Seperation of Powers
Separation of Powers in the American Democracy
Michele Brimacomb
Everest University
The Constitution of the Unites States is the world’s oldest doctrine that took on the feeling of natural law, the laws that define right from wrong and is said to be higher than human law. The Constitution is a symbol of national unity and loyalty which advocated emotional and intellectual support from Americans. The Constitution stands for liberty and justice for all. The Constitution is like our operating manual defining the purposes and boundaries of our federal government. It was meticulously designed by our founders so that we would have government consistent with the values and principles of our nation. It’s in those values and principles where our “eternal truths” lie. It’s in our increasingly fragile sense of what the truths are that precede the Constitution, or the questioning by some if indeed there are any eternal truths, where our problems lie. The purpose of government, stated in the Declaration of Independence, is to “Secure” our “Rights.”
Separation of powers is a doctrine that is often believed to rest at the foundation of the U.S. Constitution. It holds that liberty is best preserved if the three functions of government—legislation, law enforcement, and judgment are in different hands. The modern idea of separation of powers is to be found in one of the most important eighteenth-century works on political science, the Baron de Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748), which states that "There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates or if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers." In Federalist No. 47 (1788) James Madison, commenting on Montesquieu's views and seeking to reconcile them with the Constitution's provisions, states that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same
Michele Brimacomb
Everest University
The Constitution of the Unites States is the world’s oldest doctrine that took on the feeling of natural law, the laws that define right from wrong and is said to be higher than human law. The Constitution is a symbol of national unity and loyalty which advocated emotional and intellectual support from Americans. The Constitution stands for liberty and justice for all. The Constitution is like our operating manual defining the purposes and boundaries of our federal government. It was meticulously designed by our founders so that we would have government consistent with the values and principles of our nation. It’s in those values and principles where our “eternal truths” lie. It’s in our increasingly fragile sense of what the truths are that precede the Constitution, or the questioning by some if indeed there are any eternal truths, where our problems lie. The purpose of government, stated in the Declaration of Independence, is to “Secure” our “Rights.”
Separation of powers is a doctrine that is often believed to rest at the foundation of the U.S. Constitution. It holds that liberty is best preserved if the three functions of government—legislation, law enforcement, and judgment are in different hands. The modern idea of separation of powers is to be found in one of the most important eighteenth-century works on political science, the Baron de Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748), which states that "There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates or if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers." In Federalist No. 47 (1788) James Madison, commenting on Montesquieu's views and seeking to reconcile them with the Constitution's provisions, states that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same