The governmental system of the Han Dynasty was a mixture of feudal structures and a central bureaucracy. The imperial princes were enfeoffed as kings (wang 王) and could on their part enfeoff their own followers and sons as marquis (hou 侯), territories that had to stay in the hands of their familiy until they became extinct. The rest of the empire, especially the territory around the capital, stayed in the hands of the emperor. It and was administered - following the pattern of the Qin Empire - as commanderies (jun 郡) under a civil governor (taishou 太守) and a military governor called "defender" (duwei 都尉). Commanderies were divided into counties or districts (xian 縣) under a civil magistrate (ling 令) and a military defender (wei 尉). The princedoms (wangguo 王國) and marquisates (houguo 侯國) were largely autonomous, especially in the first few decades of Western Han, and they had their own political administration with a couselor-delegate (guoxiang 國相) as head of government. A kind of intermediate administrative unit between the commanderies/princedoms and the central government were the inspective regions (bu or zhou). The regional inspectors (cishi 刺史) and governors (zhoumu 州牧) were installed as a controlling unit to inspect the work of the regional administrators. The central region around the capital Chang'an (modern Xi'an) was controlled by the Three Guardians (Sanfu), i.e. the Metropolitian Governor (Jingzhao Yin 京兆尹, the Guardian to the Left (Zuo Pingyi) 左馮翊 and the Guardian to the Right (You Fufeng), 右扶風later by a metropolitan commandant (sili xiaowei 　).
The central government was run by one (sometimes two) chancellors (Chengxiang 丞相), the Great Commander (Taiwei 太尉), the Censor-in-chief (Yushi Dafu 御史大夫) and the Imperial Mentor (Taifu 太傅). Chancellor, Great Commander and Censor-in-chief were called the Three Dukes (Sangong 三公) or Grand Counsillors (zaixiang 宰相).
The Imperial Board of Secretaries (Shangshutai 尚書台, later called Zhongshu 中書) was the center of paper bureaucracy. Tasks of the imperial household and central administrative works of the government like the imperial offerings, law enforcement, the imperial insignia, and so on, was run by the Nine Courts (jiusi 九寺) under a chambarlain (qing 卿). The central censorate was called yushitai 御史臺.
The military was divided into several armies (jun 軍 under generals (jiangjun) 將軍During special campaigns, a General-in-chief (da jiangjun 　ဉ was charged with his military duty. During the later half of Western Han, holders this temporary office (combined to the title of Marchal-in-chief-general-in-chief Da sima dD jiangjun 　였ЮĄ唍摮卯汥捥楴湯) gained more and more influence on the government decisions.
The Han Dynasty creators were the first politicians in Chinese history that developed a systematcal training and education for the administrational officialdom. But in this early stage of official recruitment, recommendation was still more important than examinations - although a National University (taixue 太學) was established during Former Han
This system of central government was the foundation of an administration structure that more or less kept up through the whole imperial history of China. The major parts of it were not invented by the Han politicians but were simply taken over the Qin administration system.