Concept of Separation of Powers

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Concept of Separation of Powers in the American Democracy There are three branches of the government that represent the will of the people. These are the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the government. These three branches are the main organs of the government. The legislative branch makes the laws, executive enforces the laws and judicial applies them to the specific cases that arise out of the breach of law. While each branch works individually in performing their tasks it tends to interfere in the sphere of working of another functionary because a strict demarcation of functions is not possible in their dealings with the general public. Even when acting in ambit of their own power, overlapping functions tend to appear among the branches. It is important that the political system to be stable and that the power need to be balanced off against each other. The separation of power deals with the mutual relations among the three branches of government: Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. The Constitution was written to bring forth a functioning sense of the three branches and hence a strict demarcation of power is the aim sought to be achieved by this principle. The constitution signifies the fact that one person or one body should not excess all the three powers of the government. A French scholar by the name of Montesquieu found that concentration of power in one person or a group results in tyranny. Montesquieu felt the need for decentralization of power to check arbitrariness. He felt the need to divide the government’s power into three branches. The principle implies that each branch should be independent of the other and that no branch should perform functions that belong to the other. “The accumulation of all powers, executive and judicial, in the same hands whether of one, a few, or many and whether hereditary, self-appointed or
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