Legislative Branch: Power In The United States

The Legislative Branch is able to check the executive branch by rejecting presidential vetoes. It can also impeach presidents and convict presidents. The legislative branch has the authority to impeach not only the federal judges but also the Supreme Court justices. They also have the right to confirm appointments for the Judicial Branch.

A power that the judicial branch holds over the executive branch is that the judicial branch

He can make laws and even veto them, but does our president hold too much power?

A member of Congress is someone who has been elected and appointed to represent a particular constituency and advocate their interest and needs. In a perfect world the representative will listen to the people and speak on their behalf. However, that is further from the truth, only 15% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 75% disapprove. I agree with the disapproval of Congress, the relationship with the legislative branch is extremely negative because the public’s needs are not being met, due to congressmen following a different agenda. David Mayhew, Jammie Carson, Jeffery Jenkins, and Arnold are a few scholars who explain the behavior of Congress and why the public is unhappy with the jobs the representatives are performing. Mayhew argues that members of Congress are single-minded seekers of reelection involved in credit claiming, position taking, and advertisement. In support of Mayhew’s view Carson and Jenkins add four conditions of the electoral connection— ambition, autonomy, responsiveness, and accountability. Lastly Arnold believes members of Congress are not only single-minded seekers of reelection, but they worry about citizens’ preferences, voter backlash, theory components and the opinion of experts v. generalist v. ordinary citizens along with other things. Members of Congress follow a different agenda when making policy rather than focus on their constituents’ needs, therefore is no surprise why a large portion of the public is so

Congress has constitutional rights established that reserve a solidified position to influence the budget and its process. With most of its power being apparent with discretionary funds in which appropriations bills occur, it also has a hand in mandatory funding by way of legislation. A bicameral process with rules attached, takes place to carry out the proposed budget prepared by the Executive branch. Although the President and his administration begin the budgetary process, Congress still has a large amount of power that sometimes isn’t even used. Nevertheless, Congress is an enduring participant in the budget appropriation process.

To me, it seems currently in the United States the legislative branch has the most power. The legislative branch creates laws for the country. These laws, for the most part, affect everyone in the United States. One reason I feel the legislative branch has the most power is that the laws they create are sent to the president; however, if the president "vetoes" the law, the legislative branch can overrule the president with a two-thirds vote. In the constitution, it states the legislative branch is the only branch that can declare war on another country.

If the president tries to take the power of another branch, than the legislative branch can impeach the president. This is one of the checks of the legislative branch on the Executive branch. Each branch has a check of every other branch, so if one branch is doing something wrong, another branch can check the wronged branch, and fix the problem. This is to make sure how another branch can’t take control. This way it tends to prevent any branch from becoming too powerful.

The Constitution set up our government with three separate branches, judicial, executive, and legislative. These are not independent branches, the constitution has also set up a system of checks and balances for each of the three branches of government to check and balance the other two. This is a very important concept; it ensures us that no one branch of government becomes too strong. Every branch of government has to check and balance the other two. Every society needs some sort of law to follow; here in the United States the power to make laws is dedicated to the legislative branch, put into effect and enforced by the executive branch and is interpreted and judged by the judicial branch.

The president can make decisions regarding, “Executive agreement or trade agreement” as long as they are beneath “treaty level” with senate confirmation (Welch et al. 335). Even though the president has his own power on hand, Congress still needs to check to see whether the president faithfully performs his bills (Welch et al. 335). As a result, the president’s treaties take effect only if they are passed by “two-thirds of the Senate…” (Welch et al. 335). Furthermore, veto power is another way to effect the lawmaking of the president, but the only exception is that two-thirds of each house can cancel the “president veto” (Welch et al. 309). However, the president is advised that they should not abuse veto power because “president who use the veto too often may appear isolated or uncooperative or may seem to be exercising negative leadership” (Welch et al. 352). Therefore, the “oversight” of Congress is so important to check and control whether the President practices making foreign policy appropriately.

The Legislative Branch, also known as Congress, can sign any bill that they write into law; however, the Executive branch, or the President, can veto or approve the bill before it takes place. This limitation ensures that Congress does not pass just any law. Congress can also not pass any law that violates the Constitution. So, Congress cannot pass any law that would prohibit freedom of speech or press, the right to practice any religion, or the right to assemble peacefully. To do so would violate the First Amendment. In addition to not being able to pass unconstitutional laws the legislative branch is “checked” by the other two branches of government through the system of checks and balances.

Over the course of history, Congress and the President have exchanged time periods of dominance over the other. Depending on national crisis and the President’s belief of how much power he should possess, Congress has allowed the President to take drastic measures on dilemmas that Congress may have upheld in too much prolonged debate to resolve on its own. However, much of the President's decisions from treaties to presidential appointments must first receive Congressional approval to be taken into action. A President can act on his own and extend his authority once limited by the Constitution but not before Congress can reevaluate his decisions and put an end to excessive power. In recent years, the equilibrium of power has shifted to equally

The purpose of the legislative branch in democratic governmental systems is to enact laws that determine which conduct will be considered illegal and subject to prosecution. It is the legislature that determines what the moral and behavioral standards might be in society and, for the most part, these laws are applied uniformly and assist in making sure that certain unacceptable behaviors are sanctioned. The fact is, however, that there remains considerable discretion in the hands of the police and prosecutors in determining not only who is arrested and prosecuted but also as to how severely each defendant is to be charged and prosecuted. Such decisions are known as charging decisions. The actual criminal statutes enacted by the legislature provided the basis but it is the prosecutor who ultimately determines how each case should be handled.

It is important to acknowledge the fact that, its involvement does make the process of law making complex when the concepts of separation of powers and judicial review are taken into consideration. This as such, creates tension between the three arms of government since the judiciary both directly and indirectly interferes in the actions of the legislature and the executive. At the same time, this complexity grows because the legislature and executive are also intertwined when it comes to law making –when referring to the veto power of the president in passing a bill and the ability of congress to challenge the veto power of the president by a two-thirds majority of votes in both houses of congress as well as it preventing a bill suggested by the president from being introduced or passed in the

Although we have systems in place to maintain a fair balance of power between the 3 branches I believe the executive branch is the most powerful. Over the years the executive branch has been gaining power, while the legislative branch has been getting weaker and weaker every year. I believe the executive branch is the most powerful because today presidents are able to hold people in prison without a trial, and are able to pursue undeclared wars. Also, since the executive branch’s job is to enforce laws I believe that this shows a key point of power

When designing the legislative and the executive branches of government in the new constitution for Afghanistan, it is important to keep in mind the ethnolinguistic make-up of the country. Based on Afghanistan’s ethnolinguistic demographic the best form of government to represent their needs would be similar to the consensus model. This is because the consensus model focuses on multiple political institutions and grants political authority to majority groups as well as minority groups. This will allow for representation of the many ethnolinguistic groups in Afghanistan such as the Tajik, Hazara, and Aimak people. In addition, the minority groups will create a checks and balances system to the majority group, which are the Pashtun people. In the creation of the legislative branch of government the multiple cultural and language groups will play an important role in the structure and the number of political parties that the government will have.