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Principles and Articles of the United States Constitution

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Principles and Articles of the United
States Constitution
Tammie Johnson
Grand Canyon University: POS 301
June 19, 2013

Principles and Articles of the United
States Constitution Principles of the Constitution | Self-Government | The principle where the people are the decisive source of governing authority and decisions are made based on majority rules (Patterson, 2011). | Separation of Powers | The principle used for the allocation of power among the legislative, executive, and the judicial branches that outline the responsibilities of each branch. | Checks and Balances | A system of the government used to preserve a balance of power among the three branches of government so no one branch can over-power the other two. |

In the United States, the federal government uses a system called checks and balances to ensure that the three branches of government are working equally and that no one branch becomes superior over the other two. The three branches that are based on the principle of separated institutions sharing power are the legislative, executive and judicial. Each branch has powers that it can use to check and balance the operations and power of the other two branches (Kelly, 2013, para. 1). What makes this system effective is that each branch must be willing to compromise to ensure the American people needs are put first and the safety and security of the nation is constantly being enforced. For instance in an attempt to limit the power that each branch could have over the other two, Congress which is divided into two houses provides a check on each other. The President can reject legislation, but he can be overruled by a two-thirds popular vote in both houses. The judiciary can lay out laws considered undemocratic (Powell, 1996). Therefore it becomes crucial that all parties involved learn to work together and put their difference aside

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