Constitutional Principles: Separation of Powers

0:01 sometimes we forget the whole purpose of separation of powers is to frustrate government action drawing on their own experience as well as the ideas of European philosophers the founders created a system of government where Powers would be separated into different branches no one person or institution could make interpret and carry out the law there would be no absolute or

0:21 undivided power the accumulation of all powers legislative executive and Judiciary in the same hands may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny this system of separated Powers is an important way the Constitution guards against tyranny in government the legislative or lawmaking branch is Congress article one of the Constitution

0:42 explains how it will be set up and the kinds of laws it has the power to pass the executive branch headed by the president is described in Article 2 the president has many duties and responsibilities including to direct the nation’s relationships with other countries and make sure that laws are Faithfully executed article 3 establishes the judicial branch or

1:02 federal court system these courts will try all cases that arise under the Constitution the judicial branch has no lawmaking or enforcement power it depends on the other branches to do these things one way to think about it by the way I think is is like a relay race where the three branches have they each Run part of the race and then they pass the Baton of law onto the next

1:24 Branch uh and the idea of that is to maintain as I say rule of law that’s the primary idea behind separation of powers the theory of separation of powers as we see it expressed by monu and um reaffirmed by Madison in The Federalist Papers James Madison theorized that ambition must be made to counteract ambition human nature being what it is

1:46 the people in each branch of government would naturally want to take on Power and in their own desire for power they would guard against the other two growing too powerful flowing out of the separated powers are checks and balances if one branch of government begin to take on too much control the other branches have things they can do to check and stop the growth of that power why the separation of powers and you

2:08 know James Madison in his famous uh Federalist 51 explains this pretty clearly he says something like the following uh if men were Angels no government would be necessary and if Angels were to govern men neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary but when you frame a government which is to be

2:29 administered by men over men the great difficulty is this this is what Madison says You must first enable the government to control the Govern and you have to enable it or make sure it controls itself separation of powers is the way the framers designed the government to control Itself by dividing

2:50 power among different branches uh not giving any one particular person or one branch of government absolute power you make Power less dangerous that is you don’t let those who govern use their power to trespass the rights of the government for example the president can veto laws passed by Congress though Congress can override his veto with a

3:11 two-thirds vote of both houses the president can negotiate treaties but the Senate must consent to them before they are ratified the people from whom government gets all of its powers retain important checks on government through frequent elections and the ability to propose amendments to the Constitution through their elected representatives some assert that all three branches are equal but that is not

3:33 the way the founding generation understood the separation of powers nor the way the Constitution describes them Congress because it represents the people is the most powerful Branch article one establishing the legislative branch is far longer than the Articles establishing the other two the specific powers of Congress are listed while the necessary and proper clause grants the

3:53 power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry out the listed ones in addition the necessary Proper Clause grants Congress the power not only to make laws to carry out its own powers but also all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof Congress can regulate

4:13 all three branches of government why give Congress so much more power than the other branches why give Congress more power than the executive who cannot pass laws only recommend them and who can veto laws but be overridden or the Supreme Court which is neither forc nor will as Alexander Hamilton said to carry out its own decisions the reason for the separation

4:35 of powers and for federalism and these other structural protections was twofold first to protect individual liberty but second also to protect the public from the influence of special interest factions Madison and Federalist 10 of course talks about majoritarian faction and the possibility that majorities would um grab control of the government

4:57 and use its power to further their own interests the interest uh over the public good but they were also very aware of the possibility of well-organized powerful special interest using the government to further their own ends and what they tried to do was to create a design that would make it more difficult for that to happen and

5:18 for the public interest to emerge out of that because the founders believed that an institution made up of the collective wisdom of the people and the representatives of the many states would make the best decisions about things that would affect the entire nation the separation of powers only works if the people in their respective branches take

5:39 action to check the other ones sometimes we forget the whole purpose of separation of powers is to frustrate government action to make it harder for government to act well why would we want to do that well because government action of course government is good and and we need government but government can endanger the rights of the people it

5:59 works best as Madison theorized when the people in those offices actively guard against overreach in the other departments though we knew the importance of additional safeguards such as the separation of powers Madison asserted that a dependence on the people is no doubt the primary control on the government [Music]