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Separation Of Powers And Checks And Balances In The United States

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The United States Constitution provides for separation of powers and checks and balances by dividing the central government into three different branches, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. The purpose of separation of powers and checks and balances is to prevent one branch from becoming more powerful than the others. The Legislative branch is established in the 1st Article of the Constitution. The Executive branch is established in the 2nd Article of the Constitution; while the Judiciary is established in the 3rd Article of the Constitution. As the founders were creating the Constitution, they feared a central government too weak but also one that was too strong. So the founders deliberately designed each branch of the government to have separate powers and the authority to check each other. The Legislative branch has the power to pass a federal law, impeach the President, override a Presidential veto, and creates …show more content…

Checks and Balances is defined a system in which the different parts of an organization (such as a government) have powers that affect and control the other parts so that no part can become too powerful (Webster). One branch may require the approval authority of another to take a certain action or appointment to a position may require the approval of another branch. An example of checks and balances would be the Judiciary branch ensuring Congress laws and the Presidents laws are constitutional. Some other examples would be the President nominating judges for the Judiciary, Congress power to impeach the President, and the President has to obtain the approval of the Senate before treaties with foreign nations become valid. Even Congress being a bicameral legislature can be viewed as a small form of checks and balances seeing how one chamber has to get its bills approved by the other before it can go to the

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How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? Tyranny is a cruel and oppressive government or rule. In the late 1780s in Philadelphia, 55 people met because the Articles of Confederation were not working. They decided to create the Constitution that would guard against tyranny. The three main decisions that I chose that they had to make that would guard against tyranny were making the three branches of government, how the branches of government could check each other, and also how they made the rule that you would have representation according to population.

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The Legislative branch and the Executive branch are given their own individual jobs. They may be able to do what they are given, but if they do something illegal, the judicial branch comes in. This is seen in document 3, it demonstrates checks and balances. The legislative lions and Executive Eagles show how the

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In document C, there is a very useful chart that shows one way that each of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) holds a little bit of power over the others. This is good because it means that no one part of government is above or below the others in terms of power, and there is always a way for one of them to be “checked” if they are becoming too tyrannical. For example, the President (executive) can veto Congressional legislation, but Congress (legislative) can impeach the President if necessary. Being able to “check” each other is one of the ways that the Constitution kept one group from having too much power. Another benefit of having the checks and balances system is that none of the three branches is so far apart from each that they have no power over the others, but they are far enough apart to prevent the power from accumulating.

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“The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ”-James Madison. Fifty-five delegates, from the thirteen states, met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The chief executive and the representatives worked to create a frame for what is now our Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; Federalism that creates a State and Federal government, Separation of Powers that gives equal power to the three branches, Checks and Balances that create balance in the three branches by checking each other and being checked and the Small States vs the Big States ensures an equal voice for all states no matter what their size.

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Tyranny can come in many different forms. It could only be one person ruling everything, or it could be any group of people. Tyranny means a cruel or oppressive government rule, which is usually started by someone with too much power, and they become corrupt. For this reason, In Philadelphia, 1787, 55 men met up for the Constitutional Convention. This convention aimed to fix all problems with the Articles of Confederation.

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The three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial) have respective powers that enable each of them to "check and balance" the other two branches. This was done because the drafters of the constitution didn 't want any one person or group of persons to have too much power. An example of checks and balances in action is how Congress voted overwhelmingly to override a veto by President Obama for the first time, passing into law a bill that would allow the families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the

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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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Out of all the branches the legislative branch has the most power. They have to over view the president 's actions and decisions, if they don 't agree with it they can stop him. They control the taxes money, and relationships between states. They have the power to declare way, and make their own laws. The other branches have limited power and higher supervision, but the legislative branch has enough power to control itself.

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Separation of powers protects liberty by making sure that all government powers do not fall in the hands of a single person or a group of people it also ensure that one branch does not exercise the powers of another branch. The legislative branch is mainly responsible for lawmaking, in article one of the constitution congress is granted limited but substantial legislative power. For Example, in section 8 it mentions “congress shall have the power to establish Post offices and Post roads meaning that neither the executive branch nor the Judiciary branch can exercise these powers. The Executive branch is mainly responsible for enforcing laws, Article II of the constitution grants executive power to the President, Some of the president’s powers are to veto legislation, recommend legislation, grant pardons and nominate judges. The Judicial branch is the law interpreting branch of government, article III of the constitution establishes a federal system of courts that are separate from the state courts, judges are appointed for life unless they are impeached and judges are also independent of the other two branches and through their exercise of judicial powers judges cannot be threatened by either the executive or the legislative branch.

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An example of checks and balances is the executive branch is getting check by the legislative branch. If the legislative branch does not announce the nominate what the president selects they think that the president will gain much power

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When the three branches of government were created a system of “check and balances” was built into the Constitution in order to keep one branch of government from becoming too large and too powerful. Actions that are taken by one branch of government affect the other branches, thereby introducing “oversight”. The intelligence community has both internal and external oversight. The internal oversight comes from the CIA Inspector General that is embedded within the intelligence community. The external oversight comes from both the executive and legislative branches of the government.

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The Checks and Balances are the ways that the three branches of government check each other to make sure each one doesn’t go crazy with power. Legislative Branch checks the Judicial Branch, Judicial Branch checks the Executive Branch, and the Executive Branch checks the Legislative Branch. (Document C). This helps guard against tyranny because each of the branches can check the other one to make sure the branches don’t get too much power. The final way that the constitution helped guard against tyranny was the Big States and Small States Compromise.

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Therefore, power has been justly distributed between each division of government. Checks and balances are yet another form of separation of powers in the government. As the Constitution was initially written, there were checks and balances preventing any one branch of becoming too powerful. Since we still follow the same Constitution (with a few amendments) those checks and balances are still used.

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These are the balances in the 3 branches of power. The legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch. In the constitution, there is a diagram showing which branch has power for each other. This protects against an absolute power because if each branch checks on each other, it is certain that they will not become powerful than one another. In document C, it states “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….

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The executive branch can check the laws congress wants to pass and can veto them if he disagrees. The Legislative branch can check the executive by accepting the already vetoed law and can impeach or fire the president out of office. The Justice Branch can make sure peoples rights and liberties are being followed and check if the laws follow the constitution's rules. In the text, it says “To further limit government power the framers provided for separation of powers the constitution separates the government into three branches Congress of the legislative branch makes the laws. The executive branch headed by the president carries out laws.

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