The Importance of Separation of Powers & Checks and Balances
PUBLISHED BY Seth Connell
This concept is one of the most important parts of the
American Republic. ." according to Seth Connel. "Under the American system, there is a
legislature, and executive branch, and Supreme Court."The separation of powers creates unique
roles for each branch of government. Here are some of the roles of each branch.
In the legislative branch, the laws are created, budgets are passed, and wars
are declared. "The executive branch enforces, or
vetoes the laws that the legislative branch creates, declares states of
emergency, and appoints federal judges, cabinet advisors and heads of other
department at the approval of the Senate." Says Connel and he also states that "The judicial branch determines which
laws apply to specific cases; reviews constitutionality of laws, and determine
interpretations of laws.The Constitution provides a method for change,
as the Founders created it this way, should such an incidence require its
modification"
Why is the Separation of Powers so Important for the US Government?
published by Peone
![Picture](/uploads/6/0/3/1/60310287/509687450.jpg?250)
"Most people believe that the reason for the 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." says one Cnn
reporter and that "History
has taught us over and over, that when one one person has too much power, there
is often abuse of that power." He says to "Look at the Roman Emperors, at
the old European Monarchies, and most recently Stalin and Hitler." Another reason we have seperation of powers is to "provide a system of
checks and balances. It keeps one branch of government from instituting policy
that would be harmful to the US citizenry; without the presidential veto or
judicial review we would just be stuck without any way to easily rectify the
bad policy". This keeps the government from being able to cause
harm to us citizens.and also protects us from tyranny and one branch getting
too much power, which could easily become a problem today.
Separation of Powers
by Jeff Landauer and Joseph Rowlands
"Understanding that
a government's role is to protect individual rights" says Jeff
Landauer and Joseph Rowlands. They say that "The concept of Separation of
Powers is one such measure". The reason the seperation of powers
is as important today as it was when the fathers wrote the revolution is
because "when a single person or group has a large amount of power, they
can become dangerous to citizens". And by "removing the amount
of power in any group's hands, it becomes more difficult to
abuse". The seperation of powers
divides the power and responsebility in three different groups, so by "any number of
possible separations, a government can be made safer for its
citizens". Because the seperation
of powers was ment to protect the people that is why the founding fathers created it.