Essay on Constitution: Separation of Powers and Government

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Thomas petersen

Ratifying the Constitution I believe that the Constitution is needed because it sets the basic principles upon which the government will operate. It lays out six basic principles, which are, Popular Sovereignty, Limited Government, Checks and Balances, Separation of Powers, Judicial Review, and Federalism. Theses six principles will help define how our government works and how it betters our way of life. First is Popular Sovereignty. This means that all political power resides within the people. Like is says in the book, “the government can govern only with the consent of the governed.” This is the way I feel the government is best in power because it gives the people a say in how they want to be governed. Since our founding fathers wanted to get away from their old government they found the next best way to govern people, in which I agree with. Second is Limited Government. This means that no government is in total power over its people. Since I believe that people have a say in how they want to be governed they also get a say in how much power the government has upon them. I feel limited government is effective in the way that it makes the government obey the law because even though the government is very powerful, they too have to obey the laws that the people have to obey. By doing this it makes sure that the government can’t overpower what it wants to do and therefore making it more equal to the power that the people have. Third is the Separation of Powers. In a presidential system like ours, we separate the powers into three branches, which are the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. I feel like this was another way that our founding fathers tried to stay away from their old British government since all of these branches are in the hands of one single agency. Since we split our powers up, I feel like it makes our government stronger even more so because we have different people making decisions for what’s best and not just one person making the decision of what he thinks is best. Fourth are Checks and Balances. This means that each branch is subject to a number of constitutional checks by the other branches. Basically each branch isn’t totally independent from the other and each branch can check the actions of the others to make sure that one doesn’t overpower the other. I feel like this is a great system because if we didn’t do this then there would be so many things
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