Three Branches Of Government Essay

Three Branches of Government

The United States government is a federal government which means that is a system of government where the power is shared between the central, federal, and state governments. This government is divided into three branches: The Legislative, Judicial, and Executive. There is a separation of powers that limits the power of any one person or group, dividing the authority into these three branches. They were created by the constitution after the Articles of Confederation, a document that was created after the United States gained its independence from Great Britain. They established the functions of government but it had failed due to the lack of power that it gave to the central government. There are many things

This system allows all three branches of government to try to improve or just outright veto the actions of another branch, keeping the other branches from being too powerful. One example is that then president, who is in charge of the Executive branch, can veto laws passed by Congress. Another example would be that Congress can remove the president from office in certain circumstances. The French philosopher Montesquieu originally thought of these ideas of separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. The way he saw it, is that these systems were the best way of keeping government from becoming corrupt. He saw that the people who make the laws should be made up of a large group who can use their own experiences and wisdom to create laws that will better the government, so now there is Congress. He also saw that the there should be not many people with the power to enforce these laws so they feel personally responsible that the job will be done, so there is the president and the Cabinet. Finally, the power to interpret these laws should be given to jurists who act independently of the executive or legislative branches and cannot be fired by the President or Congress except through the process of impeachment, so there is the Supreme Court and all other courts. All of these ideas influenced James Madison, a federalist and future fourth president of the United states, who wrote the