The Doctrine Of Separation Of Power

Superior Essays
Kathleen Olivieri
PSC110
Final Exam Paper: The Doctrine of Separation of Powers

The separation of powers doctrine entails a constant conflict of government to prevent one from becoming too powerful and to guarantee checks and balances for all three branches of government. The main purpose of the creation of the branches of government was designed to keep the men in charge at constant odds and conflict while allowing for compromise. Separation of powers imposes internal limits by dividing government against itself, giving different branches separate functions and forcing them to share power. The farmers of the constitution feared too much centralized power thus they adopted a policy of divide and conquer. They created three different branches
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The whole basis of the constitution is designed to give congress the most power in the federal government. Congress technically has the law making authority they need to collaborate with the president. Meanwhile, the executive branch has the ability to investigate (through use of the FBI) and remove members of congress. *** Dividing power helps to check its growth in any one direction, but power cannot be divided absolutely equally. In the republican form of government, the legislative branch tends to be the most powerful. That is why the framers divided the Congress into two branches, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and provided for a different method of election in each branch. Further safeguards against legislative tyranny may be necessary. When it came time to decide how many representatives each state would have in the House of Representatives in Congress the issues was how and when do we count the slaves in the southern states. James Madison would eventually suggest the Three-Fifths Compromise. The ironic thing about James Madison proposing this number is that he was a liberal northern delegate. It is said that he was using this compromise as a way to gain support from the southern states for a new framework of government. (2) The people of northern states regarded slaves as property and they believed they should not count at all towards representation. While in the south, they wanted slaves to be counted to increase their political power. Their hope was to garnish enough power in politics in order to be able to control elections. This compromise would greatly increase representation and political power of the southern slave-owning states. In truth, it was a political deal that many delegates felt was essential to preserving the Union. Under which, slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a white man. Thus, bumping up the number of

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