Tammy Tung Government and Politics Question 44 Mid-Term Exam

The Constitution embraces four political principles that the founders relied on republicanism, federalism, separation of powers and checks and balances. Republicanism is a form of government in s\which power resides in the people and is exercised by their elected representatives. The framers were determined to avoid aristocracy (rule by a hereditary class), monarchy (rule by one person, and direct democracy (rule by the people. No people had ever been governed by a republic on so vast a scale and were considered both new and daring. Federalism is the division of power between regional governments and a central government. Citizens are subject to two different bodies of law. Federalism can be seen as standing between two different government schemes that are competing. On one side stands the confederation, a loose union of powerful states. On the other side is unitary government, in which all power is vested in a central authority. Ina confederation, the states surrender some power to a central government but retain the rest. The Constitution lists the powers of the national government and the power denied to the states. All remaining powers belong with the states. In general, the states are required to give up only the powers necessary to create an effective national government. In turn the national government is limit in turn to the powers specified in the Constitution Separation of powers is the assignment of law enforcing, lawmaking and law-interpreting functions for government to independent legislative, executive and judicial branches,

respectively. The Separation of powers safeguards liberty but ensuring that government power does not fall into the hands of a group of people or a single person. Theoretically it means that one branch cannot exercise the powers of the other branches though many scholars believe that we have separate institutions that share powers. Checks and balances is a means of giving each branch of government some control and scrutiny of over the other branches. The aim is to prevent the exclusive exercise of certain powers by any one of the three branches. One example is that only Congress can enact laws, yet the president thought the veto power can cancel them, and the courts if it finds that the law violates the constitution can strike them down. Sometimes through a check on a check, Congress can override a presidents veto by a 2/3rds majority in each chamber. It is easy to see how each of these values and political principles reflected the framers revolutionary values. The Framers had economic considerations but these were definitely not the major issues. Maintaining order, the power to tax, and having a strong national government were all approved unanimously without debate.