Checks and Balances within the United States Constitution

There is a system in the United States Constitution, which was made particularly to control the amount of power each branch of government has. This system is called Checks and Balances and it is very important to our government. Without a system to prevent one branch of government from having more power over another, the government would be controlled by one group of people. It would not be fair to the people of the United States if one branch had more power over another. This system is intended to prevent tyranny.

The three branches of government are; the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. The legislative branch is run by congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. The main responsibility of the legislative branch is to make laws. The executive branch is run by the President of the United States. The president enforces laws and presents new ones, is in control of the Armed Forces, and has vetoing power. The judicial branch is run by the Supreme Court. The power the judicial branch has is to analyze the Constitution and reviewing laws.

The Separation of Powers was designed by the makers of the Constitution. This system serves many goals. The Separation prevents accumulation of power to one authority, which is the main cause of tyranny. It also allows each of the branches to have power over the other two branches. The United States of American was the first nation to have a separation of powers in the branches of government. The powers and responsibilities are equally divided amongst the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. By dividing the United States government into three separate branches, it will take away the opportunity to have total power from any one of the groups. The separation of powers also created a checks and balance system which will not allow one of the branches of government to have more power over another. The main goal is to maintain equally in the government.

The system of Checks and Balances plays a very important role in the United States government. This system was built so that one of the branches of government can never have too much power; therefore one branch of government is controlled by the other two branches. Each branch of government checks the power of the other branches to be sure that every branch has equal power. The people of the United States put their trust into the government and in return want their rights to be protected. If all branches were run by themselves it would not be fair or constitutional.

The way laws are made is a good example of Checks and Balances. The legislative branch first proposes a bill. Then the bill is voted on by Congress and sent to the executive branch. The president will then decide whether or not the bill will improve our country. If the president believes the bill is a good idea he or she will sign the bill, and then it becomes a law. But if the president does not think that the bill will be good for the country he will veto the bill. Another check the legislative branch can do if they really believe that this particular bill should become a law, is that they can override the president’s veto. The bill gets sent back to the legislative branch and if two thirds of the group agrees, this will override the president’s veto and the bill becomes a law. Now once the bill has become a law, the people of the United States try out the new laws in the courts, which are run by the judicial branch. A person can file a lawsuit if they believe a law is not constitutional. It is the judicial branches job to listen to each side of the story and determine whether or not it is constitutional. All three branched of government are involved in the law making and enforcing process. If the responsibilities of laws were solely in the hands of one branch it would not be constitutional. The system of checks and balances allows each branch of government to have a say in how the laws are made.

The legislative branch has the power to make laws. It also has the power to run the following checks over the executive branch. The legislative branch also has the power to remove the president from office. This can only be done if they believe the president is not doing his or job the right way. This is called impeachment. The legislative branch also has “the power of the purse”, which means that they control how money in spent in the government. If a president needs money to go to war or for another federal action, the legislative branch will not provide the money unless they believe it is constitutional. Another power the legislative branch has over the executive branch is that the Senate can approve presidential appointments and treaties. Alike the executive branch, the legislative branch also has the power over the judicial branch to impeach a judge, and approves the appointments of the judges.

The Executive branches main goal is to carry out the laws. The most important power the executive branch has over the others is the power to veto. The executive branch has the power over the legislative branch to call important sessions of Congress. The president can also propose new ideas for legislation. The power the executive branch has over the judicial branch is that the president can appoint the Supreme Court and other federal judges.

The judicial branch also runs checks on the other branches of government. The judges of the judicial branch are in office for life and are not controlled by the executive branch. A check that the judicial branch has over the executive is judicial review. Judicial review is when the court can determine whether or not an action made by member of the executive branch is unconstitutional. The courts can also judge the act of legislative members to me constitutional or not.

Judicial review is the power that the judicial branch has over the legislative and the executive branch to review a law or treaty and determine whether or not it is constitutional. The Marbury vs. Madison case is what determined the Supreme Court has the power for judicial review. I believe that judicial review is very important because if it were not in the constitution, there could be laws or regulations that are not constitutional but still in effect. There could be many mistakes in the laws of our government that the judicial branch can look over and determine that they should be thrown out or revised so that it fair.

If the government did not have this system the different branches of government would not be able to work together to maintain a stable government. If one branch of government had total control or more control over another branch it would not be constitutional. The United States Constitution is based on the people’s rights and equally over America. There would be many problems if there was not a system of separation of powers. There would not be a way to determine what role each government official plays in our lives. But with this system, the government is divided into different branches which each control different aspects of the government. The system of checks and balances keeps these three branches on government in cooperation. It allows each branch to run checks on the other two to make sure that the power is equally amongst the three. I believe this is a good concept to let each of the other branches check one another. If the branches of government check themselves they would probably be more biased. But since someone from outside of there branch is the one to check there powers I believe it is much more fair.

The government is one of the most important aspects of our lives. The government does their job with the best interest of the citizen. The people of the United States put their trust into the government to protect the people’s right. The system of checks and balances has worked very well over the course of the United States history. Although there have been some issues it has improves the government a lot. It rarely occurs that an appointed official has been rejected or a veto has been overridden but it has happened. The system of checks and balances and separation of powers is meant to keep the three branched of government in balance. Even though there has been some times where one branch turns out to have more power over another branch, overall the three branched together have a balanced systems where no one branch can hold all power over the government. The goal of the system of separation of powers and checks and balances is to develop a system that is equal and fair to all the citizens of the United States.