...nation under a written Constitution, the Framers of the United States had a vision of a republic that shared the balance of governance within a three branch system; each designed to organize a balance of power whereby Constitutional division of powers provide each branch the means to frustrate the goals favored by a single branch; in an attempt to promote interbranch cooperation. The Framers had extreme distrust in a large national government and especially in the case of executive power due to the events that led to the Revolutionary War. However, by the time the Constitutional Convention, most of the Framers were convinced of the need for a strong and independent executive at the national level. They also took steps to ensure the executive position could act with the necessary decisiveness and dispatch, most importantly the President was granted extensive powers, primarily the enumerated powers found in Article II of the Constitution. Despite the absence of a written provision of separation of powers in the Constitution, the Framers believed the principle to be implicit within the structure of government under the document. As John Marshall stated the framers sought to create a Constitution “intended to endure for ages to come and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs”. The ideas within the Constitution are seemingly designed to create perfect harmony, however, conflict and power struggles are as age old as the Constitution itself. Within five...
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...American constitution concerns the relationship between the president and the congress when it comes to foreign policy making and execution. Concerning foreign policy making, the constitution is normally considered as the invitation to struggle. There are safeguards in the American constitution that prevents tyranny but, mostly, pit the executive branch against the congress, making it difficult to develop and implement an important and cohesive foreign policy successfully (Lind, 2006). The safeguards also create uncertainties as to what the foreign policy is, thereby giving special interests and foreign governments a chance to apply pressure. Consequently, it is always difficult to discern the American foreign...
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...Convention created a complex system of check and balances and separation of powers in the Constitution to prevent any one person or branch from overpowering the rest and to protect the nation from the reckless pursuit of wealth or power by any elected official. The Constitution endows specific powers to each of the branches. The Legislative creates laws, collects taxes, and declares war, amongst other duties. The Executive enforces the law, commands the military, carries...
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...SEPARATION OF POWER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY INTRODUCTION The research topic deals with the concept of „the separation of powers. The researcher would like to highlight the concept of separation of powers and then gradually comes to the point separation of powers in England and US. After that the researcher would like to articulate the separation of powers in India. The doctrine of “the separation of powers” as usually understood is derived from Montesquieu whose elaboration of it was based on a study of Locke’s writings and an imperfect understanding of the eighteen century English constitution. Montesquieu, a research scholar, conceived the principle of separation of power. He found that concentration of power in one person or group of persons resulted in tyranny. He therefore, felt that the governmental power should be vested in three organs, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The principle can be stated as follows: (1) Each organ should be independent of the other; (2) no one organ should perform functions that belong to the other. Lock and Montesquieu derived the contents of this doctrine from the developments in the British constitutional history of the early 18th century. In England after a long war between parliament and the King, they saw the triumph of Parliament in 1688 which gave Parliament legislative supremacy culminating in the passage of the Bill of Rights. This led ultimately to recognition by the King of legislative and tax powers of Parliament...
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...administrative sphere & they have led to most slanderous accusation against executive functionaries and decision makers. It is an area in which seemingly detailed provisions of the Constitution have not helped much. In the modern administrative age, administration plays a very significant role by way of enforcing the law of promoting socio-economic welfare of the people. The pattern of administrative relationship between the Centre and the State, therefore, assumes a great significance in developing country like India. The Indian Constitution contains more elaborate provisions regarding the administrative relation between the Centre and the States than are to be found in any of the three federation of the U.S.A., Canada and Australia. The Constitution lays down a flexible and permissive and not a rigid scheme of allocation of administrative responsibilities between the Centre and State. The scheme is so designed as to permit all kind of co-operative administrative arrangement between the two levels of Government. It is notable, however, that though legislative and judicial power is defined by the Constitution, this is not the case with the executive in our Constitution. Some Constitutional experts like Wade & Philips, try to define executive functions by including in it "not only the direction of national policy, but also the execution of effectuation that policy by administrative acts." The executive functions so understood include the initiation of legislation, the maintenance ...
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...distinct parts; executive, legislative and judiciary. The President is head of the Executive government, whereas the Congress heads the legislative and judiciary government i.e. Supreme Court. The Constitution of the United States of America went into effect in 1789 and is in effect since. The powers of the President are as mentioned by Article II of the constitution. Even though the constitution itself has not changed and the powers of the President remain the same as vested by the constitution, there has been a great difference between the powers exercised by the first President; George Washington and the current President; Barack Obama. First, the powers of the President bestowed by the Constitution will be reviewed. Then a comparison of the powers exercised by George Washington and Barack Obama will be discussed. Presidential Powers according to the Constitution American politics is now dominated by the President. But the president does not govern the country. The government of America is composed of coordination of executive, legislative and judiciary bodies. The President should accept and recognize the legitimate powers of the senators and representatives for the usual day to day works. The following powers are given to the President by the Constitution: * The power to appoint members of Cabinet, ambassadors, Judges of Federal Courts and Justices of Supreme Courts (after consulting the Senate). * Power to veto bills formulated by the Congress. * Power to make treaties...
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...Imperial Presidency. An Imperial Presidency is one that is developed through an over expansion of the powers of the president. An Imperial Presidency is a presidency where the balance of power is shifted towards the Executive Branch. The Presidents have used such tools as the constitution, media and pop culture, monetary freedom, and committees and executive orders to expand the presidential powers. Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack H. Obama have utilized these tools to further their agendas over stepping their constitutional boundaries, congress and the people of the United States. There are many ramifications that come with the expansion of the presidential power. The Constitution, executive order, the media and pop culture, and monetary power are all tools utilized by the president to expand their powers. The Constitution is one of the main tools utilized by the presidents to expand power. Even though the presidential power is clearly outlined in Article II of The Constitution, its vagueness has provided enough wiggle room to stretch their power beyond its implementation. Therefore, one of the tools utilized by the President was actually the document created to prevent such activity from happening. In depth, Article II section I grants, “The Executive Power; followed by Article II section II witch gives the president to elect officials. This allows the President the power to choose personnel and enable them to help set sail towards a bureaucracy and their personal agendas...
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...Running Head: THE MAINLEVELS OF THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT The Main Levels of the U.S. Federal Government Lynn Todd Colorado Technical University Online PBAD200-0904A-13 American Government Professor Jamie Boyd October 12, 2009 The U.S. Government is composed up of three key branches, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. Each branch has its own powers, functions, checks, and balances. First, we will look at the history of the Constitution. During the 1600’s many Europeans left Britain in search of economic, political, and intellectual freedoms. However, they remained under the power of Britain, which functioned under a unitary system of government with one national power that permitted it to take action against any individual. During the Revolutionary war, the states battled with Britain, and won their freedom from the unitary system of government of Britain (CTU online, 2008, phase 1 multimedia presentation)....
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...Kingdom has an uncodified constitution; meaning no single, comprehensive document exists in order to outline the structure and workings of government institutions and relationships between them, and between the government institutions and the private citizen. Constitutional experts argue that this is not to say that our constitution is non-existent, rather it exists in various sources. 'Conventions' are an example of one of these constitutional sources; these are practices or procedures which are considered correct in particular circumstances through the method's repeated usage. In other words, in terms of the constitution, 'conventions' are rules or actions taken regularly that have been practiced for many years and therefore are considered to be the appropriate behaviour. For example, with no written constitution, the rule that Royal Assent must be given for acts of parliament to become law is not a rule that has been written down, instead it is a custom which has been followed for centuries and exists as a convention in our constitution. Using your own knowledge as well as the extract, identify and explain two ways in which the British constitution regulates 'the conduct of government'. (10 marks)! The regulation of the conduct of the government is the manner in which the actions and procedures made by the executive are monitored, managed and regulated. Constitutions exist for several reasons, one of these being to ensure that an executive does not exercise too...
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...Nominal Executive. The Executive is not directly involved in the governance of the country. The Executive remains as a figure-head and performs ceremonial functions. It has limited powers under the Constitution and must act in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. He/She summons parliament; prorogues and dissolves it on the advice of the Prime Minister.It is not involved in policy-making or policy execution. Examples are: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong; the British Queen (Head of State). The Real Executive. The Executive has actual and wider powers. It is directly involved in the administration of the country and has actual control over the country. It makes decisions and policies. Examples are: The Prime Minister and his Cabinet in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Canada, Australia and India. nominal executive a person who heads the executive branch but does not have the power to execute major and important decisions. normally a king. real executive a leader who holds real power. make a important decisions for the country. Prime Minister. Both nominal and real executives have different meaning and function. Firstly, for nominal executive, it is mean that a man, either hereditary or elected is the head of government in theory but not in reality. These nominal executive is the executive is not directly involved in the governance of the country. Nominal executive refers to a person who often acts on the advice of someone (the prime minister or the cabinet) who...
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...Articles of the United States Constitution Worksheet Part I: Principles of the Constitution The constitution consists of some primary principles. Briefly explain the following principles and their significance in shaping American government. * Self-Government: Is the most important principle in the Constitution of the United States and refers to the need to have a system which would make sure that everyone has a voice in the local, state and national governments.(www.4uth.gov.ua) Separation of Powers: Each branch is responsible for their job. Separation of power establishes that one person or group of people could not control the government alone. The Constitution states the power of each branch and their functions are completely separate. No one gets too much power help things run smoothly.(www.nationalparalegal.edu) * Checks and Balances: Ensure that no people can control the government alone. Because each branch has separate power, they can check and balance each other to make sure that the best interests of all people are served, rather than only the interest of a small group. Check and balances specifically assigns power to the states, but only what has not been delegated to the federal government (PATimes, 2014). This intergovernmental relationship was created to ensure that the people’s voices would be heard through their elected representatives. Part II: Balance of Power In the space below, write...
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...Political power is the ability to influence others, bring about meaningful change, win the support of the public, and have a lasting impact on people's lives. At the beginning of the creation of the constitution, our Founding Father's objectives were to establish a federal government, and to outline an equal distribution of powers within our government. This was implemented by creating three branches of government that had to coincide with each other in order to function. Although each branch has its own powers, duties, and responsibilities that influence how the government works, the executive branch has become more and more powerful over the years. In this essay, I will discuss the framers intended relationship between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches and I will argue how the executive branch wields the most power among the three branches of government. Our system of government was set up to have three branches of government: the executive branch which executes the laws, the legislative branch which creates the laws and finally the judicial branch which interprets the laws. The constitution states their powers and their checks on one another so that no branch would have more power than the other two, because of this, the framers of the Constitution set up a system of checks and balances. Under this system, each branch has the ability to stop the other two branches from gaining too much power. For example, one way the executive branch/president is able to check...
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...tyrant? No need to worry because the Constitution guards against tyranny. The US Constitution is a body of laws which our country is governed, and it was created in May of 1787. The men who wrote our constitution wanted it to guard against tyranny, absolute power in the hands of an individual, because just four years earlier the states ended the revolutionary war to get rid of the king of England, who they considered a tyrant. The US Constitution guards against tyranny because it has a separation of powers, uses checks and balances, and it uses the division of power between central and state governments known as Federalism. One way the constitution guards against tyranny is by having a separation of powers. James Madison once said, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny…(L)iberty...
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...three-fifths slaves to count as a citizen. For taxes purposes slaves would be counted as a whole person. The south however, did not want slaves to be taxed while the north did not want slaves to count for population so that the southern states would not get more representatives. The separation of Powers(SOP), was...
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...1. Separation of Powers * Concept * The powers of government, by virtue of this principle, are divided into 3 distinct classes: the legislative (law-making), the executive (law-executing), and the judicial (law-applying). * Implications * Under the principle of co-equal and coordinate powers among the 3 branches, the officers entrusted with each of these powers are not permitted to encroach upon the powers confided to the others. If one department goes beyond the limits set by the Constitution, its acts are null and void. * Relevance * The adoption of this principle was motivated by the belief that arbitrary rule would result if the same person or body were to exercise all the powers of government. The accumulation of powers in one person or department of government is considered one of the chief characteristics evils of tyrannical and despotic forms of government. The idea is not to set one branch against the other but, above all to promote governmental efficiency by insuring that all functions of government are performed by the people/ branch especially assigned to discharge them. 2. Legislative Department (Article 6) * Legislative power * It is essentially the authority under the Constitution to make laws and subsequently, when the need to arises, to alter and repeal them. * It is granted to the Congress * Structure The Legislative Department of the Philippines is a double-chamber body consisting of: * The Senate – It is the upper chamber...
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