The Separation Of Power

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Have you heard the saying ‘’With great power comes great responsibility?’’ Sounds familiar? This means that with power, there is the burden of controlling it and not recklessly bending it to your own good. The founding fathers were concerned about limiting the power of the federal government. Why? Because people may use power to their own selfish reasons. Wasn’t going to America the reason for this? There was a first attempt at making a central government under the Article of Confederation. Under this, the government wasn’t able to control their subjects. Their was rebellions. This was a sign that the central government needed to be stronger. So they changed it to the Constitution. Under this, they had enough power to control their subjects, …show more content…

The principal of the separation of powers was created to divide among three groups. The idea behind this was that by dividing the power among three groups, one branch won’t be able to get to much power. This was created by philosopher Baron de Montesquieu. In his book The Spirit of The Laws, he pushed the idea of the division between powers of the government. One man who supported and influenced the idea into the constitution was James Madison. According to ‘’The American Nation’’ by Davidson Castillo, James Madison said ‘“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” James Madison meant by this that it was necessary to divide the power among the three branches to prevent tyranny. This was a great idea that helped control the amount of power running through the hands of the government. This is only one of the ways the founding fathers controlled the amount of power in the government. Not only is the separation of powers controls the power of the government, but this same by product can be seen with the system of checks and …show more content…

The idea of creating this is similar to separation of powers. (to control the power of the government) So after the powers have been separated, each branch has some way to check and control the other two branches. This works vise versa for that branch. The other two can check it, and so on. This part of the constitution can limit the power of the government. Say the president is being naughty, which is the Executive branch. Say the president rejects a law that could have really helped the U.S. The Legislative branch can overrule that reject, and if the president hates the members of the supreme court, he can't fire them. If the judges in the judicial court are unruly, congress can remove them. President can check on the judicial branch by appointing and choosing who gets to be a judge. If there's a bad person who wants to be a judge, then the president just won’t pick them. The other branch that could be checked on is congress. Say that the congress wants to pass a bill. Then the president can reject it. The supreme court can check the congress by reviewing laws. If a law violates the constitution, say doesn't met up for what the constitution stands for, in the supreme court or judicial branch can declare the law unconstitutional. Unconstitutional means to not be in accordance with the us constitution. With the other two branches keeping the other branch in

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