Malta's Constitution divides the power of the State into three branches, following Montesquieu's idea of the separation of powers, so that no single body controls everything.

The legislative power belongs to the House of Representatives, whose 79 elected MPs debate and pass laws and approve the Budget. The executive power belongs to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, who decide policy and run the ministries; the administrative side is the public service, whose civil servants put these decisions into practice. The judicial power belongs to the courts, led by the Chief Justice. Judges interpret the law and decide cases independently, and the Constitutional Court can declare a law or a minister's act unconstitutional.

There are also checks and balances: the Opposition questions ministers in Parliament, the Ombudsman investigates complaints against the administration, and the Auditor General checks public spending. However, the separation is not complete: in Malta's parliamentary system ministers are also MPs, so the executive and the legislature overlap, and a government with a large majority can usually pass the laws it wants.