To what extent can the Congress and the Supreme Court limit the powers of the President? In the United States of America, the government is divided into three main branches; The Executive Branch- which the President belongs to, Legislative Branch made up on the Congress and finally the Judicial Function – The Supreme Court. The President is the most powerful person in the USA but his power is held in check by the Congress and The Supreme Court. If these institutions don’t like what the President intends to do then they have the power to prevent him. The Presidents greatest powers lie within foreign policy.
The most senior members are the prime minister, secretaries of state, Ministers of state and parliamentary under-secretaries. The Prime minister has the duty of being in charge and selects the other members of government. There are many important departments in central government and they all are crucial but are different roles in controlling the country. The departments include home office and department of health, but also involve sport and media and the department of culture. These departments are ruled by Secretaries state that has complete liability and are staffed by impartial civil servants who get their income from money provided by parliament.
Upon founding of the United States government, not all three branches were to share the same amount of power. In fact, “Congress was the most powerful branch of government” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.43). However, over time, due to representation responsibilities and compromise, Congress has lost much of the lawmaking influence. “...the president has taken the lead in...national defense and foreign policy, and...domestic policy such as fiscal policy” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.44). Under Article I of the Constitution however, Congress holds many exclusive and monumentary powers, including but not limited to: budgetary powers (taxation, control of national debt), military powers (declare war), lawmaking (passing federal legislation), representation of constituents, investigation, and serving its consittuents.
How effectively does Congress fulfil its constitutional roles? To start of this essay we must first understand what the role of Congress actually is? The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is the law-maker which is the primary and most important function of the legislature. It is through laws that policies of government are laid down for implementation.
But people still need to recognise we have an institutional responsibility to do oversight on the President” Garry Bass, Congress. This quote supports my view on the Congress being a watchdog. If the Congress is a lapdog, the President can have a free ride on running the country how he wishes and not represent the people’s view. However that is not the case as the President cannot do everything which pleases him. However, looking at the statistics such as Bill Clintons presidency, in the first 2 years which was a united government, Congress exercised limited oversight, and when needed to, asked softball questions, however , when Republicans took over Congress, things got much harder as they seek to hold the President to account, and after a while, impeach.
The legislative branch contains The House of Representatives and The Senate. The House of Representatives and The Senate are responsible for establishing new laws, changing current laws or illuminating current laws. The executive branch is home to President and the Vice President. The President is elected by the people and chooses the members of his cabinet. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Courts and Federal Courts.
Erik Hansen The judicial branch... the ones who really sit on top In the United States we are supposed to have a government with three equal branches to it that share the same amount of power to be used to keep each other in balance. It is hard to tell if that is actually the case though. Most would think that the president, since they are always in public eye, holds the most power. Congress has is also often in the public eye, with cspan, and elections, but the Supreme Court judges are simply appointed to a life long position unless they do something outrages. There would need to be a lot of checks in order to balance this major power supply.
Chandra Lauderdale Short Paper 1 Govt. 2302 The main purpose of this chapter is to trace the expansion of presidential responsibilities and power, identify the many roles Presidents play, the functions filled by the President’s many advisers and helpers, the conflict between Presidents and Congress, and assesses how democratic the presidency is and whether presidents Respond to the public. The key questions that the author is addressing are, Does it strike you as odd that an era that produced some of our most respected presidents was in fact a time Of congressional dominance? Are there adequate checks in place
However the executive power can and has to be constrained to ensure a more democratic system of governance. It could be argued that in the US the executive has limited power on the domestic front whereas the UK executive is less constrained and appears to have significant power in most areas of political life. It is perhaps useful to start with saying what executive branches are made of in both liberal democracies that are being examined. In the UK the core executive includes the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and its committees, the Prime Minister’s office and the Cabinet Office. In the US the executive branch is associated with the President, the Vice President, Executive Departments, and Agencies.
Firstly, in the United Kingdom, parliament is the legislative body is also the highest authority in the court system of the United Kingdom, senate performing the trial through the appellate committee of the senate, parliament became the final level trial for all criminal and civil in the UK whereas in Vietnam, state power is unified, with the assignment and coordination among state agencies in the implementation of legislative, executive and judiciary. The Supreme People's Court is the highest judicial body in the judicial sector. Secondly, operating principles of court in the United Kingdom and Vietnam was followed the principle of public trial and independence. Nevertheless, characterized in the British legal system is the law made by judicial authorities. As the result, when trial judges must follow strict guidelines.