The legal term Separation of powers originated with the Baron de Montesquieu, a French enlightenment writer but however, the act can be traced to ancient Greece. Separation of powers is a fundamental doctrine of the United States government, in which the powers and responsibilities to govern are being distributed between the Legislative (parliament or senate), Executive (president or prime minister and the cabinet), and Judiciary (Chief Justice and other judges) to ensure that no one branch can gain absolute power and the issues about public policy and welfare would be given severe consideration before actions are taken. Separation of powers is common in many democratic countries of the world (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2014). Through the system of checks and balances, the officials of each branch are selected by different procedures and serve different terms of office and each branch may choose to block action of the other branches.
The executive branch:
Fundamentally, the executive branch of U.S government was established to enforce and execute the laws that the legislative branch makes. The executive is made of many parts each with their different specific responsibilities. The President is the head of the executive branch and acts as both the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. As the head of state, the president has the responsibilities of appointing the heads of all executive agencies and federal commissions, holding the power to veto bills whenever the Congress ordains laws, issuing executive orders, supporting diplomacy with other nations signing pardons and international treaties and also presenting a State of the Union address to the Congress regularly. The Constitution requires that each Presid...
... middle of paper ...
...eparation of powers
1. The main draw-back regarding the matter of division of power is the long nature of decision making. This eventually brings about delayed change. Every one of the three arms of government must be ready for a law to be accepted and enforced.
2. The role of government has expanded so greatly that many decisions which affect people’s lives must be made quickly, and some of these decisions require specialized knowledge which is not possessed by judges or magistrates. Many of these decisions are made by administrative tribunals established by and answerable to Ministers. Hence the Executive branch is increasingly given judicial powers. This is not necessarily undesirable so long as the tribunal obey the basic standards of fairness laid down by the law and so long as the courts are able to review their decisions.
It has likewise gotten unrealistic
The separation of powers separates the central government into three branches. The three branches are the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. All of the different branches have power over specific things. This guards against tyranny because it doesn’t allow any of the branches to do whatever they want. In Doc B, it says that the great departments of power should be separate and distinct. This helps because if they all had the same power, they would have control over anything they wanted to.
Separation of powers means what it says. Power id distributed among the three branches of government: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. In Document B of the DBQ Packet, James Madison quotes, “’the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny…. (L)iberty requires that the three great departments should be separate and distinct.’” In other words, if one person or group owns too much power in a government, then they are considered a tyrant, whether the person (or group) who gained the power was elected into power, born into it, or declared themselves ruler. If the government was not divided into three branches and was only a single department, then too much power would be granted to that government, defying Madison’s ideals of a tyranny-free country. With the government split into different departments, each branch owns its own set of powers. The legislative branch creates laws, the executive branch administers the laws, and the judicial branch interprets laws. Separation of powers guards against tyranny because it helps prevent the development of a branch of government that may ratify, carry out, and portray laws as they wish. Power is distributed among branches ensuring that all offices play a role in the United States’
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...
In Donald Robinson’s, Slavery in the Structure of the American Revolution, he eloquently articulates the original purpose of separation of power in the United States of America: to protect private interests and freedom. Considering that separation of power is viewed as a means to prevent a unitary and centralized government, the issue of slavery influenced the adoption of separation of power. While equality is a quintessential reflection of America, the power of states’ rights prevents states from being consistent with American values. In this paper, I will examine the principle concept of separation of power in the context of ensuring private interests, in particular, the institution of slavery and segregation. I will argue how decentralized political power fundamentally prevents unity within a nation because of its intent to protect the private interests in the United States of America.
The separation of powers guards against tyranny because it separates the three branches, making sure no power is greater than the other.
The Executive Branch was supposed to be much less significant than the Legislative Branch. In fact, James Madison wrote, “Rarely if ever happen that the executive constituted as ours is proposed to be would have firmness enough to resist the legislature,” in his notes during the Constitutional Convention. Partially due this and not wanting to offend George Washington, whom was expected by the founders to be the first president, the founders focused very little on Article II of the Constitution. The largest role the president is supposed to play in the government is making sure that laws are followed. However, the Constitution does not explain how the president is supposed to do this. As a result, future presidents have had to interpret the Constitution and assume implied powers that were not directly stated in the Constitution. Barak Obama was never supposed ...
Separation of Powers splits the different government responsibilities into branches. In the US we have the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches of government. The Executive branch is the president and vice president, he enforces the laws. The Legislative branch is Congress, they create the laws. The Judicial branch is the Court System, they can decide if a law is constitutional or not. James Madison says it perfectly ¨Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.¨ (Doc B). It prevents tyranny because if we had one group or person controlling every responsibility they would become way too
The basic idea between the creation of the three branches is based upon “checks and balances.” No branch should become so powerful that it over-takes either of the other branches. This also brings out the point that neither one of these branches, nor any person holding office in one of them, can exercise power belonging to either of the others. The legislative branch creates the laws, the judicial branch reviews the law, and then the executive branch enforces the laws. All three branches are interrelated, each branch overlaps but serves separate purposes.
Separation of powers, briefly explained, is the principle that too much power should not be invested in the hands of a single person or body (Elliott & Quinn 2009, p. 1). The Theory of Separation of Powers holds that the three organs of government
Successful governments in history gained their acclaim by trial and error. The government in the United States is no different. In fact, the structure of the government in the United States has been through many changes: the American government was once feeble and operated with weak alliances between states; however, the present government functions in perfect equilibrium with the separation of powers, the federal system, and regards to democratic ideals.
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.
Separation of power is an important concept within presidential systems like the United States, with presidential power constricted by established levels of responsibility. According to Lijphart (1999: 125), the separation of power within presidential systems implies “not only the mutual independence of the executive and legislative branches but also the rule that the same person cannot simultaneously serve both”, which isn’t the case in parliamentary systems, where the Prime Minister does have control of both branches of government (SOURCES). This also applies to the powers of US state governments, with certain areas of policy i.e. educational standards and criminal justice (BIIP, 2004) controlled by states r...
The principle of separation of powers is laid out in Articles I, II, and III, in effort to avoid tyranny. It is a part of a system called check and balances. The check and balances play the roles of the three branches of government. This system was made so that no one branch will over power the other. The three branches come together and help one another by being independent of the other. The legislative branch consists of the Congress, the judicial branch consists of the courts, and the executive branch consists of the president. For an example, when a bill is in progress and the chief executive (president or governor) does not approve of it, he can reject legislation and return it to the legislature with reasons for the rejection. This is a process called veto power.
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 legislative and today rivals the legislative in a much closer political battle. Today both branches have major factors that contribute to their power, but on the whole the legislative remains the lastingly dominant branch.
One of the biggest threats to a thriving country is a tyrannical government. To prevent this, the Founders declared that the power of the government must be separated. This principle, the Separation of Powers, states that, to prevent tyranny, one governmental branch cannot have supremacy over the country. The power must be divided among three branches. These are the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. The Separation of Powers is of equal importance now as when the Constitution was written because it prevents tyranny.