Civics Eoc Study Guide

Separation of powers is an act of vesting the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of governments in separate bodies. In Document B it states "Liberty requires that great departments of powers should be separate and distinct." Separation of powers protects against tyranny because it allows each branch to have a different view point on a subject of matter. It allows people to express their

What is government? Government is the governing body of nation, state, or community. Government determines the way any group of people are ran. There a several different types of government used all around the world. In the United States for example, uses a type of government that has three different branches of power. The Legislative Branch is the law making branch. The Judicial branch is the courts and the low enforcement. Lastly, the Executive branch is the presidential branch. “Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed.” (Osborne) Usually, governments break up the responsibilities into two or more groups. Two very influential writers wrote about their views on government; Lao-tzu and Machiavelli. These writers were in very different times which makes it very interesting to compare their views. Lao-tzu and Machiavelli had very different views on the ultimate purpose of government, the obligations of government leaders, and the main work of the state.

A political system where power is divided between the national government and smaller branches of it to equally distribute power

What does the word tyranny mean? It is an aggressive form of government that is strict. An example of this is a dictatorship which is absolute power over all people. The big question is how does the constitution guards against tyranny? The answer of this big question is federalism,separation of power, checks and balances, and small state big state. In the following paragraphs I will describe each important term in detail.

Federalism is a form of government in which the power to make laws and other specific responsibilities are divided across the national, state, and local governments. How that power is divided has been a constant source of conflict as each level has some degree of autonomy. That is, each level has the capacity to carry out some policies without interference from the others. The national government is responsible for things of national common interest such as, national defense and foreign policy, as well as, responsibilities through implied powers that are inferred in the Constitution. The national government also has the power to declare war, coin money, control interstate commerce, borrow money, manage the postal service, and anything else

he principle of checks and balances creates a limited form of government because the constitution sets up the branches of the government and how they can only do certain things and can watch over the other branches. Also being a democracy the government cannot have all the power. Some of these checks and balances are the President appointing an official and the Congress rejected/ confirmed the official; the President vetoes a bill and the Congress overrides the veto with a vote: and lastly the judicial branch can review and say an act or order that Congress or President have put in order.

Federalism- A way of organizing a nation that two or more levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people; it is a system of shared power between units of power.

The system of checks and balances is a procedure in which systems allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other two branches. These checks allow each branch to block the actions of another branch. When Congress has the power to pass laws, the president can check this power by vetoing a bill before it becomes an actual law. Congress also has the same power and can check the president’s power by overriding the veto if two-thirds of the majority in Congress vote in each house. The Judicial Branch can also check these actions of the other two branches. The Supreme Court can declare that a law, treaty, or an executive action is unconstitutional. Basically, the system of Checks and Balances is to balance out each branch and limiting each branch’s power. (Page 162 9.2)

A. Define Judicial Review- The power of the courts authority to review the actions of the executive and legislative branch and to invalidate if their actions are contrary to the constitutional principles.

How did the Constitution guard against tyranny? In 1783, the newly independent United States of America and their former colonizers, Great Britain, met in paris to negotiate independence independence and peace after a long and hard war which started due to how the tyrant, King George III, was taxing and unfairly treating the people of the colonies. A tyranny is when a person or group of people abuse their powers as leaders. The Articles of Confederation was America’s first attempt at a constitution, which failed because it was too weak and had a central government which had very little, if any, power over the states.

Separation of powers is when the powers split into three branches of government. In document B, James Madison claims that “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” This means that each branch of government should be different and should be doing their own jobs. For example, all legislative powers shall be “vested” in the US congress. The executive power shall be “vested” in a president of the US.

Inherent Powers Powers of nat. gov in foreign affairs that Supreme Court has declared do not depend on the constit. grants, but rather grow out of the very existence of gov.

a. Define judicial review. Judicial review is a power held in the Supreme Court to declare legislation, laws, bills, acts, and executive orders unconstitutional.

Checks and balances make sures that no one branch of government becomes too powerful, each branch has some control over the actions of the other branches. In document C, the powers that the legislative branch has over the executive branch is that the legislative can override the president’s veto (kills a bill). The power over judicial is that the legislature can propose constitutional amendments. The checks the executive branch has over the legislative and judicial branches that are stated in document C are that the executive branch can call special session of Congress and can grant reprieves and pardons in judicial branch.According to the document C, the judicial branch has a check over the legislative and executive branches. Over legislative, the judicial branch can declare laws unconstitutional and over executive, the judicial branch can declare (rule) that law or executive act/ orders are unconstitutional.Checks and balances guards tyranny and protects the US Constitution by making each branch check on other two branches. Checking each other will prevent one from becoming too powerful and will limit their

Next, checks and balances is each branch of government can agree or disagree with something in other branch that keep the branch of government equally so no tyranny won't happen “(the three branches) should not be so far separated to have no constitutional control over each other”(Doc C). The legislative branch can approve presidential nominations, override president's veto and impeach the president and remove him or her from office for executive branch but for judicial branch, the senate confirms the president nomination, congress can impeach judges and remove office.The separation of power constantly prevents tyranny from happening by dividing power and each power check each other.The judicial branch can declare presidential acts unconstitutional for executive branch same as legislative branch. The check and Balance against tyranny because it let every branch check each other without putting power in one hand.