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Checks And Balances Essay

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Mid-term Exam: Question One
For our mid-term exam we are asked to explain how the constitution provides a system of separation powers and checks and balances. As we’ve learned from our studies the constitution was written for the purpose of providing structure of the powers held by the three branches of government so that no one entity would have more power than the other and a system of checks and balances to ensure this would never change. We will begin with a look at the separation of powers.
As stated earlier the separation of power was designed by our founding fathers to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist (Mount, 2010, para 3). In order to do this they divided the government into three separate branches, Executive, Legislative …show more content…

Constitution realized early on that some people or branches would need to be restrained from trying to impose dictatorship upon the other branches so a checks and balance was created for all three branches (Wei, n.d.). The Constitution provides checks and balances in Congress by having all bills go through both the Senate and the House of Representatives before it can be approved and submitted to the executive branch to become a law. Together Congress can check the executive branch by refusing to pass a bill the president wants, by passing a law over the president’s veto, and by using the power of impeachment to remove the president from office. Congress also has the power to check the judicial branch by changing the number and jurisdiction of lower courts, using the power if impeachment to remove a judge form office, also the Senate has the power to refuse a person nominated to be a federal judge. The executive branch doesn’t have as much power as the legislative branch but can check Congress by vetoing a bill that has passed and been presented to become a law, the executive branch balances the judicial branch by nominating federal judges. The judicial branch has power to check Congress by declaring a law unconstitutional and can check the executive branch by declaring actions within that office to be unconstitutional or not authorized by law (Wei,

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One of the ways that the United States guarded against cruel and oppressive government or rule was that they made the three branches of government. These three branches were the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. This helped guard against cruel and oppressive government or rule because “they were separate and distinct powers.” (Doc B) This would help to guard against cruel and oppressive government or rule because all of these powers were separated so there wasn’t one overpowering government.

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In Doc C they show the powers the branches use to check each other, an example is that the president can veto laws made by Congress, but Congress can override the veto. This shows that the checks and balances work to protect against tyranny by making sure every branch can cancel out the other. In Doc C they said “.the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other. [The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” This quote shows how the branches were made to check and control one another in order to defend against tyranny.

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One of these ways was checks and balances. Document C shows what the three branches of government can do. For example the legislative branch can veto a president's veto, can impeach a president, and can approve presidential nominations. This keeps the executive branch in check with a more powerful branch able to undo unjust laws and get rid of a bad or unjust leader. In turn the executive branch can nominate judges to the judicial branch, and can veto congressional legislation.

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While writing the constitution congress separated government into legislative, executive, and judicial branches in federal and state governments. According to Article 1 the legislative branch would create laws, the executive branch would enforce the laws, and the judicial branch would interpret laws. The goal of this was to ensure that the government of America did not have too much control over the people which is what Great Britain did to them in the revolutionary war. Including a system of checks and balances would ensure this to the people of America. In Federalist Paper #47 James Madison talks about how too much power would be bad.

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Document B shows us how the powers are separated and why it is a good thing they have separate duties. Another way that the constitution avoids tyranny is with the system of checks and balances. Checks and balances is the process of each branch “checking” each other and making sure no one is too powerful. Each branch has the power to vote for or against the other branch. For example, if the legislative branch tries to write a biased law, the president can veto it.

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