Separation of Powers

Archive Report

Clash Over Constitutional Question

Every american child is taught early in his school years that the government of his country is based on the principle of separation of powers and that adherence to this principle is one of the major safeguards of liberty in a democratic state. Yet the question of how to apply the principle in practice has been a source of political tension ever since the nation began and there are still no fixed charts of office to show exactly where the lines of power are drawn between the President and Congress and the judiciary. This is almost entirely because the founding fathers, by design, introduced into this tripartite structure an element called checks and balances which provides an overlapping of powers among ...

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