Checks and Balances
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Checks and Balances
The check and balance system is probably the most ingenious and carefully crafted feature of the American Constitution. Like the principle of
federalism, it permeates the document. Here is what the Framers did in
order to reconcile the principle of separation with the urgent need for a
vigorous new government that would exercise some self-control:
(1) They arranged that there should be some overlap of functions
among the three major departments of government. In some ways, one
department was allowed to touch upon the usual affairs of a different
department. Montesquieu had written that no department should exercise ‘‘the whole power’’ of another department, but to exercise some
part of the power of another department was permissible. There ought to
be no insurmountable wall of separation shutting off executive and judicial branches from the legislative in every respect. Thus in the final version of the Constitution that was submitted for ratification, the President
(executive branch) was given a part in the legislative process, through his
power of veto and his power to make recommendations in ‘‘State of the
Nation’’ addresses to the Congress. On the other hand, the legislative
branch, through the Senate, was given some power over the executive
branch, in that treaties and presidential appointments to major administrative posts and to the judiciary must be confirmed by the Senate. Likewise, the judiciary was given some executive power to manage its own
internal affairs. By the power of judicial review, it might also overturn
acts of the legislature deemed unconstitutional.
(2) They improved upon the State constitutions by arranging that the
members of the three branches of government should be chosen in three
different ways—so making the executive and judicial branches more independent from the legislative. (In the early State constitutions, usually
the legislature had appointed and removed Mхє