In 1787, the United States was a young country with leaders who knew that the country needed a strong government.
Without a good plan for government, people could get confused about who was in charge and how decisions should be made. So, a group of leaders came together to make a plan. They wrote a document called the Constitution to explain how the nation’s democracy works.
In a democracy, people can elect leaders to govern them. This makes the United States a republic, a government that gets its power from the people. In fact, the Constitution begins, “We the people . . . .” The rights of the people are written in the Constitution. The people have rights, and they also have responsibilities, or duties, to the country.
