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Checks and Balances in Government

The modern understanding of checks and balances is that of government divided into separate and distinct branches. Each branch is endowed with certain safeguards to prevent against concentration and abuse of power. The concept of checks and balances has been widely implemented in a variety of constitutional governments, including the United States, where powers are distributed between three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial.

Examples of checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution include: the president can veto legislation passed by Congress, but Congress can override that veto with a 2/3 vote; the president commands the army but Congress  declares war and appropriates funds; the president appoints justices to the Supreme Court, but only with the approval of the Senate; Congress and the president can pass laws, but the Supreme Court can strike those laws down as unconstitutional.

In designing the U.S. Constitution, the Framers sought to secure individual liberty against the encroachment of governmental power. The system of checks and balances they devised draws inspiration not only from the French political philosopher Montesquieu (who is most commonly associated with this topic), but also from the ancients.

The experience of ancient governments had demonstrated to thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle and Polybius, among others, that society is composed of three forces: the one, the few, and the many. Governmental power thus could correspondingly be vested in rule by one (monarchy), rule by the few (aristocracy), and the many (democracy). Pure forms of either were generally apt to degenerate (e.g. Athens), while a mixed constitution (e.g. Rome) could incorporate and balance against each other all three of those forces. Indeed, checks and balances is an elaboration of this early version of a separation of powers theory.

Critics argue that checks and balances tend to slow the process of governing thereby preventing urgently needed action from taking place. However, that is the intended effect. To guard against tyranny, human nature must be obliged. After all, "what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

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"Aristotle's solution was for politeia – a mixed constitution – and the modern equivalent of this is called demarchy. In a demarchic constitution (a) government ministers are appointed on merit alone and held to account by (b) a randomly-selected parliament, counselled by (c) a diverse and balanced chamber of independent advocates. This tripartite distinction (...

Spalding traces the roots of American progressives to German thinkers who believed in the "Administrative State." Here, government is controlled by administrators and "experts," rather than officials elected to represent the people. Spalding also notes that the Founders and the progressives differed in their view of the Constitution. Progressives believed in a "...

Explaining the constitutional set-up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Morrisey discusses differences between the Constitution and the previous Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation had outlined a federal government in which all three powers—legislative, executive, and judicial—resided entirely in one Congress. This was...

Faust argues that a buildup of more power in the Federal Open Market Committee's ability to set interest rates ignores the logic of Checks and Balances.

This school lesson plan includes a section on separation of powers but goes on to ask students, "How is the Constitution a living document?"

There are a variety of reasons the United States is still classified as limited: We don't live under totalitarianism, Congress and the states do pay their citizens a level of deference, and government officials are still sworn to uphold the Constitution. Even so, the U.S. government far exceeds not only the limited government structure libertarians prefer but also...

"James Madison didn't originate the idea of checks and balances for limiting government power, but he helped push it farther than anyone else before or since. Previous political thinkers, citing British experience, had talked about checks and balances with a monarch in the mix, but Madison helped apply the principle to a republic. Contrary to such respected...

"POLITICO's Kasie Hunt, who's in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words 'not true' when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision."

Lim reminds us that the American founders enacted a system of checks and balances, purposefully rendering change in government a difficult task. Although modern presidents have consistently proposed forms of administrative change under their leadership, slow government progress should not frustrate us. This is the deliberate, careful system our Constitution...

Contemporary controversies such as the individual mandate involved in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) demand an appreciation for the United States Constitution. The document was not, contrary to belief, a celebration of unrestrained democracy but, rather, a safeguard for individual rights.

"The most conservative principle of the Founding Fathers was distrust of unchecked power. Centuries of experience substantiated that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Men are not angels. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition to avert abuses or tyranny. The Constitution embraced a separation of powers to keep the legislative, executive, and judicial...

Chart or Graph

Some people describe Checks and Balances as a cursory "sharing of powers." While it is certainly true that the executive, legislative, and judicial branches share the duties of government, this only describes half of the concept. Indeed, as this diagram illustrates, the arms of government all serve as watchmen of the other branches. For instance, the Supreme Court...

This chart compares the Roman Republic's system of checks and balances to that of the United States.

Analysis Report White Paper

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De Jasay draws upon the Enlightenment philosophies of Hobbes and Montesquieu to explain his belief that checks and balances rely on more than just rational choice theory.

The federal judicial appointment process typifies the procedures, struggles and negotiations between the branches of government. The American public tends to focus on the President's role in choosing judicial nominees and on the Senate's role in approving or vetoing them after nomination, but this is just the most public aspect of the power-sharing in our system of...

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Appearing during the Reagan Administration in 1983, Olson's article discusses the Supreme Court's rejection of the legislative veto device--a decision Olson believes reinforced a proper understanding of checks and balances and halted what Olson identifies as an erosion of executive power. Olson goes on to re-examine the accountability of government in light of...

Ethridge highlights the Progressive attempt to evade checks and balances by delegating power to bureaucratic agencies. Indeed, the efficiently responsive government Progressives prefer has not translated into social equality. In contrast, the U.S. Constitution, as intended by the framers, fosters heated debate by design. This way, when policy does formulate, it...

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James Madison's celebrated checks and balances have left the American government without direction or even final authority. In an effort to find the source of our nation's problems, political scientist Lazare offers a passionate...

"Students from the University of Denver and Pace University in New York City participated by broadband feed in a distance learning class. Bruce Fein spoke to the classes about the Constitution and responded to questions from students. This course was a partnership between C-SPAN, The Cable Center and the University of Denver."

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Primary Document

Blackstone's work is considered the most authoritative statement of the pre-American Revolution common law. It influenced the American founding documents, and continues to be a persuasive legal authority in the United States and other common law jurisdictions.
James Kent was an American legal scholar. Widely popular, his Commentaries consist of a series of lectures on the history of law, the American Constitution, federal and municipal law, and laws concerning persons and property.

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"The American constitutional system includes a notion known as the Separation of Powers. In this system, several branches of government are created and power is shared between them. At the same time, the powers of one branch can be challenged by another branch. This is what the system of checks and balances is all about.

There...

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Plutarch recounts the life of Sparta's legendary founder Lycurgu,s and the evolution of Spartan political and social institutions: "There is so much uncertainty in the accounts which historians have left us of Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, that scarcely anything is asserted by one of them which is not called into question or contradicted by the rest. Their...

The reflections of statesman Dr. James Henry, which have proven an excellent resource for historians seeking a first-hand account of the Federal Convention.

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In this work, Bolingbroke advances the idea of separation of powers, particularly the necessity of achieving a balance between the king, parliament and the people.

Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. Although unfinished, it provided a foundation for many religious and secular institutions and proved very influential throughout the Middle Ages.
After the Pennsylvania Convention ratified the new constitution on December 12, 1787, by a vote of 46 to 23, twenty-one members of the minority signed a dissenting address that appeared in the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser....

"Probably written by a pupil of Aristotle, it is the first history of Athens as a model democracy, how it came into existence, and how it operated in practice."

Madison's Federalist #10 argues for a large and powerful republic to combat the problem of factions. He argues that factions were the cause of the downfall of the ancient democracies and small republics. The American Constitution, with this in mind, advocates a republican form of government that would solve the problem of factions and prevent internal strife while maintaining liberty.

"One of the principal objections inculcated by the more respectable adversaries to the Constitution, is its supposed violation of the political maxim, that the legislative, executive, and judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct. In the structure of the federal government, no regard, it is said, seems to have been paid to this essential precaution in favor of liberty. The...

The Laws, Plato's last and longest dialogue, is written as a conversation between three old men from different Greek cities.
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This volume, written in dialogue format, is the original work of political idealism by one of the best-known Western philosophers.

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Locke's Second Treatise develops his descriptions of the state of nature along with natural law. His work was extremely influential in the founding of America and its Constitution.

"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? I do not know. What can make it legitimate? That question I think I can answer. If I took into account only force, and the effects derived from it, I should say: 'As long as a people is compelled to...

Montesquieu was a significant advocate of separation of powers between executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and his discussion of law contributed significantly to the concept of rule of law.
The Constitution of the United States established the federal governmental system currently in place with three branches of government. The premise of executive privilege developed from the separation of powers clause.
John Adams' suggestions for the formation of a new government in the North Carolina provincial congress.

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