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Federalism And Separation Of Power

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In 18th century America, delegates representing twelve of the thirteen states gathered in Philadelphia to correct the national government. At the time, the existing government, which was under the Articles of Confederation, was too weak and not doing the job required to administer the new nation. On the other hand, representatives from the states tried to create a strong internal government without allowing one person, or party, to gain too much power. Consequently, the framers of the Constitution took various precautions in order to prevent tyranny within the government. Guards like; checks and balances, Federalism, separation of powers, and the balance of power between small and large were implemented by the delegates in hopes of preventing …show more content…

Federalism is an alternate way of describing a compound government, which is essentially a government comprised of multiple tiers, or levels, of office. Primarily, power is divided into two distinct governments, state governments and the central government, where the power is later subdivided into specific and individual departments. Moreover, the separation of powers splits responsibilities among the individual departments, allowing different people [parties] to make and publicize laws. With their shared powers, both the national government and state governments can establish taxes on goods, take out loans, and set up courts in certain areas. However, the Federal government has the ability to create acts dealing with national and foreign affairs, such as laws regulating trade and supervising foreign affairs. In contrast, state governments deal with more local affairs; for instance, states have the ability to set up local governments, hold elections, and regulate in-state business. But, according to James Madison, Federalism provides “double security” for the United States as “the different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” As a whole, what Madison is trying to say is that the central government and state governments have enough power that the administration doesn’t really need to control everything. The central government has the power to take …show more content…

In addition, the Constitution states that “liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct”, implying that the Legislative Branch [Congress; House of Representatives and Senate] should be completely unrelated, in terms of responsibility, to the Executive [President] and the Judiciary [courts]. Although different in responsibility, the three branches are equal in power and all take part in federal processes. While the Legislative Branch creates laws, the Executive can choose to enforce laws made by Congress. However, if the nature of the law(s) are questionable, the Judiciary can step in and declare the act as unconstitutional. Similar to Federalism, all branches have specific checks on each other in order to balance power. For example, the Executive has the ability to to appoint justices to the courts, with the approval of congress. However, Congress can impeach a president or judge if they have committed an act of treason. In turn, the Judicial Branch can declare laws and acts created by the Congress as unconstitutional. To summarize, separation of powers can help guard against tyranny by preventing the accumulation of powers, for “the accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few or, many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny”; To put the powers of

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