The United States of America is a representative democracy. Our government is run by an elected official, that is elected by citizens of our country every four years. We have three branches of government in order to maintain checks and balances. They are: the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch, all maintaining one branch from getting too much power. We established this form of government through the constitution which was adopted in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It was ratified by eleven of the thirteen states. We have maintained what most would say is a successful representative democracy for two hundred plus years.