UNDERSTANDING OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Understanding our Federal Government

Understanding our Federal Government

What were the reasons our forefathers divided the government into the legislative, judicial and presidential branches? The country was sensitive to the world “national” so they used federal, due to it didn't reduce any powers within the States. “National” government was a central government that had power over and above the states. “Federal” government was a government was a government formed by the association of states, which gave up none of the powers (Fritz, 1987, pg.46). The Articles of Confederation was not working and the forefathers wanted a government that united all states. This created the Virginia Plan, written mostly by James Madison, however, after weeks and weeks of debating, there was nothing but disagreement on how many lawmakers each state would have in Congress. The Virginia Plan would've ruined the states; therefore, the statesmen sat down and came up with the Great Compromise. Under the Great Compromise, one house would base its number of lawmakers on population and the other will have the same number of lawmakers from each state (Burgan, 2007, pg. 12). The reason the government was divided into three branches was to implement a democratic government that would serve the citizens and not regulate the people. In other words, they wanted an organization devised of no single individual or assembly that would have too much authority. The three branches of government are; judicial, legislative, and executive (presidential), these have aptitude and control what the other two branches are doing. The first branch would be the Congress; it would have two separate houses, with the states sending representatives. This branch would make the laws. The second branch is the executive branch; this branch would make sure that the laws are carried out. The head of this branch is the president, hence it being called the presidential branch. The third branch is the judicial branch. This branch is the system of the court. The judges of this branch made sure that the laws were carried out fairly. The system that was put into place to perform these tasks is called “checks and balances.” Each branch is intertwined with the other two branches.

How are the three branches of U.S. Government supposed to interact? The overall foundation of the three branches is to share authority while and watching over the other branches. Each branch has a separate function and associations with the other two branches. The forefathers planned an organization so that each individual branch would observe the other two branches to verify that they were acting with the fundamental laws and are not trying to overrule the other branches and become an empire by themselves. The three branches of government work together and are equally powered. The executive branch consists of the president, vice president and cabinet members. The main power of the executive branch is to execute the laws. The other powers of the executive branch are granting pardons, vetoing laws, commanding the military, foreign relations, such as making treaties, ...