The Branches of the Government

The Branches of Government

Our forefathers divided the government into three separate branches was because they planned to implement a democratic government that would work to serve the citizens and not regulate them. In other words, the forefathers wanted to devise an organization where no single individual or assembly would have too much authority. The forefathers saw how having one person with a lot of power was a bad idea, since this was the issue with the British king. The branches of the government are legislative, executive, and judicial branch. These three branches work together and are equally powered. The legislative branch is responsible to make the laws. The judicial branch interprets the Constitution. The most important branch of the Unites States is the executive branch, which makes sure that the laws of the U.S. are obeyed.

The legislative branch makes the law for the nation. This branch is made of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate; this is specified in Article I of the Constitution. The House of Representatives is composed of 435 representatives. The representatives meet together and determine which bills will became laws. Some states could have 2 and other may have up to 40. The Senate is composed of 100 senators, two for each state, and their term is for six year. The head of the Senate is the Vice President, and he will only vote if there is a tie.

The president of the United States, the Chief of State, is the administrator of the executive branch. The Constitution grants this power in Article II, Section 1, Clause 1, which states "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." The Constitution also outlines qualifications to hold the office. These include: the person must be a natural-born citizen, lived in the United States for fourteen, have 35 year of age. Also included in Article II are specifications for term and pay. It was originally set that a President may only serve for four years but is eligible for reelection. However, in 1951 Congress passed an amendment that limits the number of terms to two. The President's salary is outlined in Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 as saying that the pay shall be set by Congress and cannot be increased or decreased during a term. The President has many roles he must fill as leader of the United States.

The judicial branch made up of a court system. This branch supervises the court system of the U.S. The head of the judicial branch is the Supreme Court, the highest court. There are 9 judges with no term limit, which interpret laws according to the Constitution. The president is responsible to choose the judges, but the Senate will have to approve them. Some of the violations federal law that the Judges will hear are crimes committed across state lines, offenses involving federal government employees, and fraud involving the national government.

The checks and balances are a system for separation of powers. It is there to make sure that no one group or branch of government can have exclusive control.

"The concept of constitutional checks arose as an outgrowth of the classical theory of separation of powers. Classical political philosophers from Aristotle onward favored a mixed government combining the elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. The English theorist James Harrington in his Oceana derived a theory akin to separation of powers from the old idea of mixed government. Later, John Locke, in his second treatise, Of Civil Government, urged that the best way to avoid a perverted government was to provide constitutionally for separation of the legislative and executive powers. Montesquieu, in his Spirit of the Laws, added the third power of the judiciary to this concept, and the modern expression of separation of powers came into being."

Each of the three branches has their own powers to check the action of the other branches. These separations of powers are established in Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution. John Adams once said, "It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature toward tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the Constitution" (Britannica, Internet).

"The process of how laws are made is a good example of checks and balances in action. First, the legislative branch introduces and votes on a bill. The bill then goes to the executive branch, where the President decides whether he thinks the bill is good for the country. If so, he signs the bill, and it becomes a law. If the President does not believe the bill is good for the country, he does not sign it. This is called a veto. But the legislative branch gets another chance. With enough votes, the legislative branch can override the executive branch's