American National Government

Running Head: AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 1

AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

WALTER K KOSGEY

PARK UNIVERSITY

AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 2

The relationship between the three arms of American government

America is operated under a democratic government that has three arms of government

that function interchangeably to ensure the rights of the citizens are protected as stipulated in the

constitution. The duties of each branch is clearly outlined in the constitution under the section of

separation of power in order to ensure there is smooth running of government affairs all through.

However, it is recently noticed that there are some of these arms that normally overlap while

executing their roles. A certain issue of interest may tend to fall under the roles stipulated in more

than one of these branches. This should not be taken as conflict of interest because even in normal

circumstances, one issue may pass through one arm of the government before it is approved

(Perkins & Roswell, 1963).

Those who founded the government had ensured that there is a great independence in the

three branches in order to make sure that there was a superficial supremacy while performing their

duties in their separate and different spheres. Of most important is that the three branches should

strive their level best to go by the constitution as it is the main body that has the rights of the loyal

citizens. Each branch of the government should therefore ensure that it strictly abide by the

constitution with zero deviations. However, a controversy arises when it comes to who should be

held responsible for enforcing certain provisions found in the constitution. Just to mention, the

executive is charged with the duty of performing the day to day operations of the country. Its full

power is vested on the president. However, the president can appoint any person that can be

deemed fine to be in charge of the daily operations taking place in the country. In such a case, the

constitution gives the president mandate to appoint an individual who may have the required

qualities to oversee the daily operations but only with the approval by the congress (Perkins &

Roswell, 1963).

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The constitution empowers the president with great powers such as the duly duty of making

sure that the constitution is well guarded and protected from all kind of manipulation that might

occur. The president is also charged with the responsibility of protecting the state from internal

and external attacks as he is the chief-in commander of the armed forces. For this reason, it is vital

that the powers vested on the president by the constitution be subject to verification by other arms

such as legislature in order to make sure that the rights of ordinary Americans are not infringed

(Roberts, 1988). Legislature is universally recognized as the most basic need in all the democratic

countries. USA being on the many democratic countries, is seen as the strongest pillar when it

comes to freedom, as a result its congress is termed to be the main organ of formulation of law in

the country. The legislature is constituted of two different houses that are charged with the duty of

making sure that the process of making laws is carried out in a just and effective way. The same

arm is also expected to make laws that regards tax collection and also approving government

expenditures. This can be seen as a clash in duties between the legislature and the executive arms

of the government. However, it should be noted that at this particular point in time, congress is not

the only arm that poses influence unto executive. The executive itself also have a great influence

on the legislature too (Roberts, 1988).

Party leaders usually appoint majority of the committee chairpersons. The fact that party

leaders are given the mandate to appoint majority leader present in the congress makes the

executive to be very influential on the side the congress decides to go to. This is based on the fact

that majority leader is mandated to oversee the party agendas presented before the congress.

Judiciary on the other hand bears the responsibility of administering justice on the basis of integrity

and equality. The courts form the grounds whereby the conflicting parties can find justice. The

courts ensure that conflict resolution methods are applied in order to solve the problem underhand

AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 4

before it erupts to a war. Moreover, the court is also charged with the responsibility of simplifying

the constitution such that it can be understood by the common citizen. It is also supposed to

determine whether certain state statues are right constitutionally. Judges forms the judiciary body.

The judges are appointed by the executive members and confirmed by the legislature. The

judiciary acts as the main body that ensures that the rights together with freedom of citizens are

well protected against brutality and exploitation of all odds (Perkins & Roswell, 1963).

In some cases, the court is given the mandate to present a well and organized guidelines to

the executive regarding the application of different state statutes that may seem to interfere with

the citizens’ rights. In such instances, the court is seen to act as overall overseer on the other arms.

The legislature does this by ensuring that the rights of American citizens are put first before

everything else. There is a general feeling that the mandate of the oversight should be vested upon

the masses. However, this cannot work because many of the citizens lack the technical know-how

of correctly interpreting the national constitution. Since the court is well versed with the

constitution, the duty of interpreting the constitution is placed in its hands.

Checks and balances

There is no chance of status quo occurring since the different branches of the government

do not try to exploit or infringe the activities of the other. The courts check whether the legislations

made are constitutionally right a situation that makes it to be accountable always. This ensures

that there is no chance of abuse of power a situation that could have disadvantaged the common

citizen. The legislator is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the executive. The court

itself serves as the overseer of the legislature. The relationship that exists between the three

different arms of the government in America is very important as it helps in protecting the rights

AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 5

of the citizens and ensuring that there is supremacy of the national constitution (Perkins & Roswell,

1963).

Is there any branch that is superior to the other?

The executive arm is seen to have the greatest powers as compared to the rest of the arms.

The president has veto power over bills, he is the commander in-chief of the armed forces hence

this branch is seen to have more powers than the rest (Roberts, 1988). A recent research conducted

by IDEG has come to a conclusion that the executive arm of government is day by day becoming

more powerful than the legislature. The research mainly majored on the work done by the

parliament from 1993 to 2006. The research had shown clearly that executive arm was make use

of exploits available to impair the functions of the national assembly. The research proposed that

the greater the influence power the executive had to the parliament, the lesser the parliament’s

powers became. The executive body had had great influence in parliament making the parliament

a lesser powerful body as compared to the executive. The powers of the parliament were seen to

decrease.

What should be done to balance power?

The motion that passes to president should be brought again to the parliament for the final

scrutiny before it is made a law (Roberts, 1988). Moreover, the powers should be divided equally

in the three arms of government so that there is no arm that possesses more powers than the other

to avoid conflicts of interest. This ensures that none of the three arms have total dominance over

the other. The decisions that are brought to the public are decisions passing through the three arms

whereby every person is free to participate in the decision making process. What comes out is a

shared decision. The decision has with it a great sense of authority. The decision also possesses

legitimacy. This ensures that no arm of the government is superior to the other because the

AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 6

decisions are shared among the three arms. They are not made by a single entity arm. The

American constitution provides a basis for checks and balance of power to ensure that power is

not concentrated in only one of the branches. In order to pass a bill, both house have to pass it, the

president has to sign it before it becomes a law. The president usually nominate judges. The judges

have operational roles in the operations of the Supreme Court. Before the judges take their

responsibility in the Supreme Court, they have to be approved by the senate. After they are

approved, they are in a position to declare both laws made by the executive together with congress

null and void. This ensures balance of power throughout the three arms of the government.

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References

Perkins, Roswell B. 1963. The New Federal Conflict-of-Interest Law. Harvard Law Review,

76(April):1113–1169.

Roberts, Robert N. 1988. White House Ethics: The History of the Politics of Conflict of Interest

Regulation. New York: Greenwood Press.

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