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Basic Constitutional Concepts
that other great pillar of Western political thought—the concept of representative government—as the major support for constitutional government.
The American doctrine of separation of powers consists of four elements: (1) the idea of three separate and independent branches of
government—the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary; (2) the
realization that government performs different kinds of functions, and
the belief that there are unique functions appropriate to each branch;
(3) the belief that the personnel of the branches of government should
be kept distinct, no one person being able to be a member of more than
one branch of government at the same time; and (4) the belief that the
legislature may not alter the distribution by delegating its powers to the
executive or the judicial branch. A separation of powers is a necessary
prerequisite to limited constitutional government because a concentration of political power is inherently dangerous and will sooner or later
lead to the abuse of power and to oppressive government. ‘‘The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same
hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of
tyranny,’’ Publius wrote in Federalist No. 47.
The separation of powers doctrine is also closely associated with rule
of law, and may be said to be an indispensable means for its attainment.
If any one body had the power to interpret and enforce its own laws,
there would be no force, other than good will, to counteract the temptation to use the powers of government to provide exemptions from the
operation of the law and establish special privileges and immunities for
the ruling class or governing faction.
The doctrine of the separation of powers may be traced back to the ancient world, where the concepts of governmental functions and theories
of mixed and balanced government first appeared. Separation of powers,
by itself, however, has never been a satisfactory safeguard against the
usurpation and abuse of power, and even among the ancients it was realized that some form of checks and balances was necessary to prevent
one branch from encroaching upon the powers of the others. The idea of
internal checks, exercised by each branch over the others, first came to
maturity in eighteenth-century England with the development