American Government

American Government

1. Please explain how the Constitution provides for a system of separation of powers and checks and balances.

The national government of the country is divided in three branches, as per the U.S. Constitution. These three branches are: judicial, executive and legislative. The U.S. Constitution has made sure that the three branches remain dependent on one another. This characteristic is drafted with intentions to design a system that has necessary checks and balances. These are intrinsically required in the system, to curtail powers of one branch over the other. Furthermore, each of the branches has its allocated share of processes to ensure accountability in performance and operations of their own branch as well as the other two branches of the government. The below sections would focus on specific checks of each branch of the American government (Manning, 2010).

Legislative Branch: Checks and Balances

Powers to make laws are ordained on the legislative branch of the government. Furthermore, Legislative branch ensures checks on the executive branch, by:

Acquiring two third votes to override presidential vetoes

Executive actions are managed by financial resources that are under direct supervision and authority of the legislative branch

Impeachment of the president can be carried forth by legislative branch

Treaties can be approved by the senate

Presidential appointments can be approved by the senate (Kelly, 2013)

Legislative branch ensures checks on judiciary, by:

Creation of lower courts

Initiate impeachment of judges, where necessary

Judges appointment are sanctioned after senate approval (Kelly, 2013)

Executive Branch: Checks and Balances

Power to carry out the laws is ordained on the executive branch of the government. Furthermore, executive branch ensures checks on the legislative branch, by:

Using power of veto

Special Congress sessions can be initiated by the executive branch

Legislative recommendations can be made by members of the executive branch

Legislative related issues and appeals are made to the public by the executive branch (Kelly, 2013)

Executive branch ensures checks on judiciary, by:

Federal judges, as well as supreme court judges are appointed by the President

Judicial Branch: Checks and Balances

Power to interpret the laws is ordained on the judicial branch of the government. Furthermore, judiciary ensures checks on the executive branch, by:

Executive branch has the power to appoint judges, however, judiciary appointees are free from any executive controls, for the rest of their careers

Judicial review has the power to implicate any executive action as unconstitutional

Judicial branch ensures checks on judiciary, by:

Legislative actions can be deemed unconstitutional, through discretion of the judiciary (Kelly, 2013)

American history is ample proof that substantiates the check and balances system of the American Government. This is because the system ensures a workable balance, which manages to ensure effectiveness and efficiencies in the national setup (Manning, 2010).

2. Describe how a bill becomes a law at the national level.

Genome (2012) on their website provides a comprehensive illustration of how a bill becomes a law at the national level. As per the source, there are ten steps to the process. These steps are sequential and have to follow one after the other.

Step One: Bill Is Introduced

Legislations can only be introduced by the ...