Political Science
The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches: Separation of Powers and Maintaining Checks and Balances in the Government
The formulation, enactment, and implementation of the Constitution as the primary basis of law in the United States aim to provide society with representativeness. The establishment of the U.S. government allows for the separation of powers among its three branches: the executive, legislative, and judiciary. The President, Vice-President, and its departments represent the Executive branch; the Senate and Congress, on the other hand, represent the legislative branch; lastly, the Judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court (Microsoft Encarta 2002). Each branch has a function designed to provide people not only their representatives in the government, but to ensure that the state and nation as a whole also fulfills their functions as citizens of the country (as decreed by the Constitution). Each branch's function is also designed to ensure that checks and balances are made in the government. The Executive, represented by the President, provides leadership, with its job primarily centered on enforcing the law. The legislative branch acts on the formulation and implementation of the laws of the country, while the judiciary interprets the law (Utah Education Network, 2004). All three branches have separate functions, but each of them are interdependent with each other, since a dysfunction in one branch of the government leads to the dysfunction of the other, making the government ineffective. The executive and legislative branches of the government are part of the United States' representative democracy, since its officials are given positions through the electoral process. Although the Judiciary officials are not part of the electoral system, they are still part of the representative democracy of the country in that it upholds and held accountable for ensuring that the law of the country is not only respected and recognized, but is utilized with responsibility.
Works Cited
'Three Branches of the Government." Utah Education Network. Retrieved February 19, 2004. Available at: http://www.uen.org/themepark/html/liberty/3branches.html.
"United States." Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002. Microsoft Corporation 1993-2001.
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