While writing the constitution congress separated government into legislative, executive, and judicial branches in federal and state governments. According to Article 1 the legislative branch would create laws, the executive branch would enforce the laws, and the judicial branch would interpret laws. The goal of this was to ensure that the government of America did not have too much control over the people which is what Great Britain did to them in the revolutionary war. Including a system of checks and balances would ensure this to the people of America. In Federalist Paper #47 James Madison talks about how too much power would be bad.
In Federalist 51 Madison states, “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.” Americans believed that power that is not given is power that cannot be misused. Now the different branches have control over different parts of how our government works. There are areas of specialty, a shared power. This is the basis of which a federal system is run because the power is shared and divided.
So the Founding Fathers took his idea and put it into action. They separated the federal government into three different branches: the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch, and the Executive Branch. These three branches are
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.
The Constitution is the greatest document to teach “the question of how free and equal citizens check and channel power both to protect themselves from domination by one another and to secure their mutual protection from external forces that might seek their domination” (Allen 9). To do this, the Constitution created the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances so that each branch of government does not have domination over the other. Each branch of government has a specific area of responsibility and was made to not have too much power over the others, to keep an unbiased system of
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
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).
51, Madison introduces the system of checks and balances to, again, emphasize the balance between political factions, in this case, the branches, in order to protect people’s rights. The government is structured upon the will of people so that it largely depends on people. However, the three branches should remain independent from each other, which is extremely important in order to make sure that no one branch would become too powerful. This is why the legislative branch must be divided into two parts, even though all the delegates there are elected by the people. Not only the federal government is being separated into three branches, there are different levels of government as well, so that powers are distributed among state governments, city governments, and local governments.
With the formation of the Constitution came the formation of the three branches of the U.S. government: the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch. Each branch had its own duties and responsibilities independent of the others and also checked the powers of the other two to make sure they did not abuse
“The doctrine of separation of powers is based on the idea of dividing government into three distinct parts—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches”(Separation of Powers, 2003). This separation of powers system was intended to keep any one office from becoming a monarchy or a tyrant. Each branch of government was assigned a unique task that they would work to accomplish
For example, the Executive branch, being the president, is able to veto congressional legislation, but the Court can declare presidential acts unconstitutional. This creates a balance between the three government branches where each branch ensures that no other branches is able to gain executive control over the entire nation. According to Federalist Paper #51, James Madison says “…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 the other.” The quote is dictating that offices should be divided in such a manner in which they should be able to check and regulate the other(s). Each branch of government keeps the other branches in line.
After more debate and compromise, the Constitutional Congress authorized the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. They established a government with three branches of government, each with different purposes: The executive, to enforce the law; the legislative, to make the law; and the judicial, to ensure the laws were in accordance with the Constitution. The beauty of this government was not the organization, but the checks and balances of each branch to provide a balance of power. Some of the more famous checks are the executive's power to veto and the legislature's power to impeach. The underlying theme of the U.S. Constitution is limiting national government.
The branches of Government When the constitution was written it was written so that no one person could have all the power of the government. The constitution wanted to make sure that all people could have the benefits of the federal government but still live with separate state laws. Because no man is immune from enticements of evil, none can be trusted and invested with limitless power. (Lapeer, RUsseell W. issue 6 p. 2).
The Constitution, therefore, dictated that there would be three governmental bodies: the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. This was the measure that people like James Madison and John Jay took so that the states would not be ruled by one supreme government, they would instead spread the power out into three different sections of government. This is called limits on power, and the Constitution used limits on power to assure the American people that there would be no, one, overarching leader, which kept the democratic society, but with regulations so that the states would not be bound to a trust system. The Constitution instilled a greater sense of protection within the United States because of this. In the Articles of Confederation, the power was held by the heads of states, and moreover, by the central leaders of those states.
[the three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788). This quote by James Madison shows that the Constitution basically separates powers of each branch, and gives each the right to stop the other if they feel that something isn’t fair or equal without creating a ruler or making one branch the strongest. With the concept of checks and balances, the founding fathers were able to stop soft tyranny, and keep government in a balanced and equal
