This section focuses on the powers and responsibilities of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the United States government. The material presented is designed to help you meet the following objective.
- Compare and contrast the ways the legislative, executive, and judicial branches share powers and responsibilities.
Each branch of government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—plays a role in the legal system and each has its own powers, in a system of constitutional checks and balances that acts as a safeguard against any one branch having too much power. Before the idea of checks and balances became an operational part of our system of government, it existed as a concept that arose from the theory of the separation of powers, originally applied to social classes rather than branches of government. The Greek philosopher Aristotle theorized that the ideal form of government would be a polity, a mixed government combining oligarchy and democracy—these two elements would keep each other in check. Later, John Locke wrote in the late 17th century about the constitutional need to separate legislative and executive powers in Of Civil Government, and the Baron de Montesquieu added a third element, the judiciary, in Spirit of the Laws in the early 18th century. The Founders put these ideas into practice with the government they devised in the State House in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
What happened at the Constitutional Convention? Click the following link for interactive background information on how our Constitution was created.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/
The following link explores separation of powers in action, giving a practical demonstration of how checks and balances require an interplay of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the United States government.
