ipl-logo

US Constitution: The Power Of Checks And Balances

947 Words4 Pages

The power of checks and balances
The US constitution was written in 1787, not long after the States gained their independence from Great Britain. They had just defeated the tyranny of King George the third, and wanted to make sure that no one person in government would be allowed to have too much power; ergo, they created the checks and balances system which would divide the power between the three branches of government. (Anthony, et al., 2014)
The United States government is divided into the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch. Each of the three branches keeps track of (or checks in with) the other two branches to make sure the power is balanced between them.
For starters, there is the legislative branch, or …show more content…

A good example of how the checks and balances give the different branches equal power, is when a bill becomes a law. The first step is when a member of Congress introduces a bill. Then it will be sent of to the appropriate committee. Next, the Senate and the House debate and vote on the bill. The last step is when the president choose to sign the bill or not. (Fact Monster, u.d.)
In the “a bill becoming a law” scenario, the legislative branch has the most involvement, however, the executive branch (in the shape of the President) appear at the end, making the law official. The judicial branch will come in only if the law is broken, then it is the judges’ responsibility to interoperate the law and make a …show more content…

They found this statement with arguments such as the legislative branches abilities to make laws, along with the power they have to paralyze the political system. Despite this, the checks and balances system manage to work in a manner where it is impossible for the legislative branch (or any other branch for that matter) to gain full supremacy. I believe that - the spite the sceptics – checks and balances serves its purpose, are here to stay. This has partly to do with the emphasize the Americans have on democracy and unwillingness to be ruled like a dictatorship. However, I also believe it has to do with the citizens immense confident in the constitution and the reluctance to change

Show More
Related

Dbq Essay On The Checks And Balances In The Year Of 1787

207 Words | 1 Pages

In the year of 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia to write the Constitution. One major factor they were trying to guard against was tyranny, a type of government with an absolute ruler. This was a big fear because they didn’t want this democracy to turn into a dictatorship. So the delegates brainstormed and make the checks and balances for the three main branches of government. Checks and balances meant that each branch would check all the other branches and balance out their power equally.

Read More

To What Extent Did The First Guard Against Tyranny Dbq

1163 Words | 5 Pages

In Doc C they show the powers the branches use to check each other, an example is that the president can veto laws made by Congress, but Congress can override the veto. This shows that the checks and balances work to protect against tyranny by making sure every branch can cancel out the other. In Doc C they said “.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. [The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” This quote shows how the branches were made to check and control one another in order to defend against tyranny.

Read More

Seperation Of Powers Dbq Essay

445 Words | 2 Pages

One of these ways was checks and balances. Document C shows what the three branches of government can do. For example the legislative branch can veto a president's veto, can impeach a president, and can approve presidential nominations. This keeps the executive branch in check with a more powerful branch able to undo unjust laws and get rid of a bad or unjust leader. In turn the executive branch can nominate judges to the judicial branch, and can veto congressional legislation.

Read More

Analysis Of The Articles Of Confederation Dbq

500 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Guard Against Tyranny Dbq

806 Words | 4 Pages

According to James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788 (Document C), “[The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.”. The diagram (Document C) shows ways the branches can check each other’s power, for example, “Congress can impeach the President and remove him or her from office”, “The President nominates judges”, and “The court can declare laws unconstitutional.”. Checks and balances protect against tyranny because the three branches can check each other’s power to prevent one branch from having too much power. Checks and balances also make sure that each branch relies on each other, as if one branch did not exist, then the system would not work at

Read More

Tyranny Dbq Essay

797 Words | 4 Pages

They do this by impeaching the president, checking Supreme Court power, confirming President nominations, etc. All three branches will have equal amounts of power, to guarantee that they will not have constitutional control over one another when they are accumulated. Using this system will ensure that the three branches are all following their

Read More

Constitution Protect Against Tyranny Essay

557 Words | 3 Pages

So as the wise James Madison once said, “...Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”, we divided up the power fairly to keep a balanced triangle of power. In America, we have three branches of power, the Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. The Executive Branch is the President and Vice-President, their job is to enforce and carry out the laws made by the Legislative Branch. The Legislative Branch is the Congress, they make laws for the whole country. The Legislative Branch is made up of two sections, the House of Representatives and the Senate, each chosen by each state.

Read More

How Did The Iroquois Confederation Influence America

1526 Words | 7 Pages

Through checks and balances, a branch may use its powers to check the powers of the other two branches in order to maintain a balance of power. These guidelines were similar to the Iroquois Confederacy

Read More

Tyranny Dbq Essay

801 Words | 4 Pages

But the legislative branch decides who goes into the judicial branch, can override the veto, and impeach the president. The judicial branch can say the presidents acts are unconstitutional, but the president (part of executive branch) nominates judges who are in the judicial branch. Lastly, the judicial branch can make laws unconstitutional. Checks and balances protects against tyranny because they gave each of the 3 branches of government several ways of having power over the other 2

Read More

Ancient Rome Impact On America's Founders

325 Words | 2 Pages

Three branches have the power to execute create and judge how long should be applied. However, the founders wanted to add something. They didn't want one branch to gain more power than the other so I created something called checks and balances. As the text, ¨Roman influence on American

Read More

The Three Branches Of Government In The United States

1052 Words | 5 Pages

In order to make sure that no one person was able to have all the power they created the different branches of government and the three branches that were created were the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches. The three branches of government worked together with checks and balances to make sure the power was equal within the government and fair.

Read More

Constitution Guard Against Tyranny Essay

487 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

What Is The Difference Between Check And Balances

348 Words | 2 Pages

The constitution divides the government into three parts or branches, and the system of Checks and Balances is a system that allows all of the three branches of government different methods to limit the powers of the other branches. Each of these “three branches have a “check” on the powers of the others which provides a system of balance in our government,” this is where the term checks and balances originates. This system allows one branch to limit the power of the other two branches creating a separation of powers, so that one branch of government does not gain too much control. The Judicial Review is a review by the United States Supreme Court.

Read More

How Did Federalist 51 Impact Today's Government

543 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Checks And Balances

528 Words | 3 Pages

In the United States Constitution, we have a very important system called checks and balances. This system was needed to control the power of each branch of government. Without a structure to control the amount of power each branch has our government would be controlled by one group of people. The system of checks and balances helps to prevent tyranny. The overall idea of checks and balances is formed on the observation that people act selfishly and make efforts to increase their own power and wealth at the cost of others.

Read More

More about US Constitution: The Power Of Checks And Balances

Related Topics

Open Document