Political Views Of A Democratic Country

The government of the United States of America is a federal constitutional republic. In layman 's terms, this means that the country 's national, central government and the smaller, unitary governments of the fifty states are co-equal in their power, and that the citizens of America have a say in public policies by electing representatives who voice their respective opinions. More importantly, both the central government and the state governments are subject to the supreme law of the Constitution. Under this document, the central government is set up into three branches (the legislative, executive, and judicial) that are meant to check each other and balance out power. Their cooperation insures that the national government 's control is appropriate, and does not infringe upon the rights of the average American citizen.

The U.S. government is a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central government. It is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the federal courts. The separation of powers, which neither any branch working alone can change the U.S. constitution, is a kind of harmony that is similar to what is described in Plato’s aristocratic regime, where each class minds their own jobs to keep the state functioning. Besides, in my opinion, the current U.S. government is a combination of timocracy, oligarchy and democracy, which of four regime types of Plato.

The concept of power is a divisive matter in the American political system, as the actors holding it are sometimes unable to impose it as a result of their limited authority to do so. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches in the national government depend on each-others point of view. Part of the Constitution was designed with the purpose of making it impossible for either of these three to become more powerful than the others. Each of them has the ability to check and balance the way that the other two function. In spite of the fact that this system was created with the intention of preventing power from being shared unequally in the country, it sometimes serves as a tool for political gridlock, considering that the judicial branches can debate in regard to a particular topic for unlimited amounts of time before actually reaching a conclusion regarding the respective issue.

James Madison quotes, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands whether of one, a few or many...may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” James Madison is saying absolute power corrupts absolutely. Accordingly, to obtain liberty the “three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” Our bicameral Legislature makes laws, Congress consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives. “The executive power shall be vested in a President”, the President carries out the laws while in office during the term of four years. Consequently, the Judicial power evaluates laws and is “invested in one Supreme Court”. The separation of powers guards the community against tyranny because each branch holds each other

The government of the United States of America has been around for over 2 centuries, in this time the original setup has been little altered. The government is composed of three individual branches: judicial, executive, and legislative branches. All three branches are held together using a system of checks and balances. While each branch has some kind of trump or has control over another branch, some branches are arguably more powerful than others. The main focus of this paper will be on where the executive branch stands power-wise. When our founding fathers first started building our nation from the dust, they had in mind a system of branches where no one branch was more powerful than the others. The decision of whether or not they hit

I have not had much interest in politics until recently. Before last year, I did not care for anything related to politics; I thought that it was all boring and had little to no affect on me on a personal level. I am more interested in politics nowadays. I know better now that it does affect me and I should care about it. I had learned about the concepts of political socialization, party identification, political tolerance, political trust, political efficacy in government class and how they affect my political beliefs. My personal political belief has been shaped into what it is today and is still being shaped because of those six concepts.

The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.

Over 200 years ago the United States’ Founding Fathers created a unique system of government that allowed a balance to exist between both the federal government and the separate state governments. Through the three branches of government, specifically the executive and legislative branches, the United States has been able to act as a unified body with several varying individual parts. With the executive branch and the legislative branch each having outlined powers of their own the Founders were able to equally balance the power of the national government and the state governments. Although this system has managed to stay in tact for two centuries and has allowed the United States of America to become a dominate player in international affairs, there has consistently been a battle of power between the president in the executive branch and the two houses of congress in the legislative branch. As the United States continues to evolve and face multiple obstacles, so does the relationship between these two branches.

One of the most important principles incorporated in the U.S. Constitution is separation of powers. The U.S. Constitution divided the central government into three branches and created a system of checks and balances as a way to prevent the concentration of power. “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 justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” In order to be sure that the main

In Federalist 51, Madison suggests that in order to maintain liberty, a government must be structured in such a way that it can control the governed, while obliging it to control itself (28). This control was built into the Constitution through an “internal structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places” (Madison, “Federalist 51” 27). This division of power is necessary for a society to have liberty because it allows for a means of constraining the ability of an individual or faction to gain enough power to oppress. Pitting the different branches against one another ensures that a multiplicity of interests and factions will be represented and therefore none will be able to monopolize the power. The concentration of power into a single representative, the president, threatens our liberty and democracy by eliminating this essential safeguard.

American politics is often defined by a continuing power conflict between the executive and the legislative branches of the government. This struggle for political power between the two stronger branches of the three is inherent in the Constitution, itself. The concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances ensure that the branches of government will remain in conflict and provide a balance that keeps the entire government under control. As it was first established, the executive branch was much smaller and weaker than as we know it today. Consequently, the legislative branch was unquestionably dominant. Over the course of history, the executive branch grew in both size and power to the point where it occasionally overtook the

The United States is divided into two distinct governments and they both have different powers. The two governments will keep each other from gaining too much power. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments…” says James Madison (Doc A). By saying this he means that the united states should have two governments, a national and state government and they each should have their own powers. The national government’s powers are to regulate trade, conduct foreign relations, provide an army and navy, declare war, print and coin money, set up post offices and make immigration laws. The powers given to the state government is set up local governments, hold elections, establish schools, pass marriage and divorce laws and regulate in-state businesses. Because there is two distinct governments, there is less of a chance of

The purpose of this paper is intended to summarize my views on what has influenced my understanding of politics and government prior to taking this class, and how my understanding is now since completing this course.

The United States has a deeply rooted and embedded tradition through the Constitution of having a federalist style of governing as its structural framework for operating and guiding the government of the country. The form of governing is best described as a balance between powers of the central government and the powers of each independent and autonomic state. “Federalism is a system in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial (state) governments, creating what is often called a federation” (Wikipedia 1).This style of governance has not been the only structure instituted in American history in order to implement civilized law and order among the people of the land. Prior to the

Madison said “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” (Madison, 1788). A system of checks and balances needed to be implemented. Madison argued that the only way the government could be effective was to allow it to “control the governed, and in the next place [be obliged] to control itself” (Madison, 1788). The Executive Branch is responsible for implementing the laws passed by the Legislative Branch, and those same laws are either upheld or rejected by the Judicial Branch. The three branches of government must work together to provide for the general welfare. The fragmentation of the power, along with a system of checks and balances, greatly diminishes the ability for one branch to gain too much power. This guarantees the rights of the people and ensures the government’s ability to govern.