California Government Structure Essay Example
Structure of California’s Government
Headed by the governor of the state, the state govt. of CA replicates the Federal govt. It has three branches that perform their assigned tasks and keep within the limits set by the constitution. These branches are:
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
While this division has been created to give structure to the government and ensure its smooth and effective functioning, there is, more importantly, the need to keep the power of the branches in check and to make them accountable to each other. There is a system of ‘checks and balances’ that comes into play with this segregation of duties and separation of power. This system’s inception has been attributed to Montesquieu. (Wikipedia.org)
Governor
The governor is the head of the state and commander of the state’s militia, and he is the supreme executive power (ca.gov). He addresses the legislature with the state address at the beginning of the session, informing the body of the situation, the needs, and the recommendations for legislative action. He can require, by proclamation, a “special session” of the legislature to act on subjects specially specified by him. He also presents the legislature with the proposed budget and can refuse to sign a bill that can only become a law with his approval. Here again he is limited in his ‘veto’ power because he can be overridden by a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. (Capitol museum.gov)
Legislature
CA has a ‘bicarmel’ legislature, i.e. it has two separate legislative chambers, the Senate (40 members) and the Assembly (80 members). While the senators stand guard to the ‘liberty of the commonwealth’, the assembly members are bound to passing just laws that ‘represent and protect all the citizens of CA’. Both senators and assembly members do most of their work in committees (policy, rules, joint, special, and fiscal), and Legislators analyze, consult, debate, and hear testimony from both private and public interests on every
Headed by the governor of the state, the state govt. of CA replicates the Federal govt. It has three branches that perform their assigned tasks and keep within the limits set by the constitution. These branches are:
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
While this division has been created to give structure to the government and ensure its smooth and effective functioning, there is, more importantly, the need to keep the power of the branches in check and to make them accountable to each other. There is a system of ‘checks and balances’ that comes into play with this segregation of duties and separation of power. This system’s inception has been attributed to Montesquieu. (Wikipedia.org)
Governor
The governor is the head of the state and commander of the state’s militia, and he is the supreme executive power (ca.gov). He addresses the legislature with the state address at the beginning of the session, informing the body of the situation, the needs, and the recommendations for legislative action. He can require, by proclamation, a “special session” of the legislature to act on subjects specially specified by him. He also presents the legislature with the proposed budget and can refuse to sign a bill that can only become a law with his approval. Here again he is limited in his ‘veto’ power because he can be overridden by a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. (Capitol museum.gov)
Legislature
CA has a ‘bicarmel’ legislature, i.e. it has two separate legislative chambers, the Senate (40 members) and the Assembly (80 members). While the senators stand guard to the ‘liberty of the commonwealth’, the assembly members are bound to passing just laws that ‘represent and protect all the citizens of CA’. Both senators and assembly members do most of their work in committees (policy, rules, joint, special, and fiscal), and Legislators analyze, consult, debate, and hear testimony from both private and public interests on every