Separation Of Power Essay

The separation of powers is rooted within the United States Constitution and is an advocate of checks and balances. However, there do come times when certain unnecessary situations can arise and pin point problems within the separation of powers. There are two primary party platforms, the Republicans and the Democrats, both of which have conflicting stances on issues. The separation of power forces them to work together, which can be a disaster for the government if the two parties end up butting heads. One instance of this is in the case of a government shutdown caused by the bicameral congress in the legislative branch. In 2013, the United States Government came to a standstill for twenty-six days when the House of Representatives and the Senate couldn’t resolve a new budget for the 2014 fiscal year due to Republican lawmakers in the House of

This happening was primarily caused by the different parties and the separation of power. In a Parliamentary government a gridlock rarely ever happens since every party has to work in coalition to get a bill or law passed. Coalition forces them to compromise, similarly to how government with separated powers needs to compromise, however, these parties must force their special differences aside in order to pass anything. Also, with the parliamentary government, there is primarily one majority party in power within the system which makes for passing bills or laws a fairly quick process.

With the parliamentary governments seemingly clear advantage over the separated powers system when it comes to law-making and passing, there can be drawbacks. Since the parliamentary government has no checks and balances, a minority party’s concerns can be ignored due to the majority party having all the control. Minority parties represent citizens in the country just like the majority party and