Checks And Balances In The US Constitution

Some examples of the system of checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution The U.S. Constitution was written by Americans during 1787. Americans had lived through two difficult periods: under British rule, the late colonial period and under the government created by the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution is the “fundamental law by which a state or nation is organized and governed, and to which ordinary legislation must conform.” The Constitution was established to consign powers and duties to government actors and it also outlines the relationship between the people and the government (Tannahill 28). Some example of checks and balances found in the U.S. Constitution are: The President is Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces,

“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition” Ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work; it is desire and determination to achieve success. As per James Madison “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition” this therefore is the means of “keeping each other in their proper places” (Ladd and Serow 74-75). It’s for preserving the necessary partition of power among the several departments, as stipulated in the Constitution. Because the perpetual occupation by which the appointments are held in any department, they must destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them, therefore the structure of the government requires that all the appointments for the supreme executive, legislative, and judiciary magistracies should be drawn from the same fountain of authority (Ladd and Serow 74). Members of each department should show as little dependency as possible on those of the others. Therefore the security of several powers in the same department consist in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachment of the others (Ladd and Serow

Without checks and balances in our Government system, then the power of one branch will be able to overpower other branches, which can lead to chaos and possible rioting in the country. Americans are fortunate to be living in a country with a Constitution that allows and guarantee specific rights and liberties to its people. Not everyone in the world today is provided privilege to these rights and liberties. Historically in other countries, the President took away responsibilities and power from Congress and vise-a-versa. Some people have a strong desire to seek power; therefore it is in the country’s best interest that we should have a government to resist it-self, to prevent abuse of power. Americans should not fear having a strong government, a system of checks and balances and separated institutions sharing power. Because of this government system, the American people can have the assurance that our rights and liberties that the fore fathers fought for will be enforced by the government system that is in place today. As Madison states “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition” and that is why today, we have the different branches in our government which are fighting against the ambitious acts of our new