Who Governs essays

Who Governs essays The framers of the Constitution had a vision for a new nation, and a new government to regulate it. They saw the conditions in which England existed under the monarchy, and decided to construct a different kind of government in which no one faction could hold too much power. Thus, they developed a system of checks and balances to prevent any one of the three separate branches of the government from becoming dominant. Today, the three branches still remain intact, and no single branch has enough power to completely nullify the decisions and rulings of the other two. However, even though the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches are fundamentally comparable in their command of the nation, today the Legislative branch exercises the greatest extent of power. Each of the three branches serves a different function. The Legislative branch, which consists of Congress, makes laws for the nation to follow. Congress also creates federal programs and agencies, and appropriates funds to carry them out. The Executive branch, composed of the President and Vice President, most accurately carries out the laws of the nation. This branch is responsible for appointing Supreme Court Justices and other federal judges. The Judicial Branch is made up of the Supreme Court and other federal courts, and is responsible for interpreting the laws passed by Congress. This branch is endowed with the power to declare laws and other executive actions unconstitutional. The Legislative branch has the upper-hand from the beginning of the process, due to the fact that Congress develops and passes laws initially. Congress does not have free reign to pass any laws it pleases, however, because the President has the power to veto a Congressional bill before it becomes a law. Many presidents have used their veto power to prevent the passage of bills which they did not like, whether for moral reasons or for personal convictions. One example of a presid...