The 3 Branches of the American Government The constitution was established by men who had experienced the dictatorships of Europe and had escaped from its grasp. They sought to establish a form of government that would never allow a dictatorship or tyrant ruler to hold power over the people like in the places they had fled. With their creation of the foundation of what our government is today they created a system where 3 branches were all of equal power and each could be overruled by another which prevented any branch becoming superior of another. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power called Checks and Balances.(2) The three branches are legislative, judicial and executive and they each have specific powers to balance those of the other branches. The Legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate. The Executive branch is made of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments. The Judicial branch is made of the Federal courts and the Supreme Court. Each of these branches has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited, or checked, by the other two branches. By forcing the three branches to be monitored by the others, no one branch can gain enough power to become superior over the others. The American Governments system of being divided into 3 branches that can restrain one another is the most efficient way to govern the U.S. in a fair manner and without any branch becoming more powerful than another. The Legislative Branch, also known as the Congress, is made up of two houses and their main job is to make the laws of the nation.(1) They are also responsible for checking the actions of the other two branches that make up the Federal government. The two houses that make up the legislative branch are, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Some of the main powers of this branch consist of: the passing of all federal laws; establishment of all lower federal courts; can override a Presidential veto; and can impeach the President. (1) The lower house is the House of Representatives which is made up of members called Representatives. To qualify for becoming a House member a person must be 25 years old or older, must have been a U.S. citizen for seven years, and must live in the district he or she plans to represents. (1) Each state has a number of Representatives depending on the population of that state ... ... middle of paper ... ...was with the hopes of a government of democracy where the will of the people was the main power behind the government. With only two branches there would be a constant battle for power and the merging of any of the three current branches with one another would cause a very negative effect on the balance of power . This system of separating power between three branches has provided a balanced way for the government to carry out the needs of maintaining a successful nation and has proven to be successful in the prevention of tyrannical or dictatorial type leadership taking place. With each branch having a certain area of responsibility and the ability to be monitored and restrained by the other branches our government has managed to uphold the ideals of the original framers of our nation. Their quest for a nation with a strong central government that is for the people and that ensures that the freedoms of the American people are never lost has been achieved and the original idea of three branches has proven to be the perfect balance. BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www.usconstitution.net http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_govt.html http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_sepp.html
To start out with, the constitution divided power so no one branch or person had complete power over the nation or others. In document B it states, ¨Liberty requires that the three departments of power are distinct and separate.¨ This means that in order to prevent and guard against tyranny we must have different and separate branches holding power if there is only one or they are too similar that could create a small group with close to complete power creating a tyranny. Power must be separated into three branches so that they may check and limit each other so that no laws are passed that will harm the nation and are unconstitutional. The three branches are very separate but can
The separation of powers keeps any one branch from gaining too much power by creating 3 separate, distinct branches power can be shared equally among. According to Madison, “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”(Document B) In other words, to avoid tyranny and achieve liberty, the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) must be separate and diverse. The purpose of a separation of powers is to divide the powers of the government so there is not only one central source of power. The three branches must be as distinct as possible to avoid falling into the hands of one individual leader. There are also checks and balances between these three branches. Checks and balances are a system of each branch monitoring an...
The three branches of the federal government is the Legislative, Judicial, and the Executive branch. According to the federalist papers, the Legislative branch is the strongest branch since they enact laws, therefore, by cutting the legislative branch in half by creating a Senate and a House of representatives, it makes the separation of powers more of a level playing field. Furthermore, the Judicial branch is considered the weakest out of the three since it has "...no influence over either the sword or the purse... can take no active resolution whatever... neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must... depend upon the aid of the executive arm... for... judgments” (Hamilton, Federalist 78) This means that it has no monetary or military power and that it relies directly on the legislative and executive branches to follow their rulings which makes sure that the government does not have too much power individually. Therefore, since it is the weakest branch, the court has the power of judicial review, which is the ability to decide whether acts by the other branches are constitutional or not (Hamilton, Federalist 78). Furthermore, one should not be concerned about the use of excess of power since according to Hamilton these are good people who aren’t influenced by outside sources other than the constitution. The separation of these three branches creates a system of checks and balances in which each individual form of government is independent of one another and is able to ensure that each other do not step out of line (Hamilton, Federalist
1. The legislative branch is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as a whole they are referred to as Congress. There are 435 elected officials in the House of Representatives
"This inquiry will naturally divide itself into three branches- the objects to be provided for by a federal government, the quantity of power necessary to the accomplishment of those objects, the persons whom that power ought to operate," writes Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist #23 in reference to the separation of powers. The basic concept here is the idea of the federal government being divided into three separate branches that would balance excessive democracy through a system of checks on each other. The three branches, respectively known as the legislature (Article I), the executive (Article II), and the judiciary (Article III), were designed to entice the opponents of the Co...
The national government is separated into three branches: the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. As James Madison points out in Federalist Paper #47, if all the branches were combined to form one single overpowering division, then tyranny would for sure ensue. He states, “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” In order to retain the rights and liberty of our country, the government’s power must have balance. Each branch vests its power into smaller groups. Legislative vests its power to Congress, which consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. Executive to the President of the United States, and Judicial is invested in the Supreme Court. Our constitution outlines these ideals. Each branch does not overrule another and all are equal. [Doc
Our Constitution establishes three branches of government and defines their very existence. The reason for the three branches is to separate the powers. The phrase “separation of powers” isn’t in the constitution, but it best explains the intention of the Constitution. It is essential that the assignment of lawmaking, enforcing and interpreting be spread out among the separated powers to ensure that all power doesn’t fall into the lap of one group, or even a power-hungry individual. The powers of which I’m speaking that were intentionally separated by way of the Constitution are the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and finally, the Judicial Branch.
The Constitution bestowed essential powers to the nation, without which, America would crumble. Under this newly created document, three different branches of government were created: the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive. The legislative was composed of Congress, which now had the power to create a military, control interstate and international commerce, and create laws. The Judicial branch was the Supreme Court, which would review the decision of the President (in the executive branch...
The Constitution divides the government into three great powers known as the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches. Each of these three powers can keep watch on one another so no branch becomes all powerful and takes control over the government. If all three of these powers were united together as one, then the government would have tyranny on its hands. Separation of power has a very important role in the government as it does not allow the branches to abuse their power to annihilate the government system.
The three branches of the federal government, legislative, executive, and judicial, were created for a couple of reasons. First, it is important to understand the state of mind surrounding the government’s creation. The colonies had won their independence from England in the Revolutionary War and formed a union of thirteen states governed by the provisions laid out in the Articles of Confederacy....
The legislative branch consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives also known together as Congress is the only branch that has the power to create new laws. Furthermore the legislative branch employs an amazing amount of power. However the members of this branch are likely voted out of office if their objectives are not acceptable to the people. In addition the legislative branch is looked at the branch that is connected to the people. (Phaedra Trethan, 2013)
There are three branches of government in the U.S. There is the judicial branch, the executive branch and the legislative branch. The powers of the branches are all divided by the constitution which is called the separation of
The Constitution sets up the government in the United States of America. This is split into three branches: Congress, which is the Legislative, the President also known as Executive and the Supreme Courts also known as the judicial. Each branch has its own power and structure.
Many people living in The United States like to think that our founding fathers thought of the basic construction of our whole government system. They really did not; Charles-Louis Secondat, baron de Montesquieu thought of the system of checks and balances plus the three branches of government. The whole framework of our Constitution is based on what Montesquieu thought of during the enlightenment period. The purpose of the three branches is to make it where no one person or group of people is greater than the rest. Montesquieu wanted to make a government where the people had a say in what happened and there wasn't a single person in charge. The system of checks and balances was to reinforce what he was trying to do. Making it where one branch could stop another from making a bad choice for the country. This system of checks and balances mostly is there to stop one branch from abusing the other or from making decisions the people do not want.
The legislative branch the first branch of the three, consist of two branches establishing Congress, the House and Senate. Each of these components elected by residents of each state has specific requirements that they must follow. The House objectives has several powers assigned exclusively to it, including the power to initiate revenue bills, impeach federal officials, and elect the President in the case of an electoral college tie (Quote GCU). The Senate objectives are managed by the Vice President of the country, known to be the President of there group. Under the President the Senate confirms appointments that requires consent and ratifies treaties (Quote GCU). This helps the entire branch with duties that are performed.