Advantages Of Separation Of Power

Decent Essays
Separation of powers is a positive way to prevent the accumulation of power by different branches of government because it significantly slows any legislative activity. This separation draws a great deal of criticism because it makes it difficult to get good public policy passed and it can be harmful to minority groups, especially when the different branches are dominated by conflicting political parties. However, these disadvantages are mostly outweighed because it makes the government less susceptible to corruption and radical changes that might adversely affect the country in the future.
In order to fully realize the results of separation of powers we must examine each branch separately to see its role in the function of the nation. Perhaps the most visible branch is the executive. While many people view the president as the single most influential person in our government, he is not responsible for nearly as many things as he receives credit (or blame) for. The president, like most who hold public office, is driven by a combination of greed and civic virtue. He wants the title and he wants the power associated with it, but he also genuinely wants to help the country and thinks he can
…show more content…
This is exceedingly true, however, that does not mean it is always better to have same party governance. The prime example for this argument is Franklin Roosevelt. Because he had the support of his party in congress, he was able to guide the country through difficult times. When considering this example it is important to remember that FDR also substantially changed the nature of our government, which may be good or bad, depending on individual opinions. It is also wise to keep in mind that despite the benefits we see, we cannot trust everyone to be as

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Divided government is the result of one party controlling the White house and the other controlling either or both chambers of Congress. The past four decades have made this more of the norm than an exception. Divided government is a safeguard against abuse of power through power sharing, support, and forcing governing from the center. Splitting the power between the two parties creates incentives to compromise. The essence of divided government is having both parties responsible for governing, they each have an equal opportunities to promote their decisions.…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The separation of power also creates a checks and balances system which prevents one of the branches of government from having more power over another. Ultimately resulting in a equal or limited government. Without these systems limiting the government's powers and keeping it balanced the government would be controlled by a single group of people (tyranny). Our government today is a clear democracy run by our three branches united so I’d say our systems have ultimately create a balanced or limited form of government in the…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Separation of Power To ensure no person in the government has too much power. The government is separated into three branches, the congress, executive, and judicial branch. Each branch has different power, duties, responsibilities, and limitation.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Separation of Power limits government by not giving any branch in government complete control…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If all three powers were in the same hands, then a group of a small number of people would have every power, such as creating laws, enforcing laws, and deciding if they are constitutional. By separating these three sections of government into three, equally powered branches, no person or group of people would have an overwhelming and dominating amount of power. This spread out the power, which annihilated the chance of the government invalidating the rights of the people. Separation of powers was only half of the solution. The other part to this was checks and balances.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two Presidencies Theory

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    While the president is able to pass executive orders to change policy, these orders may be defunded by congress, counteracted by congressional legislation, or deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In addition, although a president is able to veto legislation, if a president continually vetoes legislation, the public may not look on him/her favorably, which would impact their electability. These factors seem to limit the president’s power greatly; however, so long as the president’s executive order is not unconstitutional, the president still wields remarkable power, as Congress would need a majority opposition in order to defund the president’s executive order. Furthermore, many of the president’s constituents could be swayed if the president were to deliver a speech concerning the necessity of his executive order. The executive branch, being the largest branch in government, requires that the president divides his power among the vice president, department heads, and heads of independent agencies in order to accomplish all of the administration’s tasks.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the year 1787, there were two major different political parties that were involved in the ratification of the American Constitution. The Federalist and the Anti-Federalist; they both had very strong views regarding the welfare of the country and its citizens. The Federalist who wanted to impose a stronger government had the greatest ideas and impact on the ratification of the American’s Constitution. They didn’t want the idea of having any loose interpretation of anything, they wanted everything to be clear and done by the book, they were afraid that if anything was left up to interpretation, America would face many challenges, and would never be a whole as it is right now, and surely would lose its freedom.…

    • 1772 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Does the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? How do you think the Constitution guards against tyranny? Do you think it was difficult to frame a government to guard against one specific problem? In the year 1787 in Philadelphia a group of men were faced with the task of writing a new Constitution for America, but this task proved to be difficult.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    President of the United States(POTUS) - Chief of State, Chief Executive, Chief Diplomat, Commander-In-Chief, Chief Legislator, Chief of Party, Chief Guardian of the Economy. It seems the person who holds this position is the most powerful person in the world. But, as the pioneers of modern democracy, has the United States’ stripped the position of it’s power in it’s attempt to realize a perfect system of checks and balances? Or has the spike in executive duties given the President far too broad a purview? In a constantly evolving society, the role of the government and of the President are constantly changing causing sharp conflict between those who believe the President holds too little or too much power.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Texas Constitution

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages

    However, the division of power basically makes that part of their only job. As stated before, one would assume a division of power in the Executive Branch would reduce issues. The one problem with that idea is that everyone comes in with a different personality and set of ideals. This creates a possibly negative environment…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The President 's competent powers guaranteed by the Constitution are talked of in Federalist No.70 particularly the executive power (Hamilton et al pp 130-pp 151). Hamilton says that the executive provides stability as it prevents the excess of lawmaking processes and that the executive and judicial review is able to protect the executive from legislative misuse of power. This discussion is related to Hamilton 's liking of the separation of powers in Federal government, which permits the president to execute the laws and carry out their duty as a commander in-chief without being afraid of legislative encroachment on their powers. The argument is important to understanding the foundation of the presidency because it goes into detail to why the president should be in power.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Thus, the separation of powers as seen can be fundamental in keeping the government in check. This stops there from being the same people holding power in many parts of the government, and thus abusing power. As seen separations of power is necessary to protect from abuse of power from the government, and everyday people’s rights, as well as to make sure that there is no corruption with the people in power and to make sure they are doing their…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Republican Party is moving in a more conservative direction and the Democratic Party staying consistently liberal on major issues of public policy (Jones 2001). Particularly in congress empirical research shows the parties in our government are becoming more homogenous in their political positions, while the differences among the party’s on policy issues continues to magnify (Jones 2001). In congress alone, polarization is visible by that fact that “since 1990 more than half of the congressional votes have featured a majority of one party opposing a majority of another” (Jones 2001). This intense polarization has had major effects on the relationship between congress and the president in particular. Looking at the theory of divided government it explains that legislation is less likely to get passed when the…

    • 1004 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch are both part of the three branches that where put into place to separate power. Also known as separation of powers. Both of these branches has specific powers that they can each do. The Legislative Branch is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The ‘separation of powers’ is a doctrine that has caused much debate through the centuries, and although it is difficult to find its exact origins, it is possible to distinguish a basic separation of powers doctrine from the writings of Greek philosopher Aristotle. He remarked that a constitution must have three elements to be effective. The three are, first the deliberative, which discusses everything of common importance; second, the officials…; and third, the judicial element. The English political theorist, John Locke, conceived a similar idea about the different types of power.…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays