The Concept of Checks and Balances

The concept of checks and balances was incorporated into the Constitution by our forefathers to ensure a balance of power and to avoid overly centralized government. By creating three branches of government and dividing the responsibilities among them all, it made it nearly impossible for one branch to become too powerful. The reason this concept was so important is because the people of America wanted to be free from the oppression and monarchy from their previous country, England. The system of checks and balances was helpful to the United States in ensuring its citizens' freedom in many ways, but as in any system, there were a few downfalls.

Checks and balances basically have two meanings: federalism and separation of powers (http://usinfo.state.gov)

Federalism is when power and authority are shared by the national and state governments (Axelrod, pg 68). This ensured that no part of the government could become too powerful. Some of the powers that were given to the states were things such as education, transportation, law enforcement, and health care (http://usinfo.state.gov). Basically what was done is that the states were given specific responsibilities to take care of problems and needs in each particular state so that the national government could concentrate more on the needs of the people as a whole. The concerns of the national government were more based on the states as a whole like the passing of laws, foreign diplomacy, military, taxation, etc.

The separation of powers ensured that there were three branches of government and that none of the branches would have more power than the others. The three branches of the government were the legislative, judiciary, and executive. The legislative branch or Congress was given the powers of taxation, coining and borrowing money, maintaining armed forces, the right to declare war, as well as several others (Arco, pg 34). The executive branch, the president, was given power to veto Congressional actions, send and receive ambassadors, make treaties and appointments with consent of the Senate, as well as other responsibilities (Arco, pg 35). The third branch, or the judicial branch, was the Supreme Court. The heart of the Supreme Court's power was judicial review which is the power to declare legislative and executive actions unconstitutional (Arco, pg 35). By giving the branches their own separate powers, one branch could stop another branch from doing that they were in disagreement with. This made sure that one branch could not do whatever they wanted.

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