American Politics and Foreign Policy

Separation of Power

Prof. Jaechun Kim

Why did the Americans adopt such institutions?

To persuade the skeptics, territorial division of power was not enough… !

*The primary concern was how to limit the power of the central government! (Think about it! They were building new central gov-ernment!!) Preferred the stronger government, but hated concen-tration of the power!

*Founding Fathers Popular electoral control over the ruling power was not enough… Why?

If all the decisions are made by majoritarian rule, “ tyranny of majority ” is possible! Therefore, majoritarian will should not overwhelm minority opinions!

Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances

To prevent this, we need auxiliary mecha-

nism… that was the system of “separation of power.”

What are the tenets of American system of separation of power?

Division of the state (federal government) power into legislative power, administrative power, and judicial power!

Separate institutions will be in charge of running dif-ferent government activities… but is this really what it is?

What are the (real) mechanisms by which these sep-arate branches check and balance each other?

(1) Separate institutions having separate powers – is this enough?

What if these branches collaborate with each other? What if one faction – majority faction – controls all the branches?

How can we prevent tyranny of majority? –

Each separated institution will be accountable to dif-ferent constituencies!

Selection methods of each branch is different! President – electoral college Senators – state legislature (not any more…) Members of House – popular election Supreme Court Justices – ?

Different terms for different offices!President – 4 yearsSenators – 6 yearsMembers of the House – 2 years Supreme Court Justices – ?

Bicameral system instead of unicam-eral system!

“Ambitions must be made to counter-act ambition!” – James Madison

“If human nature is good, we don’t

need a government…”

(2) Another important thing: American Separa-tion of Power government of separated institu-tions sharing powers instead of government of separated powers!!!

Executive branch has some legislative power and legislative branch has executive power as well…Executive branch is the author of majority of proposed leg-

islation.... It can veto the bills as well!Legislative branch is in charge of budgetary affairs!

Judiciary branch decides whether the bills are in contradiction with the constitution…

Founding Fathers installed many auxiliary de-vices to prevent tyranny of majority!!!

Efficiency vs. Limitation of Power

Founding Fathers devised many restraining devices and Checks and Balances inefficiency and incoherence!! (particularly in times of divided government!)

Multiple veto points…

But American political system is meant to be inefficient !! Classical Liberalism!

Trade-off between efficiency vs. limitation of power

Parliamentary system of the Great Britain compared

Rule of the majority (Great Britain) vs. Rule based on consensus shared by various constituencies (the US) Lower chamber of the Parliament has all the constitu-

tional power One party (or coalition of parties) gets it all!

British governments, working within an un-codified constitution, have been more flexible and effec-tive…

US governments, with the codified constitution, are more inflexible…

Of course, the American political system has transformed over years, but the spirit of limited government is still there… this is very important!!! Origin of the nation; strong tradition of classical liberalism