The Importance Of Separation Of Powers In The United States

Improved Essays
The biggest problem when the Founders wrote the Constitution was tyranny from the king of England. In order to prevent tyranny, the founders used the philosopher Montesquieu’s idea for a separated government. This resulted in a country with three separate branches of government that are called The Separation of Powers. The three branches are the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive. The Separation of Powers is used to prevent the abuse of power from the president of the nation which would make him more of a monarch. It was also extremely meaningful to our founders. The Separation of Powers is an almost perfect way of governing the nation. Not only is The Separation of Powers meaningful and useful to the public, it also meant a great deal to our founders while they were still alive. All of what our founders fought for in the Revolutionary war, they will represent in The Separation of Powers. Each branch of government has its own position in the nation. The job of the Executive …show more content…
There is a quote by one of our founders, James Madison that directly relates to this system. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, judiciary, in the 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 requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” The current president has abused his power multiple times. For instance, over 300,000 illegal immigrants are awaiting deportation, but shockingly, he ordered the border patrol to release the immigrants from their custody. Also, he has ignored Congresses command for several years to put up another barrier around Mexico. Obama’s refusal is a direct violation of the Secure Fence Act that was to be put into motion in 2006. One can find all of these abuses of power on the website, Committee for

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Constitution guarded against tyranny by using the Separation of Power. There are three branches the legislative, executive and judicial. The power was separated equally among each branch to protected against tyranny. Each branch depends on each other in order to work. The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive carries out the laws and judicial holds courts for crimes.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This quote from James Madison declares that the purpose for separation of powers is to make sure that not one person will hold too much power, no matter it be to make laws and enforce them, enforce law and explain them, or any combination of the three. If someone were to have power in more than one field, they would be classified as a tyrant. This is why today, we do not let someone in legislative, executive, and judicial at the same time because no matter what kind of government, a tyrant can still exist within that government. To make sure that no one person can be a part of more than one branch, Articles 1, 2, and 3 state the position of each branch. Article one, Section one gives the legislative power to congress.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the summer of 1787, the United States was challenged to create a stronger central government without letting one person or group have too much power. There were flaws in the Articles of Confederation and the government wasn’t getting anything done. The fifty-five representatives wanted to create a Constitution that divided up powers to avoid the tyranny that they escaped from by becoming an independent nation. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in many ways, such as Federalism, creating equality for big and small states, separation of powers by creation of branches, and checks and balance between the branches.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Separation of Powers is the most important value in the Constitution guard against tyranny. In document B James Madison states “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct”. This show that each branch shall have its own distinct powers and not be totally connected. The constitution of the United State states “All Legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in Congress of the U.S. (Senate and House of Representatives)... The executive power shall be vested in a President of the U.S……

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Framers Research Paper

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Framers of the United States government created a government with three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. These three branches are completely separated and use checks and balances on one another. The Framers made it that way so one branch would not have too much power. For example, checks and balances is used when deciding on a more permanent solution to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or when deciding on marijuana laws. This form of government is no longer as effective as it should be.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Which brings me to my next topic: Separation among the government. James Madison was one to think that the Articles of Confederation wasn’t good enough, that there needed to be something new and better create. The Constitution gives the three branches of government the chance to have powers the other one may not have. The point of separation is that the government isn’t just a big group of people that meets every month and discusses their issues and creates new ideas, They made three groups because if there was just a big, gigantic group of people, everyone would try to take control by himself and rule over everybody else. In Federalist Paper #47, James Madison had written “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 the very definition of tyranny.”…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The separation of powers were originally thought of by Baron de Montesquieu, which divided the powers of the government into three branches. The Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches were created with an elaborate system…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What does the Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances do for America? Seperation of Powers seperates the three branches of government. Checks and Balances checks the different branches and balances it. The government is divided into the executive, judicial and legislative branches. Once broken down they all have different jobs they do.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The United States Constitution clearly states that the power of the government should be separated, so that they can keep ensure each branch is doing what they are supposed to do, and ensure that one branch doesn’t become more powerful than the others. When The Constitution was written in 1787, the purpose of separation of powers was to ensure that there was no tyranny within the country. As now the Separation of Powers is to make sure that the country can stay a free country, and to also ensure not one branch or person tries and take control of the country. Our Founding Fathers got the idea of Separation of Powers from the enlightened thinker Baron de Montesquieu who philosophized the thought of of Separation of Powers, “Montesquieu warned…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The “Separation of Powers” was adopted in the U.S. Constitution because it was a safeguard against tyranny for the people of our country. The “Separation of Powers” is a principle of government that divides our republic into three branches the executive, legislative, and the judicial. Our founders decided to adopt this concept of divided government so that there will not be just one party with all the power, history has shown us this leads to tyranny. The founding fathers created this safe guard to allow change and modification for the better of the people. They also used their knowledge of the past to recognize that when one group with the same beliefs and acceptances comes into power, tyranny and “mass slaughter” will be upheld.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Constitution Dbq Analysis

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The constitution was signed on September 17,1777. It established laws and showed the basis of how the government would work. The six key principles of the constitution prove that the constitution guards against tyranny in showing how checks and balances, the separation of powers, and popular sovereignty keep things equal and do not give too much power to one small group or person. For starters, checks and balances is the principle that allows national institutions to check each others powers.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    So how the separation of powers worked was the government was split into 3 branches; The executive (The president and “workers”), Legislature (The senate and house of representatives) and the Judicial branch (Supreme court and lower courts.) So checks and balances “act” was built so that no branch would become to powerful. So each one branch is basically watched by the other two. So for example; The president (the “executive branch”) can veto laws by congress. Congress can override the veto by a 2/3rds vote.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you heard about the separation of powers? The separation of powers is important because it limited the government, it had republicanism, and gave individual rights. This essay will demonstrate why the separation of powers was important. Antecedent, the separation of powers are important because it limited the government. In the book, the text says, “To avoid giving too much power to their new government, the framers made limited government a principle of the constitution.”…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Why did the Founders feel that dividing power was necessary? The Founders felt that dividing power was necessary because it prevents tyranny and ensures that there is a separation of powers within the government system, thus maintaining a balance. 3. Compare and contrast Dual Federalism and Cooperative Federalism.…

    • 1733 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great 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