How power works where you live
US — described neutrally, from public sources.
The structure
You are in a centralized hierarchical structure.
The United States is a federal republic: sovereignty is shared between a national government and fifty states, and authority is exercised through elected representatives. Lawmaking sits with a bicameral Congress and with state legislatures; the executive is elected separately from the legislature; an independent judiciary reviews both. Officials serve fixed terms, and at the federal level, and in most states, an officeholder cannot be recalled by the people who elected them. Many states do allow citizens to initiate statutes and constitutional amendments by petition, and around nineteen allow recall of state and local officials.
A structure is easier to see once you have pictured a different one. That is what the next page is for — not a proposal, just a drawing board.