...Separation of powers was important to the Framers of the Constitution and is still important today. The idea of separation of powers dates all the way back to the 18th century. A philosopher named Charles Montesquieu wrote a book entitled Spirit of the Laws (1748) explaining his political ideas of separation of powers and many more. Separation of powers is defined as follows: “an act of vesting the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of government in separate bodies”. This means that all three branches of government are separated, so that they may not overpower one another, or the people of the United States. The United States needs separation of powers because separation of powers prevents power abuse, allows the federal government to have the use of federalism, and without separation of powers the United States would have more problems with laws such as the Controlled Substances Act. Separation of powers prevents power abuse. Having too much power is historically proven to create power abuse. Adolf Hitler is an excellent example of this. Hitler had too much power because in...
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...This is perhaps one of the most misrepresented and misunderstood idea in the Philippine Constitution. Everyone has opinions; however, many of those views were undeniably misinformed. That was what Fr. Joaquin Bernas wanted to straighten up in his article entitled, “Sounding Board; Fundamentals of church – state relations.” In his article, Fr. Bernas aimed at setting up a common ground in every Filipino’s perception on the underlying message of the said principle. The separation of church and state is exceedingly important to be understood so that opinions shared would be based on a common understanding of such important concept. That is probably one of the few points on which everyone on all sides of the debate can readily agree upon — their reasons for agreeing may differ, but they do concur that the separation of church and state is one of the key constitutional principles in history. As presented, an honored principle of the Philippine Constitution is the separation of Church and State under Article 2, Section 6 of the Philippine Constitution. This has been the issue that Fr. Bernas tackled in his article especially in regards with the conditions that the said principle sets. Coming from a simple understanding of the meaning, I perceived that the separation of the Church and State means that the said organizations are two separate institutions that neither directs the affairs of the other. The State cannot aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over...
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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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...Today, many Americans think that the First Amendment says "Separation of Church and State." The Courts and the media will often refer to a ruling as being in violation of the "Separation of Church and State." A recent national poll showed that 69% of Americans believe that the First Amendment says "Separation of Church and State." You may be surprised to learn that these words do not appear in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the Constitution!1 Here is what the First Amendment actually does say. The First Amendment : Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. As you can see the First Amendment does not contain the words "Separation of Church and State". The First Amendment gives citizens the Freedom to Worship God without Government interference. Assures that the Government will not establish a State Religion. That people are free to speak their minds without the government arresting them. Granting citizens to publish news that may be critical of the government without fear of arrest or fines, and finely the right of citizens to peacefully gather together or march in rallies or...
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...different ways this system can be organized, with various distributions of power. The separation of powers is a model for the government of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece. Now, it is used in the United States. Under this model, the state is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility. The typical division of branches is into a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary. The United States Legislation is comprised of the House of Representatives and the Senate, together forming Congress. Congress is comprised of mainly democrats and republicans, and republicans hold the majority in Congress right...
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...The three arms of government and the separation of powers • What are the three arms of government? • Explain the meaning of the doctrine of the separation of powers, and its rationale. • Discuss the extent to which the doctrine of the separation of powers is followed in practice in Australia. • 3 arms of govt: legislature (parliament), executive (“government”) and the judiciary • Parliament/legislature – makes laws (legislation / statutes / Acts of Parliament) • Executive/ government – formulates policy, “manages the country”; they do administer the law through government departments (e.g. Dept of Immigration applies The Migration Act to specific cases); collect taxes (revenue), and provide essential services (e.g. hospitals, roads, education) • Judiciary = courts/judges; apply and interpret the law (judges do make law but most of the time this is a slow, evolutionary process) • Rationale / justification for the separation of powers doctrine is that a concentration of power in one person (or one group of people) is likely to lead to corruption (an abuse of power). • Is the separation of powers doctrine observed in practice in Australia? • There is no true separation between the executive and legislative branches – as the party holding a majority of seats in the House of Reps is entitled to form government (and in practice, government is “in control” of Parliament, at least the House of Reps). • There is a true separation between the judiciary and the other two...
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...Democracy The type of government that is best for our new nation is undeniably a large democracy. The only way all our people will have a say is if they all have a direct say in the government. Having a large democracy would render both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalist’s arguments invalid. Not only that, but it takes care of the problem of separation of powers as well. While eventually a switch to some kind of republic may be necessary, as our population becomes too large for everyone to have their voice be heard, but right now for our new country, a large democracy is exactly what will suit us best. The Anti-Federalists argue that the states should have equaled if not more power than the federal government. People like Thomas Jefferson argued against what they feared would be the creation of the government that they tried to break away from. They wanted to defend against a strong central government that would be just like the king they revolted against. The Federalists on the other hand rallied for a stronger government. They wanted the central government to have enough power to act and react to issues that may arise in the nation. They didn’t want the states to have all the power, because it would leave the nation divided and vulnerable. They wanted a unified nation that could compete on a world scale. With a large democracy both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists would be appeased. Everyone has a direct voice in the government and the decisions that...
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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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...Running head: WHAT WERE THE REASONS AMERICA’S FOREFATHERS DIVIDED THE GOVERNMENT INTO LEGISLATIVE, JUDICIAL, AND EXECUTIVE BRANCHES? 1 What were the reasons America’s forefathers divided the Government into legislative, judicial, and executive branches? Dorthea Johnson HIS/ 301 November 8, 2012 James Halm What were the reasons America’s forefathers divided the government Into legislative, judicial, and executive branches? The main reason our America’s forefathers divided our government into three branches was because they thought every man had the capacity to be corrupt, or was corrupt and they also wanted to avoid tyranny. Tyranny is defined as, having the capacity to be authoritarian or to just be authoritarian ruler. To separate powers...
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...special legal position which overrides administrative, legislative and judicial organs and that the separation of powers is not suitable for Hong Kong.” With reference to the constitutional arrangement of Hong Kong, to what extent is this statement valid? In the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Basic Law on September 12, the director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Zhang Xiaoming gave a speech entitled “A Correct Understanding of the Characteristics of the Political System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region”. He said that the separation of power will not implement in Hong Kong. He also stated that the Chief Executive has “a special legal position” that he can overrides executive, legislative and judicial organs (Zeng, 2015). His speaking was criticized by the public and caused much controversy. In my opinions, the view of Zhang Xiaoming is valid in a small extent according to the constitutional arrangement in Hong Kong. It means that the Chief Executive of Hong Kong does not necessarily have an overriding power over administrative, legislative and judicial organs and that the separation of powers may suit in Hong Kong. First of all, we need to know what separation of powers and the functions of executive, legislative and judicial organs are. The separation of powers means that all the powers that are entrusted to the government are divided into three main departments, the executive, legislative and judicial. The officials 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 power in Africa and their Limits Introduction. According to the online business dictionary, Separation of Powers is a constitutional principle that limits the powers vested in any person or institution. It is this principle that divides government authority into three branches namely the Executive (President or Prime Minister and the cabinet), Legislature (Parliament or Senate) and the Judiciary (Chief justice and other Judges). From this definition, Separation of Powers entails that each organ of the state, namely twill perform its functions without undue interference from the other organs. Each organ therefore, should be left to do what is assigned to it under the constitution. If any organ is not performing well it ought to be reminded and its performance monitored by way of accountability. This is not interference but a system of checks and balances in the interest of good government. But separation of powers does not mean insulation of powers because the three organs of the State, particularly the Executive and the Legislature, are at one level or another bound to interact and indeed complement each other in the running of the affairs of the State (World bank, 1992). In essence, the doctrine of separation of powers is that for a free and democratic society to exist there must be a clear separation between the three branches of government, namely:- The Executive This is the branch that executes the business of government. It comprises the President, Vice-Presidents...
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...Tyranny is what causes horrible human beings. Dictatorship has created human killing machines that destroy human rights. The government has decided to come up with a new plan to prevent tyranny. They threw out the idea of the Articles Of Confederation and came up with the Constitution. The Constitution is what guards against tyranny and limits the powers that tyranny had given to people. This document was written on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia. It was written to give citizens certain basic rights, but people started building up questions on why the government had come up with another document. So the question is, how did the Constitution guard against tyranny? Tyranny is the absolute power belonging to an individual or group. Many people...
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...providing order and promoting the general welfare. Page 6,7,8 Separation of power : Page 24 1. The Separation of Powers How did the Constitution divide power between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government? What are the different roles played by each of these branches in American national government? o Separation of powers divides power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches as distinct departments of American national government. ▪ This endows several different institutions—the Congress, the executive branch, and the judicial branch—with the ability to influence the nation’s agenda and affect decisions. ▪ This also establishes a system of checks and balances in which power is divided to ensure that no one branch becomes predominant. o Within the system of separated powers, the framers provided for legislative supremacy, listing the powers of the national government in Article I of the Constitution, which deals with the Congress. o Presidential government has emerged, particularly after 1937, such that Congress and the president perpetually compete for contrul of the national government, particularly during periods of divided government. o The separation of powers system of checks and balances relies on the goal-seeking behavior of puliticians acting within the various institutions of the national government. Exemplifying the Rationality Principle, the give-and-take...
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...Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de le Brede et de Montesquieu, was a 18th century political 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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