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Checks And Balances Of The Constitution

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When creating the Constitution, the framers feared that the national government had been given too much authority. They incorporated Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Federalism in the Constitution to prevent this possible issue. These concepts and philosophies are an important part of our constitutional framework, and serve a valuable role in our government. In Articles I through III, the Constitution lays out the instructions for the three branches of government. By establishing three different branches, the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial, in that order, the framers split specific powers among three groups. The framers had relatively recently exited the control of the British Constitutional Monarchy, where …show more content…

Through Checks and Balances, each branch of government controls the other two in some regard and is also controlled by the other two. In Article I, the Constitution states that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all Impeachments,” meaning that the Legislative branch has the power to impeach the President, head of the Executive branch. In return, as written in Article I Section 7, the President has power to veto bills put forward by Congress, who can, in turn, overrule his veto with a two-thirds majority vote. The same goes for the Executive branch and the Judicial branch and for the Judicial branch and the Legislative branch. According to Article 2 Section 2, the President has the power to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and the power to pardon those convicted, but the Supreme Court has the power to declare Presidential acts unconstitutional. Article 2 Section 2 states that the Senate approves or disapproves judge appointments, but the Supreme Court can declare Congress’s laws unconstitutional. These Checks and Balances in the Constitution ensure that the three branches of government cannot gain nor lose power, something the framers saw as important to maintaining order and fairness in the federal

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Constitution DBQ What is tyranny and how do you guard against it? Tyranny is most often defined as harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual - like a king or a dictator. The constitution was created May of 1787, in Philadelphia. “The accumulation of all powers … in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” It was made to replace the old constitution, the Articles of Confederation (Background Essay).

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The Executive branch executes laws and is the president. The Judicial branch judges laws and is the Supreme Court. The Legislative branch creates laws and is the House of Representatives and Senate. James Madison said in Federalist Paper #47 Document B, “the accumulation of all powers...in the same hands...may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” This helps protect from tyranny because the Separation of Powers prevents all power from being in the same hands.

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The constitution protected against tyranny with federalism, the separation of power, and checks and balances. Federalism prevents against tyranny by dividing the power between the federal and state government.

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The authors of the Constitution created a balance between federal and state government by creating federalism or a division of powers with checks and balances while maintaining the separation of powers. That being said, the Virginia Plan of having every state hold a two-house legislature was debated against the New Jersey Plan that entailed a single house Congress (Foner, 2014). The end result was a two-house Congress in which each state could then have two senate members that are required to serve for one term of six years and a House of Representatives in which member were elected directly by the people every two years. This system made sure that each population was represented equally despite one state being larger than the other (Foner,

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When the United States first was established, there had to be laws created in order to have a good system. The United States has been operated under two constitutions. The first written constitution that we adopted was The Articles of Confederation, that began in March 1, 1781. It was established among the 13 original states of the United States and it served as an agreement and the first constitution. After the articles had been ratified, the states stayed independent and sovereign, with Congress filling in if all else fails on interest of debate.

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According to Articles I, II, and III in the U.S. Constitution, the federal government is divided into three different branches with all different jobs. This means that each branch is separate and cannot have all the power. For example, the President cannot make a person guilty, that’s the Court’s job. James Madison states in the Federalist Papers #47 that, 1788.“...(L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” This means that the government is split up into three different and separate branches, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, so that we can be free from tyranny.

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The Constitution united the states in a more structured and governed body, while allowing the states to have some individually, and protected all rights of people specified in the Bill of Rights. The main fear in the constitution was that the central governing power in federal government would create a tyrant, something the colonists feared from their experience as being part of the British empire. Because of this, the founding fathers divided all the powers in the federal government into branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. Each branch is in check with the others, and makes it extremely hard for the country to fall into

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The word “tyranny” means, cruel and oppressive government or rule. If the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution weren't put in place, the United States would have tyranny. Tyranny usually refers to when a person has a lot of power on their hands, or has the ability to have complete control. Tyranny is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, the preamble and in the grievance. The first mention of tyranny state that's the king aspires to establish tyranny over the United States.

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This method of separation is known as “checks and balances” referring to the three branches of government the executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The legislative branch is supposed to be the stronger one. It consists of the Congress divided in two chambers: a House of Representatives and a Senate. The members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people and have the responsibility of encouraging popular consent and the Senate is elected by the state legislatures. The executive branch consists of the president, who has the power to receive international ambassadors, negotiate treaties with acceptance of the Senate, and appoint major personnel.

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The founders of the Constitution change the Articles and made the government have more federal powers and weakened the state powers. The Constitution are documents that protect and support the people and also balance the power of the government, which included The Bill of Rights and The Preamble. The documents state in order to maintain and balance the power of the government, it divides the power into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. After looking at the documents, Constitutionally speaking, the legislative branch, or the Congress, has the most power compared to the other two branches because they make the laws, they can impeach executive leaders, and they have the power to represent the people. The legislative branch makes laws for the country, they can even add or change the Constitution.

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