Branches of Government

What were the reasons America’s forefathers divided the government into the legislative, judicial, and executive branches? How does this benefit the three branches?

In the beginning before the Constitution was drafted, the founding founders were concerned about how to solve the issue of a weak central government. The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists had different ideology and views in regard to the issues at hand, but had the common goal of ensuring the government would be protected against any assembly having the ability to become overpowered by another. The founding fathers also feared chaos amongst the people and understood that there must be a separation of power to avoid the possibility of this occurring. This is the reason the founding fathers established three branches of government to include the legislative, executive, and, judicial branches. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches are limited in their power, although their powers sometimes overlap. The founding fathers included this overlap in an effort to limit and separate power among the branches. If one branch encroaches the boundaries set by the Constitution, the other branches would intercede and pronounce the act unconstitutional (Patterson, 2009). Through the concept of checks and balances the government is both constrained and entrusted. The rights of individuals are honored through laws enacted by the legislative branch and through the legislatives branches ability to set up court systems at the state and federal level. The president can veto a bill if he presumes. The judiciary branch interprets and has the ability to overturn both state and federal law. With each branch acting separately but equally both our laws and the rights of each individual is preserved.

References

Patterson, T. E. (2009). The American democracy (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

References: Patterson, T. E. (2009). The American democracy (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.