However, this is not true because the Congress is both an independent and co-equal branch of Government. As David Obey said “We may belong to the same party but we are an independent branch”. Checks and balances are required to keep the government stable and avoid the President going against the wishes of the people. “I think Barack Obama is terrific. But people still need to recognise we have an institutional responsibility to do oversight on the President” Garry Bass, Congress.
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.
Tyranny is a government in which a single ruler is vested with absolute power. The Constitution had guarded against tyranny in four different ways which were Federalism, Separation of powers, Checks and balances and big states vs. small states The beginning guard against tyranny was Federalism, which is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant. James Madison had stated in a “Federalist Newspaper” about Federalism and how it basically worked for the Colony. Federalism protects against tyranny because Federalism isn’t an absolute power, it’s a division of power to certain members of a covenant. The additional guard against tyranny was Separation of Powers which means the government was separated into different branches.
The principle organ of the US state is to legislate, represent and scrutinise the other, safely separated, branches of the government. First of the three elements in which Congress’s primary role plays is in legislation. The very first article of the Constitution lays out how this is done. Bills initiated by both the President and members of Congress are almost certain to be substantially modified as they go through the legislative process, making it very difficult for the President or any political faction to force through their policy agenda. Congress has been somewhat effective in passing laws such as the PATRIOTIC Act under Bush and the Healthcare Reform Act under Obama both show’s that Congress can legislate when it needs be, especially with a majority in both houses.
The Senate must live in a state representing; they must be 30 years old to run. The senate contains 100 members, led by vice-president. Their powers; Senators have one vote each, the Senate chooses officers and a President pro tempore. They have sole power to try impeachments; referral of bills is easily challenged. The Rules Committee are weak, they have few limits on debate time or amendments, also has unlimited time of debates unless challenged by unanimous vote or invoking cloture.
First we will take a look at the positive outcomes for citizens and society as a whole if this type of program was set up. First citizens would have more say in the process of laws being decided and may actually help in the process since many government officials do not have the time or resources to go over every page in the laws they are reviewing or signing in. Also citizens would have more control over something they may completely disagree with, for example the recent decisions to insert more stimulus money towards the economy would more strongly be rejected by a citizen based vote than a Democratic majority based Congress. Also a system like this would bring our system closer to a federalist based system on which our founders wanted our society to be and would take away some control of our government branches and would give states even more say in crucial decision making processes. This would make it much more difficult for governments to grow and enact more control over its citizen's daily lives, issues and
Executive Power The first American president, George Washington, set standards on presidential power for a successful government. Many of these implied rules and regulations are still carried on today and enforced by the Constitution. Despite the Constitution there are different branches of government that also assist in enforcing these laws. The judicial, legislative and the executive branch perform checks and balances between each branch so as not to give too much power to one branch. This system of checks and balances over the years has been debated in its leniency and lack of enforcement at times.
The Executive Branch, which includes the president, is in charge of enforcing laws, the Legislative Branch controls making laws, and the Judicial Branch is a system of courts that interpret the laws created and enforced by the other branches. Hamilton stated as opposed to the Executive and Legislative branches of government, “...[The Judicial Branch] has no influence over the sword or the purse;” (Federalist #78) Because the Executive branch has the power to enforce law and the Legislative branch has the power to declare war and make laws, Hamilton argues that the Judicial branch is the least dangerous. Although I believe the Judicial branch has many positive aspects, I agree with Hamilton’s argument
The negative aspect is that once an Act of Parliament has received Royal Assent, no person or body can question its validity, not even the courts. In addition but nonetheless important, a Parliament cannot bind a future Parliament. Supremacy hence lies in the current Parliament of the day, as it technically has the power to amend or repeal the legislation of any previous Parliament. Before we go any further, it is important to realise two facts. Firstly, legal sovereignty should be distinguished from political sovereignty.
8/2/11 I think we need a bicameral legislature today because we wouldn’t want just one branch to make our law and be able to do want they want. We need to have that second opinion so we have an equal discussion on all matters in the United States. If we had only one branch they could make all kinds of laws and we would have to abide buy them even though they may not be fair to everyone. We need to keep it the way it is and elected new bleed into the system. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES A bicameral is two chambers; the Senate and the House of Representatives.