The Seperation of Powers

The concept of separation of powers in the United States was used by the founding fathers in order to stop the government becoming over mighty and to limit its power over the people it was created to serve. At the national level the three main branches of government: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are separate and each has powers to limit the other branches, these powers to limit are known as checks and balances.

 Examples of these checks and balances are the Supreme Court’s power to declare a law unconstitutional, as they did with the banning of gay marriage which was said to violate the 14^th amendment. The Supreme courts power to do this can be seen as hindering effective government because they can just decide which laws are and aren’t constitutional and actually lawful. This is balanced out by the ability of the President to nominate Supreme Court judges and them to be appointed after approval by the senate.

The president has the power to veto legislation that congress has passed. This power, as with others, can be seen to hinder effective government because it can be hard for a government to move forward with its agenda. This is a hindrance to the government of the United States as it can take a while to pass legislation. This can also be seen as a negative to the concept of checks and balances. It can also be seen in a positive light however as it makes the government think about the law they are passing and makes them more suited to the country’s wants and needs.

The power of the president to veto legislation can be overturned by congress with a two thirds majority vote in both houses. Therefore this has only been successful in a few instances.

The separation of powers was not created by the founding fathers with the intention to slow and hinder governmental practices and it was seen as effective and well aging by the founding fathers. There are however alternatives to a separation of powers that still provides an effective government. A prime example of this is the government of the United Kingdom which uses a fusion of powers. That means that the legislature and executive are made up of the same people in Parliament. This way of running a government may have been avoided by the founding fathers as they wanted their new country to be distinctly different to the British whose rule they had just broken free from. However this fusion of powers can also be seen to be over mighty as the Party with the majority in the House of Commons has control over the whole country and may be too powerful. The lack of a codified constitution with entrenched provisions in the UK also makes it far easier to change laws and the constitution as the government does not need to stick to defined rules set out in a constitution as their American counterparts do. In a sense this means that the British constitution is not hindered as it lacks the control over its different branches as they are all molded into one.