ipl-logo

The Need To Establish The Three Arms Of The Federal Government

686 Words3 Pages

The need to protect individual rights and freedoms led the federal government to establish the three arms of the government namely; the judiciary, legislature and the executive arm. The branches have been founded on the background of the doctrine of separation of powers. According to this doctrine, no single arm is expected to be powerful than the others or influence or control the functioning of the other arms (Merrill, 1991). It dictates that each branch should act independently free from interference by the other arms of government. However, each branch has an oversight role to the functionality and conduct of the other arms. Interesting is that, all the branches work harmoniously towards the success and prosperity of the country. The constitution defines the arms and clearly points their functions. The concept of separation of powers is also explained by the constitution. The federal government strongly believes that it is through the separation of powers that individual interests and rights could be upheld. If the government operated as a single unit what will happen? Imagine one person making laws, evaluating their reasonableness and enforcing any deviations from such laws. Its clear conflicts of interests, bias and …show more content…

The concept entails the division of government roles into independent branches to limit the interference and influence of the branches in their core functions. The principle aims at preventing the abuse of power and providing mechanisms of checks and balances. According to this principle, each arm exercises an oversight role to the others. Elements of the doctrine include; no single individual should form more than one arm of the government, no arm of government should exercise control over the other and no single arm should interfere with the functionality of the other organs (Scalia, 1983). Montesquieu proposed that the government is divided into the three

Show More
Related
647 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
612 Words | 3 Pages

A second guard against tyranny was Separation of Power which means distributing power to 3 sections of government. Document B talks about how power in federal government was sectioned of into three branches which are Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches. These branches had specific roles. For example, the president was a part of the Executive branch, and the Supreme Court was a part of the Judicial branch. Separation of Power protects against tyranny because it separates all power into three sections and only those people in the branch have certain

Read More
1365 Words | 6 Pages

The three different branches of government helped guard against tyranny. They helped guard against tyranny because each branch has different people in it and that means that not all of the same people are making the laws and enforcing them. Now they have multiple people creating the laws which decreases any chance of tyranny. With the three different branches of government comes the sharing of power which also helps guard against tyranny. If they all can come together and share all of the power than we can have a government successfully without having any problems with tyranny.

Read More
508 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
292 Words | 2 Pages

In the compound republic of America, the powers surrendered by the people is first divided between two governments (DOC A), the two governments being state and federal. The state and federal government will have separate and shared powers(DOC A) because of this, one government won’t become too powerful. The second way the Constitution guards against tyranny is through the separation of powers. Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate

Read More
797 Words | 4 Pages

The government consists of the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial branch. These three powers guard against tyranny because the building of laws is represented to be more equal. James Madison, father of the Constitution and author of the Federalist Paper #51, wrote, "…. (L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct” (Doc B). The three groups should not be associating to have more power because it is authoritarianism.

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

James Madison directly explains the purpose of dividing the powers among the three branches to protect against tyranny, “...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...” By separating the powers and creating a system of checks and balances to guard against tyranny, the framers of the United States constitution directly aimed to protect the constitutional rights and liberties of individual citizens and the future of the nation. Just as the creators of the constitution sought to protect the citizens of the United States against tyranny with the separation of powers and checks and balances, the framers of the constitution also protected the rights of states with larger and smaller populations. To protect the rights of larger states and smaller states, the framers created a bicameral legislature system with the house of representatives and the senate. The members of the house of representatives are determined based on each states population, while the senate has 2 members per state, allowing for both large and small states to have equal

Read More
955 Words | 4 Pages

In order to strengthen the government, three branches were put into place, each holding specific powers. These include the Legislative branch which creates laws, “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers…” (2: Source A). The Executive branch that is meant to enforce laws, “He shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States” (2: Source A). Lastly, the Judicial branch interprets the laws created, “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity arising under this Constitution…” (2: Source A).

Read More
781 Words | 4 Pages

Regulating the branches of government is crucial to the success of our country, so the constitution laid out the concept of “checks and balances”. For example, the president can veto any bill passed by legislature. In this case, the executive branch checks the legislative branch of government. If this wasn’t possible, congress could pass any bill they want, and ultimately become a powerhouse. These guidelines help keep the government intact, and in turn keep the constitution intact.

Read More
997 Words | 4 Pages

The three different branches all keep the others from gaining too much power of the states through what is known as a series of checks and balances. The United States governmental policies can go into incredible detail due to the unknown number of tweaks made to this evolving form of government. What is most important about the United States governmental system, is that it is a democracy at its roots. Obviously there will be differences between this democracy and the Athenian’s view on democracy and politics, yet the base concept is still there: the people, the lower, middle, and upper class, all have the ability to make a change in what they stand for. The average citizen can place their vote for or against ideas that support or oppose their opinions, or they can attempt to run for office and create change.

Read More
723 Words | 3 Pages

As James Madison stated, “ The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” However, if you separate this power between multiple branches of government it provides a fairly effective safeguard against one person or group gaining too much power over the other. Also, along side with these separations, each appointed government official serves a certain term. After this term they either have to run again or cannot be in that position again. This protects against tyranny because without the ability to serve a full lifetime, it becomes extremely difficult to gain too much

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

“ … it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another” (Document 2). In some countries, today and in the past, there are instances of dictators creating and enforcing laws that void an individual’s natural rights, but because of Montesquieu's influence on the division of power, the people have no need to fear the government abusing its power. According to the revolutionary enlightenment thinker, there can be no liberty if the legislative and executive powers have equal authority because then tyrannical laws could be imposed. Liberty also can’t be had if the judicial branch isn’t separate from the executive and legislative because if it were joined with the legislative branch, citizens would be exposed to arbitrary control; were it joined with the executive branch, the judge might behave with the violence of an oppressor (Document 2). This concept of checks and balances is directly seen in the Constitution.

Read More
1997 Words | 8 Pages

The reason behind a divide of political power is to prevent any forms of Tyranny that could, in the eyes of the early American people, mimic George III. Which would lead to a control of administration and the military/police forces, and would imprison those who would stand in their way, this would lead to oppression and death, as was demonstrated in the Revolutionary War. The best way to prevent such a centralized government in the United States so that it would not repeat such a cycle would be to divide the state’s power up into three parts. Each would remain separate in order to keep a balance, each focusing on an aspect of government in order to keep the government from collapsing on itself. While each has a job to perform there is still the threat of having one of the three branches that could over throw the other two, the Constitution creates a series of “Checks and Balances” that are issued for each branch in the off chance there is a power struggle between them.

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

(The Three Branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” In conclusion, the constitution protected us from tyranny using the three methods,Equal Representation from all the States, Federalism, and the system of checks and balances. The framers succeeded in creating a well built constitution because all three methods have created security that no tyrant, or tyranny would

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

Do you ever wonder if the separation of powers in the government is important or not? The Separation of powers among the branches of the government is important because it makes sure that one branch or group of people/a person is not overpowering the rest of the government. The Separation of powers also ensures that the government is listening to the citizens and is keeping the rights and liberties that the citizens have. In this essay, i will explain to you how each branch of the government ensures that the other branches abide to the constitution and ensure that they keep the promise of Freedom and the rights of the citizen. Topic from yellow Each branch of the government makes sure that the other branches are not overpowering or breaking

Read More

More about The Need To Establish The Three Arms Of The Federal Government

Related Topics

Open Document