voting-government/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/0/) — A country has millions of people, so they cannot all meet in one room to decide things. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/1/) — In a democracy the people choose a smaller group to decide for them, by voting in an election. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/2/) — The people they choose are called representatives. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/3/) — They meet in a parliament — in the United States it is called Congress — where they argue about ideas and vote on new laws. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/4/) — A plan for a new law is called a bill; it becomes a law only after enough of them vote for it. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/5/) — Power is split into three parts so that no one person can do whatever they like: lawmakers make the laws, the government carries them out, and the courts decide whether a law has been broken. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/6/) — Each part can check the others, like three players who all watch that the game is fair. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/7/) — The most basic rules of how a country is run are written in its constitution. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/8/) — Even the leader must obey the constitution and the laws. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/9/) — Voting is secret: you mark your choice alone, so nobody can punish or reward you for it. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/10/) — That is why people can vote honestly, even against powerful people. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/11/) — In a democracy the people choose their leaders and lawmakers by voting. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/12/) — In most elections the person or party with the most votes wins. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/13/) — In a secret ballot nobody can see how a person voted. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/15/) — A parliament is a group of elected representatives who debate and make laws; in the United States it is called Congress. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/16/) — A plan for a new law is called a bill. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/17/) — A constitution is the set of basic rules for how a country is run; the United States Constitution was written in 1787. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/18/) — Power is shared between lawmakers, the government and the courts, so that each can check the others. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/19/) — Courts and judges decide whether a law has been broken and must listen fairly to both sides. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/96-laws-voting-government/22/) — In Australia every adult citizen must vote, or pay a small fine. - ← previous: [Money, shops and work in a town](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/95-money-shops-work-town/) - next →: [Festivals, holidays and traditions in the English-speaking world](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/97-festivals-holidays-traditions/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)