Three organs of government

Just as your body has organs (hands, legs, eyes) that each do their own job, a government has three organs. The book explains them through one modern story. Until about 30 years ago, to send money to a relative far away, you had to queue at the Post Office to send a money order, or queue at a bank for a demand draft and post it. You have probably never heard of these, because today money can be sent instantly by digital means!

But this has also created a new kind of criminal, who steals people's money digitally without leaving their desk. So many governments have passed new laws to fight these crimes, called cybercrime. Some criminals have been arrested and convicted in court, and are usually fined and jailed for some years.

• The legislature is the organ that makes new laws ('legislates'). Sometimes it also updates or removes old laws. It is an assembly of the people's representatives.
• The executive is the organ that carries out ('executes') the laws. It includes the head of state (who may be a president, a prime minister or a chief minister), the ministers, and any agency responsible for 'law and order', such as the police. (In our story, that agency is the cyber police.)
• The judiciary is the system of courts. It decides whether someone has broken the law and, if so, what should be done, including punishment if needed. Sometimes it also checks whether a decision of the executive is right, or whether a law passed by the legislature is well made and fair to all.

So in the story: the legislature passed the cybercrime laws, the cyber police (executive) arrested the criminals, and a court (judiciary) convicted and sentenced them. Three organs, one case. A law can also change over time: imagine a law first giving free schooling up to Class 5, later updated to Class 12. Making and changing it is the legislature's job.

In good governance, these three organs are kept separate, though they talk to each other and work together. This is called the 'separation of powers'.

Its purpose is to give a system of checks and balances: each organ can check what the others are doing and restore balance if one goes beyond its proper role. Imagine the disorder if all three were controlled by the same group of people!