In our newest Constitution, the Framers created three branches of government: Judicial, Legislative, and Executive. These branches were made to have each of their own powers, as to keep the others in check. This system with separation of powers and checks and balances has run our country for more than two-hundred years. One of the main problems facing the Framers in 1787 was where to assign leadership of the United States. In which branch should the power be vested in? Should one branch have more power than another? The division of power is still an issue that exists today. In this essay, I will look at the three branches of government, their power, and how the branches balance each other. One of the most contentious debates at the time of …show more content…
How would the powers of this President be checked? These questions all faced the Framers. Ultimately, The executive branch was created with one head, the President whose main job would be to enforce the rules set by Congress. Today, the President is thought to have three types of powers, expressed delegated, and inherent. Expressed powers are specifically given in the Constitution. Delegated powers are powers assigned to one branch but used by another, with the permission of the first. Inherent powers are possibly the most questionable powers of them all, these powers are not expressed in the Constitution, but inferred from it. These three types of power run the executive branch. The main topics of the expressed powers of the President are as follows: military, judicial, diplomatic, executive, and legislative. Many would say that the President’s most significant powers are the position of Commander in Chief, the power to veto, and the power to appoint appoint federal judges. “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the …show more content…
When writing the current Constitution, the founders were very inclined to create a system in which the people have representation in their government. Framers respond to this by creating a bicameral legislature, one that consists of a House of Representatives and Senate. The representation in the two houses was decided by the “Great Compromise”, effectively creating a House with representatives given to states in proportion to population. The Senate stands to grant states two representatives each, regardless of population or landmass. Some of the main powers of the legislature include: passing laws, originating spending bills (House), impeaching officials (Senate), and approving treaties (Senate). “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”(Constitution Center) Some people argue that the legislative branch is the most powerful of the three, able to create legislation and impeach the president. This also brings up how the legislative branch can regulate other branches. One way the legislative branch does this is by impeaching judges and presidents. In addition to this, the legislative branch can vote to give more power to the presidential branch. These powers are very important and useful, but the legislative branch can also be checked as
This document indicates how the value and the role of the Supreme Court revolved over the course of American history. The idea of separation power and three branches of government wasn’t as clear as it is today. In fact, when the United States was first established, during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, no one was clear on to what extend should the judicial power be
The Constitution provided many ways to prevent tyranny such as popular sovereignty, federalism, etc., but this paper focuses on the two most important; checks and balances and separation of powers. Separation of Powers was a brilliant idea, because it gave each branch of the government certain powers that the other branches didn’t have (Document D), and the other branches couldn’t take that power away from each other.
The Legislative Branch is one out of the three branches of the government. All the branches of the federal government play a super important part in Government. However, the Legislative Branch is the strongest branch. All of the Legislative Branches privileges and powers are well-defined in the U.S Constitution. All of the Legislative Branches rights and powers are defined in the U.S Constitution. The U.S Constitution wanted to divide powers within the three branches of the federal government. The Legislative Branch is the strongest branch because they make laws, declare war, and override presidential veto, and
With the concept of majority tyranny in mind, the founder’s, including Madison, divided the power of the government into three different branches. The need
Over 200 years ago the United States’ Founding Fathers created a unique system of government that allowed a balance to exist between both the federal government and the separate state governments. Through the three branches of government, specifically the executive and legislative branches, the United States has been able to act as a unified body with several varying individual parts. With the executive branch and the legislative branch each having outlined powers of their own the Founders were able to equally balance the power of the national government and the state governments. Although this system has managed to stay in tact for two centuries and has allowed the United States of America to become a dominate player in international affairs, there has consistently been a battle of power between the president in the executive branch and the two houses of congress in the legislative branch. As the United States continues to evolve and face multiple obstacles, so does the relationship between these two branches.
After the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the United States Government was reorganized under the Constitution. This gave the federal government far more power than did the Articles of Confederation, which invested power within the states. Basically, the Constitution created three branches of government (Executive, Judicial, and Legislative) which would work together to run the government. To make sure that there was an equal balance of power among the branches, a system of checks and balances was devised so that each branch could limit the power of the others. It is important to note that "the doctrine of separation of powers is not established by any constitutional provision [but] rather it emerges from he framers'
The United States government braces its power among three powerful branches, legislative, executive and judicial. These branches interact with one another to establish authority that is strong, yet equal to have power over the country. Each branch pursues certain responsibilities and duties to operate in an efficient and effective manner in which society upholds. The executive, legislative and judicial branches all interact amid each other to validate accuracy of the nation’s most powerful law of the land, the Constitution. It is important to know how these branches interact with each other to learn how a bill becomes a law. Reflecting on how the three branches promote a balance of power that is constructive to include the agendas and
Madison said “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” (Madison, 1788). A system of checks and balances needed to be implemented. Madison argued that the only way the government could be effective was to allow it to “control the governed, and in the next place [be obliged] to control itself” (Madison, 1788). The Executive Branch is responsible for implementing the laws passed by the Legislative Branch, and those same laws are either upheld or rejected by the Judicial Branch. The three branches of government must work together to provide for the general welfare. The fragmentation of the power, along with a system of checks and balances, greatly diminishes the ability for one branch to gain too much power. This guarantees the rights of the people and ensures the government’s ability to govern.
The Legislative branch has the power to pass federal laws, establish federal courts, override a Presidential veto, and impeach the President. The size of the House of Representatives resulted out of the Great Compromise. The number of Representatives is determined by Congress based on the state population. At minimum each state would have one representative, with larger states having more. When the House was created there was one representative for every thirty thousand people, yet currently we have one
The United States government consists of three main branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Within the contents of this essay, the judicial branch will be examined. The judicial branch of the United States government oversees justice throughout the country by expounding and applying laws by means of a court system.1 This system functions by hearing and determining the legality of such cases.2 Sitting at the top of the United States court system is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of the United States encompasses the federal judiciary, explicitly the judicial branch. This court is comprised of life-long serving Justices who are selected by the President of the United States and approved by the Senate.3 Cooperatively,
The Legislative Branch consists of Congress, which is made up of two parts; The House of Representatives and the Senate. These two parts of Congress was a result of the 1789 Compromise between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan was about states wanted more representation in Congress because they were bigger states. From that plan the New Jersey Plan was brought forth. The New Jersey Plan basically said was smaller and bigger states should have equal power in Congress, so the bigger states don’t overpower the smaller states. In 1789 the solution came, with Great Compromise that took parts of both plans and used it. As part of the Virginia plan the House of Representatives was created, that gave representation in
The government of the United States of America has been around for over 2 centuries, in this time the original setup has been little altered. The government is composed of three individual branches: judicial, executive, and legislative branches. All three branches are held together using a system of checks and balances. While each branch has some kind of trump or has control over another branch, some branches are arguably more powerful than others. The main focus of this paper will be on where the executive branch stands power-wise. When our founding fathers first started building our nation from the dust, they had in mind a system of branches where no one branch was more powerful than the others. The decision of whether or not they hit
The legislative branch is the most powerful branch in government. The legislative branch is in charge of making and passing laws. They have the power to override a president’s decision, stop laws from being passed, and basically control all decisions the governments makes. The legislative branch, also called the congress, consists of the House of Representatives and the senate. The reason for two houses of congress is to balance out the concerns of smaller but more populated states against states that are larger but with less population (www.Usgovinfo.com).
THESIS: The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate which forms the United States Congress; the Constitution grants Congress the single authority to pass legislation and declare war, the right to approve or reject Presidential appointments, and significant investigative powers.
American politics is often defined by a continuing power conflict between the executive and the legislative branches of the government. This struggle for political power between the two stronger branches of the three is inherent in the Constitution, itself. The concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances ensure that the branches of government will remain in conflict and provide a balance that keeps the entire government under control. As it was first established, the executive branch was much smaller and weaker than as we know it today. Consequently, the legislative branch was unquestionably dominant. Over the course of history, the executive branch grew in both size and power to the point where it occasionally overtook the