...Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances Vena Roberts American Public University The doctrine of separation of powers, as implemented in drafting the Constitution, was based on several principles generally held: the separation of government into three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial; the conception that each branch performs unique and identifiable functions that are appropriate to each; and the limitation of the personnel of each branch to that branch, so that no one person or group should be able to serve in more than one branch simultaneously. The Separation of Powers devised by the framers of the Constitution was designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. Based on their experience, the framers shied away from giving any branch of the new government too much power. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power known as Checks and Balances. Three branches are created in the Constitution. The Legislative, composed of the House and Senate, is set up in Article 1. The Executive, composed of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments, is set up in Article 2. The Judicial, composed of the federal courts and the Supreme Court, is set up in Article 3. The Constitution nowhere contains an express injunction to preserve the boundaries of the three broad powers it grants, nor does it expressly enjoin maintenance of a system of checks and balances. Yet, it does grant to three separate branches the...
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...philosopher who first used the term trias politica or separation of powers (Erickson). For the division of government duties, it is separated into three separate but equal branches. The characterizations of each are; the legislative branch in which it is in charge of enacting laws of the state and distributing money to operate the government efficiently, the executive branch that executes and oversees public policy that the legislative branch has authorized or financed, and the judicial branch that is in charge of interpreting the Constitution and laws with then taking the understandings to disagreements brought before it (Erickson). The separation of powers is a pillar of the United States government with all state and federal governments center around the standard of it. Although federal separation of power is not the same as state, as one instance state courts have acknowledged fundamental...
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...SEPARATION OF POWER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY INTRODUCTION The research topic deals with the concept of „the separation of powers. The researcher would like to highlight the concept of separation of powers and then gradually comes to the point separation of powers in England and US. After that the researcher would like to articulate the separation of powers in India. The doctrine of “the separation of powers” as usually understood is derived from Montesquieu whose elaboration of it was based on a study of Locke’s writings and an imperfect understanding of the eighteen century English constitution. Montesquieu, a research scholar, conceived the principle of separation of power. He found that concentration of power in one person or group of persons resulted in tyranny. He therefore, felt that the governmental power should be vested in three organs, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The principle can be stated as follows: (1) Each organ should be independent of the other; (2) no one organ should perform functions that belong to the other. Lock and Montesquieu derived the contents of this doctrine from the developments in the British constitutional history of the early 18th century. In England after a long war between parliament and the King, they saw the triumph of Parliament in 1688 which gave Parliament legislative supremacy culminating in the passage of the Bill of Rights. This led ultimately to recognition by the King of legislative and tax powers of...
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...Branches of the Government Learning Team D HIS 301 Professor Bruce Franklin Branches of the Government “Historically, the concept of Separation of Powers dates back as far as ancient Greece. The concepts were refined by contemporaries of the Framers, and those refinements influenced the establishment of the three branches in the Constitution” (Mount, 2014). The idea of a separation of powers first appeared in the political philosophy of Montesquieu. He advocated for a government where each branch had clear cut rules on what they could and could not do. This idea of a separation of government, or a government that was for the people would be perpetuated by other philosophers throughout the Enlightenment era. The founding fathers sought to create the United States government in the same way. Each branch is empowered with distinct powers. The government is set up this way in order to prevent abuse of power. Each branch is able to exercise a form of control over each other. Within the constitution are articles. Within each article, it outlines the separations of powers for each branch of the government. Article one outlines The Legislative. Which is made up of The Senate and the House of Representatives Article two is composed of The Executive branch. This entails the President, his Vice-President and the state departments. Article three explains the judicial branch. This also covers federal and the Supreme Court. With this kind of system in place, it creates a kind of...
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...‘The separation of powers hinders effective government in the United States’. Discuss The ‘separation of powers’ is a theory – adopted from Montesquieu in 1748 – where political power is distributed over the 3 branches of government. This was put in place to create a limited government which would essentially help to avoid tyranny and protect the liberty of citizens. Neustradt stated that it was the institutions that are separate and not the powers. If the branches were totally separate, power would be difficult to exercise especially with the use of checks and balances. Instead there is a separation of personnel, where not one member of one branch can work within another branch. So all in all, the US government created a doctrine of ‘shared powers’, where checks and balances are needed. Madison agreed with this, and said: ‘you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself’. Some of the checks and balances include: the president checking congress by presidential veto; the presidential veto is checked by congressional override; the supreme court uses judicial review to decide whether legislation or actions are unconstitutional; presidential appointments are confirmed, and treaties ratified by the Senate; and finally the president is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, but only congress can declare war. Checks and balances are needed alongside the separation of powers. Checks and balances are essential...
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...Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances * Analyze how the U.S. Constitution implements separation of powers and checks and balances. Briefly explain why the constitutional framers based the new government on these ideas. Evaluate how separation of powers and checks and balances are working out in practice, today, justifying your assessments with persuasive reasoning and examples. “The ancient political philosophers, particularly Aristotle, believed that a successful republic could best be achieved through a mixed constitution (also called a mixed government), whereby power would be divided among a sovereign, a legislature, and the aristocracy. Politically, this entailed the separation of powers into distinct branches of government so that one branch could prevent another from tyrannizing the majority. The tendency toward despotism and corruption, in other words, would be limited because of the checks placed on power. But it was not enough to have checks and balances between different branches of government; there also had to be checks and balances within the legislative branch. Republicanism specifically called for a bicameral legislature, which was the division of the legislative body into two chambers.” (Levin-Waldman, O.M. (2012) I have found it very important to finish this discussion properly by adding these writings: “The Declaration of Independence puts forth many core American values. However, these values have to be institutionalized, or made concrete in...
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...Founding Fathers put the Constitution into writing, our government also established a separation of powers as well as a system of checks and balances for those powers so that no one branch of government becomes more powerful than another. The three branches of our government are: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. To ensure the government is effective in its role and the United States citizens’ rights are protected, each branch has its own powers, each branch is also responsible for working with the other branches cohesively. The first of three branches that make up our government is the legislative branch. This is made up of the House of Representatives and Senate, known collectively as Congress. The legislative branch makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies (house.gov, 2014). This branch has various organizations such as Architect of the Capitol and Library of Congress (house.gov, 2014). The legislative branch is responsible for the following checks over the executive branch: overriding presidential vetoes with a two-thirds majority vote, funding executive actions, removing the president through impeachment, Senate approves treaties and presidential appointments (Kelly, 2014). The legislative branch is also responsible for certain checks over the judicial branch such as creating lower courts, has the power to impeach judges, and Senate’s approval of appointment of judges (Kelly, 2014). The...
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...The separation of powers hinders effective government in the USA. Discuss. (30 marks) The ‘separation of powers’ is a theory where political power is distributed over the 3 branches of government. This was put in place to create a limited government which would essentially help to avoid tyranny and protect the liberty of citizens. Some of the checks and balances include: the president checking congress by presidential veto; the presidential veto is checked by congressional override; the supreme court uses judicial review to decide whether legislation or actions are unconstitutional; presidential appointments are confirmed, and treaties ratified by the Senate; and finally the president is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, but only congress can declare war. Checks and balances are needed alongside the separation of powers. Checks and balances are essential for the scrutiny of the three branches of government, however they come with some disadvantages. One reason as to why the separation of powers hinders effective government in the USA is because there is often a divided house within government which subsequently results in gridlock when passing legislation or when each branch exercises their powers. It is not uncommon that the majority party in congress is the opposite of the party that the President belongs to. This usually means that the legislative and executive have contrasting views. Most recent presidents have accused the Senate of either rejecting or blocking...
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...government or rule. An example of this would be king George. He was not giving the colonists their unalienable rights. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in many ways. These include federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and The Great Compromise. The Constitution guarded against tyranny through federalism. Federalism is the federal principle or system of government. James Madison wrote about federalism. He wrote about it because he wanted to get people to ratify the constitution. Doc A is an excerpt from Madison’s Federalist Paper 51. Federalism guarded against tyranny because as Madison put it “Liberty requires that the three great departments should be separate and distinct” (Madison, Federalist Paper #47). The evidence says it all. We MUST have the three departments...
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...was put in place to avoid just that by the ideology of Federalism, Separation of Powers, and Checks and Balances. The first stage to fighting tyranny according to The American Constitution is the idea of Federalism. Federalism is the mixed or compound mode of government, combining a general government with regional governments in a single political system. James Madison also known as ¨The Father Of The Constitution¨ who was also apart of the Federalist paper along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton use the Federalist papers to implement these such ideas. According to Doc. A, “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments.”. What James Madison is saying in Doc A, is if the people give up some of their rights it is possible to have a working and flowing government that abides by the people’s say....
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...How Did The Congress Protect Against Tyranny? Have you ever wondered how Congress protected against Tyranny? Back in 1787 a new frame to the government formed. The Constitution protect against Tyranny in four different ways: federalism, separation of power, checks and balances, and Big States v Small States. Federalism The first guard against Tyranny was federalism which means the central state and governments power over taxes, laws, and enforced laws. Federalism protects against Tyranny because the state and national government have powers so no one else can become overpowered. Separation of Power The second guard of Tyranny was separation of power which means the government is divided into three different branches. In order to...
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...1. Separation of power is a fundamental principle that underlies the three branches of government establish by the Philippine constitution. a) Be able to explain the meaning and purpose of the principle of separation of powers. Separation of power describes the distribution of the executive, judicial, and legislative responsibilities of a government among separate and distinct branches. b) Be able to explain the status and the nature of the relationship of the three branches. The three branches of the government operates independently of the others. This is known as “the separation power” c) What is the principle of blending of power? Blending of power is actually sharing of power of the different department of the government whereby one department helps and coordinates with the other in the exercise of a particular power, function, or responsibility. 2. Be able to: a) Explain the principle of check and balance. "Checks and balances" is a concept set up in the whereby the various powers of any government are divided into 3 separate branches with no one branch having all of such powers. b) What are the purposes of the principle of the check and balance? The purpose of the principle of the check and balance is it guarantees that no part of the government becomes too powerful. For example, the legislative branch is in charge of making laws. The executive branch can veto the law, thus making it harder for the legislative branch to pass the law....
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...We can all agree that the Constitution did it's job in guarding against anyone having too much power. In 1787, in Philadelphia, the Constitution was written to be strong and work against tyranny (harsh absolute power in the hands of an individual of few or many). What ways did the Constitution prevent against tyranny? The Constitution guarded against tyranny by having checks and balances, the separation of powers and the small to large state compromise. Checks and balances guarded against tyranny because it gave the three branches (legislative, executive and judicial) ways that they can check and limit the powers of each other. This helped prevent tyranny from happening because if they didn't have the checks and balances, then one branch could...
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...the Constitutional Convention. Most importantly, the Constitution protects the United States against tyranny; which is the accumulation of all powers in the same hands. The Constitution protects against tyranny by separation of powers, checks and balances, and equal representation between states. The Constitution protects against tyranny by separation of powers between each branch of government, which prevents branches from becoming tyrants. “The different government will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” (Doc A) This sentence means that state and national government will limit each other. This was done by delegated powers which were given to the central government, and by reserved powers which were given to the states. These powers were only for those types of governments and prevented one government from having...
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...What is tyranny? The constitution was written in 1787 in Philadelphia to guard against tyranny. How was tyranny guarded by the constitution? Tyranny is when one person rules over a country with all the power and all the say. The constitution combines federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Balancing Power between the Large and Small States to help guard against tyranny. The first guard against tyranny was federalism which means the power was split up and not all in one person's hands.In the constitution it states “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” In the United States, the U.S. Constitution gives certain powers to the federal government, other powers to the state governments, and yet other powers to both. Federalism protects against tyranny because if the powers were not split we would be living under a tyranny....
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