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Discuss the powers and role of the executive branch essay
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Separation of Powers: Framework for Freedom
When the United States government was first being formed, many colonists had concerns as to how it would be set up. Others worried the central government would be too strong and would limit the rights of colonists. The Founding Framers had a very difficult task on their hands. How would they make a strong central government without letting the government in future generations become an autocracy? Their solution was simple; split the government into three branches with the power to control the other two branches. This solution was based on the idea of a French lawyer named Baron Montesquieu. The Executive branch would take care of the everyday tasks and would maintain the country. The Legislative branch
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At the head of the Executive branch is the President of the United States. The average citizen would believe the President has unlimited power and that they control every aspect of the country. But under the separation of powers, they are only responsible to enforcing the laws that Congress passed. Yes, the President has a lot of power, but it is limited and is highly regulated. If the Executive Branch should become too powerful one day, the Checks and Balances would come into play. The Judicial Branch would stop any illegal or unconstitutional actions to ensure the rights of the citizens are protected. Also, the Legislative branch is allowed to pass laws that would limit the power of the Executive Branch. The Executive Branch, while being very powerful, is still very limited in the scenario in which it becomes too …show more content…
Government is the Judicial branch. The Judicial branch interprets the laws of the country, and makes sure every law pass in Congress is in accordance to the United States Constitution. The highest court of the Judicial branch is the US Supreme Court, made up of 9 Justices serving in the court. But even the court’s power is regulated. The Executive branch appoints the judges to the courts, and the Legislative branch swears them in. But in the case that a judge is not ruling without outside influence, an impeachment can happen and the judge can be removed. In conclusion, the Judicial branch is one of the biggest regulators in the U.S. Government but it is still highly
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
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...
1. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and other various courts system at the federal, state, and local level. As I mentioned before the Supreme Court Justices are nominated the President of the United States, but the Senate must also approve them with at least 51 out of the 100 possible votes (“Branches of Government”). There is no specific term length of a Supreme Court Justice, once appointed, they will have that position for life or until they decide to retire.
"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 judiciary branch is the seen as the “least dangerous” branch; therefore, it will not be able to attack the way the other two branches can and it cannot defend itself against attacks. The judicial branch is only seen as one that can pass judgment on cases that are either constitutional or unconstitutional, but it cannot act on it; therefore, the reason they are seen as less dangerous and cannot compare to the power that the executive and legislative branch have. They have to hear appeals,
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.
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 founding fathers of the American Constitution divided the government up into the following three branches to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist; legislative, judicial, and executive. The three braches were created by the Constitution: Article 1, Legislative branch made up of the House and the Senate, collectively known as Congress; Article 2, Executive branch, or President; Article 3, Judicial branch, made up of the federal courts and the Supreme Court. This was done in efforts to distribute power amongst the three so that one would not have more power than the other. Each branch has the ability to check the power of the other branches. This power check of the other branches is referred to as the checks and balances, better known as the Separation of Powers. This was to prevent tyriny.
At the Constitutional Convention, the framers set out to develop a form of government stronger than a confederation; it could not be unitary though, otherwise the states would not ratify it. They borrowed ideas from both of these forms of government to form a federal republic. Once federalism was decided upon to unify the states without constraining them, the next step in developing a lasting constitution was creating a separation of powers. James Madison wrote in The Federalist, No. 47, "No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than that ... the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."2 The framers ingeniously wove into the Constitution three ways to ensure a clear separation of powers among the three branches of government. First, the leaders in the different branches come to power in
The Judicial Branch consists of the United States Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. Their role is to hear cases that challenges the legislation or are in need of interpretation of that legislation. (Phaedra Trethan, 2013) (Federal Government, 2003) (Sparknotes, LLC, 2011) (Independence Hall Association, 2008-2012)
The main powers of the executive branch rest with the President of the United States of America. Powers granted to him by the constitution include serving as commander in chief of the armed forces; negotiating treaties; appointing federal judges, ambassadors, and cabinet officials; and acting as head of state. The president also has a cabinet which includes officials such as the attorney general and the secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Interior, Agricu...
“separation of power is to prevent anyone person from gaining too much power for fear that they will then abuse that power at the expense of the American people. History has taught us over and over, that when one one person has too much power, there is often abuse of that power. Look at the Roman Emperors, at the old European Monarchies, and most recently Stalin and Hitler.” (Peone). In addition the checks and balance prevents policies that would be critical and dysfunctional to the people in United States; without the three branches of the American government it would be difficult to rectify the bad policy.
The Separation of Powers was important to our Founders because the mistreatment of the power that the colonists gave to their leader was evident. The colonists preferred to avoid a similar occurrence in their new country, where they felt that their leaders were violating their rights. In one of James Madison’s Federalist Papers, it states that “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, judiciary, in the hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny…(L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and
As we go into these scenarios that we put in place, keep in mind how they would work in a political system of a country. It is important that each branch works together in a seamless manner, and each one has its own level of powers. Like a sports team, every position is important. It is also very important to understand how all of these very different systems work.