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.
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. Congress also has dominion over other branches of government: the House of Representatives, for example, holds control over impeaching governement officials and controls the budget for other branches. The Senate must approve treaties and holds power to confirm or unapprove “...federal judgeships, ambassadorships, and cabinet level posts” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.45).
The most common method of ratification is the three-fourths vote of the state legislatures. When the people prefer a change, Congress passes the amendment and the state legislatures vote to ratify. "Congressional proposal of the amendment is by a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. State ratification is by three-fourths majority" (Mount, 2006). The other ratification method is by convention that involves an entirely different body from the legislature.
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.
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.
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. Although this shows that things are more different when it is a united or divided government, Congress still has a task to do in which they must do oversight on President, so, it being united or divided government should not affect the task Congress are suppose to do, as they are an independent
The president was still a very powerful figure; he could block new laws by calling a referendum and could rule without the Reichstag in times of emergency (Article 48). In the right hands, Article 48 could work to Germany’s advantage by ensuring a swift response to a crisis like a war. The president, like before, could still appoint his ministers and chancellor. The Reich cabinet and chancellor, were under Article 54 of the constitution accountable to the Reichstag and had to resign if they lost the Reichstag’s confidence. The New parliament set up was to be made up of 2 houses; The Reichsrat and the Reichstag.
The constitutional convention started a very long process that involved a lot of compromises that helped set the constitution the way it is now. For example, some of these compromises were: the great compromise, Connecticut compromise, the three-fifths compromise, and the sectional compromise. All of these compromises lead to the conclusion that the power would be separated to three main branches which are now the first three articles in the articles of confederation. These three branches of government are: The Legislative Branch, The Executive Branch and The Judicial Branch. The Legislative Branch is congress; this branch which is composed of two
The United States has three branches of government, one of which is the Legislative Branch. In the Legislative branch consists The House of Representatives, and the Senate, together they form what’s known as Congress. Times change, so should American politicians! Many people assume the power in the government lies with the president---it lies with Congress. Congress holds the power to declare wars, write laws, impeach the president, levies taxes, and controls most of the government’s spending (Phillips, Todd).
‘If it isn’t broken don’t fix it.’ Discuss with reference to the electoral systems used for national elections in the UK and USA. The first past the post systems used in both the USA and the UK unquestionably have the potential to produce election results that are not representative of the break down of total votes in an election, providing results that don’t reflect voter wishes. One may argue that the electoral systems used in both the USA and UK marginalize minorities, causes wasted, insignificant votes and promote voter apathy. However despite the numerous criticisms of first past the post it has continued to be the system in place to decide the President in the USA and dictate which party forms government, and thus which party leader becomes Prime Minister in the UK, suggesting the system has its advantages. Proponents of the UK and US voting methods also often cite the lack of a credible alternative as a reason for the retention of the current systems.