Today we will continue that discussion and look at the three branches of government and how they function together.
Today we will continue that discussion and look at the three branches of government and how they function together. Separation of powers is allowing each branch of the government to be independent of the others and have separate and specific responsibilities.(1:00) These ideas were supported by James Madison in Federalist 51.(2:00) We also look at some specific checks that each branch of government has on the other two. (4:08)
Today’s Question of the Day is (6:34): When were people given the power of direct election of their senators?
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Hi and welcome to the APsolute Recap: US Gov Edition. Today’s episode will recap Federalist 51 and Limits on Government
Lets Zoom out:
Unit 1 - Foundations of Democracy
Topic 1.6 Principles of American Government
Big idea - Competing Policy Making Interests
In our last episode we looked at the creation of the Constitution and the debate about protecting individual rights and limiting the power of government. Today we will continue that discussion and look at the three branches of government and how they function together. Federalist 51 outlines the ideas of checks and balances and helps us further understand how the government was designed to control majority opinion.
Lets Zoom in:
Ok, let’s start with some review. Although sometimes used interchangeably, separation of powers and checks and balances, though related, are different. Separation of powers is allowing each branch of the government to be independent of the others and have separate and specific responsibilities. Think of this like being assigned a role by the teacher in group work. One person is the scribe, one the table leader, time keeper, and table manager. Although the roles can vary, the teacher does this to encourage everyone to work together and prevent one person from dominating the group by giving each person a distinct task. The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch enforces the laws, and the judicial branch interprets the laws.
Checks and balances on the other hand is the ability for each branch of government to place a “check” or stop on the power of the other two. In this way no one branch is able to become too powerful.
James Madison argues for both these ideas in Federalist 51 as an important way to control factions and tyranny of the majority. While Madison admits that majority rules is the only fair way to govern, he was also concerned with power always falling in the hands of the majority. He sees it as normal for people in power to try to increase it, so the best you can hope to do is place limits on how much they can acquire. At the time, the only directly elected group was the House of Representatives, and its also in power for the shortest amount of time, 2 years. The president was vetted by the electoral college and the senators by state legislatures. Federal judges are a step further removed as the people have no say in their nominations or the people who approved them. It is confusing, but basically all the division of powers and system of checks and balances is because Madison and a lot of the other founders didn’t think people could be trusted to make important decisions and resist the temptations of power. Madison wrote in Federalist 51 “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
So what exactly are these controls? If I were you I would grab a piece of paper for this part of the episode as visuals help. Imagine a triangle with each branch of government at one of the points. Then imagine two sets of arrows connecting the points: one going clockwise and the other counterclockwise. This is the basic visual for check and balances. Each point has an arrow pointing to the other two, just like each branch of government has a certain amount of power over the other two. I like to put the judicial branch at the top of the triangle. It is the final say on interpreting the Constitution.
The Supreme Court has the power to rule if the laws of Congress or executive orders are unconstitutional. This is called judicial review and was established by the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison in 1803. The president has the power to veto laws Congress passes, pardon federal felons, and nominate judges and other members of the bureaucracy. Congress can override a president’s veto with ⅔ vote in both houses, can confirm or deny presidential nominations, and treaties must be passed by the Senate. Congress also has the power to impeach members of each of the other branches of government. It’s complicated, but there are lots of great visual graphics online to help you keep track of it all. Some of which can be found in the study guides available on our website! As confusing as the system is, it also guarantees that the government’s actions must satisfy many different opinions and gives more than one branch and group of people the ability to influence government policy.
It is worth noting that both the executive and judicial branches have grown in power since the establishment of the Constitution, especially in the last 100 years. It is unlikely this trend will reverse in an age of increasing concerns about domestic and cyber security. The president will be expected to continue to fight the war on terror and the courts will have to continue to interpret the Constitution as new situations with technology present themselves.
To recap……
Concerns about human nature and tyranny of the majority led to creating 3 separate and distinct branches of government. Each branch has its own responsibilities and is capable of preventing the other two from gaining too much power through it’s system of checks and balances. And while the government is more powerful now than it has ever been, so too are the American people with the direct elections of senators and expansion to voting rights in the 20th century.
Coming up next on the APsolute RecAP US Government Edition: Congress
Today’s Question of the day is about the Senate
Question: When were people given the power of direct election of their senators?