The Separation of Power and Its Significance for the Political System

The Separation of Power and Its Significance for the Political System

The principle behind the separation of power is to limit the powers of

government by separating governmental functions into the executive,

legislative and judiciary. The concept has its fullest practical

expression in the US constitution. James Madison, who was later to

become the fourth US President said:

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary,

in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether

hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the

very definition of tyranny”.

In Madison’s vision, the federal government and state governments, as

well as the legislature, executive and judiciary would be clearly

divided and each would be given a clear motive to check each other.

There are two ways in which power can be separated; horizontally and

vertically. The horizontal separation of powers is where power is

divided between different institutions (the Supreme Court, the Senate

and the White House). The vertical separation of powers is where power

is divided between the central government and the national government.

Political constitutions are incomplete contracts and therefore leave

scope for abuse of power. In democracies, elections are the primary

mechanism for disciplining public officials, but they are not

sufficient. Separation of powers between executive and legislative

bodies also helps to prevent the abuse of power, but only with

appropriate checks and balances. Checks and balances work by creating

a conflict of interests between the executive and the legislature, yet

requiring both bod...

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Howard) decision to impose a 15 year tariff on the two boys who killed

two year old James Bulger – Jack Straws intervention was heavily

criticised by the Lord Chief Justice Woolf. The Lord Chancellor

indicated that the Government might occasionally refuse to follow

judges’ rules on cases under the Act – a statement used as evidence

that Mr. Straw might refuse to give us his sentencing power in cases

such as that of Myra Hindley (Straw stated that life should mean life

for Hindley whereas the Lord Chief Justice said that her case had not

been dealt with correctly).

However, UK courts are not directly bound by the judgements of the

European Court of Human Rights. Domestic Courts are only required to

take into account decisions of the European Court of Human rights –

they are NOT bound by the decisions of the ECHR.