How the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary differ - Essay Example

How the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary differ America’s three branches of government differ in many ways. The Legislative, the Executive, and the Judiciary differ in many ways. The constitution provides the separation of power that assigns the Legislative the role of making laws; the Executive carries out these laws, and the Judiciary does an evaluation of these laws. The Legislative is further separated into the Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The Executive is further separated into the President, the Vice-President, and the Cabinet. Finally, the Judiciary is further separated into Supreme Court and other Federal Courts. According to past literature materials, most Americans cannot differentiate between the three branches of government (Gershman vii). The United States government is a democratic government. That is, although the elected and appointed officials carry out the duties of government, the public is the ultimate authority. It is the choices of the public that shape the scope and function of the government. Abraham Lincoln said that it is a government “of the people, by the people, for the people (Gershman viii). The United States’ Constitution compels the executive to respond to articulated demands coming outside the agency. The bargain-compromise-accommodation process of U.S. politics shapes the issues that make up the public agenda. In the U.S., there is a federal government and 51 state governments. Each of state governments has its executive, legislature, and judiciary, and each one of them is bestowed with the power to promulgate laws. There are some legal matters that these state and federal governments share authority but in others some have distinct authority over others. In the legislative branch, before a decision is reached, the government has to consult the Constitution, the Statutes, the Codes, and Bills. The U.S. Constitution is the highest law of the land. The role of the Constitution is to define the basic rights of U.S. citizens. The legislative, and the other branches of the government, are subordinate to the Constitution. Even the state constitutions are subordinate to the U.S. Constitution. Mann and Roberts reveal the superiority of the U.S. Constitution in that “if a government action violates the U.S. Constitution, under the judicial review the courts will invalidate that action”1 (73). The Supreme Court is the one that protects the U.S. Constitution (Mann and Roberts 73). Before making any decision, the Executive has to rely on regulatory decisions, regulations, executive orders, and proclamations. The power vested in the President is purely legislative in nature (Singh 3). The President is also the sole organ of the nation, and he represents the nation in external matters, and he is the sole representative in the foreign affairs. In the Judiciary branch of the government, there are three different types of sources of law that must be put into consideration before reaching a decision. These sources are primary, secondary, and finding tool. The primary sources that have to be consulted are the official pronouncement made by the government’s lawmakers. In order to reach a decision, the government has to accommodate the court decisions, the statutes, and regulations. Secondly, the government must put into consideration the secondary sources of law because they are the ones that review legal problems. Finally, finding tools are consulted because they facilitate access to primary and secondary sources. The finding tools include indexes, citators, and digests. Citators update sources of law thus leading to additional sources of law. All the sources mentioned above have to be considered before coming up with the final decision. The basic principle on which the U.S. government is founded is on separation of powers. Separation of power discourages any branch of government from gaining too much power. The doctrine of separation also allows each branch to function without interference from any other branch (Mann and Roberts 73). The President is answerable to the Congress to which he formulates and presents a complete and detailed expenditure plan. However, the separation of power is not complete in some matters. For example, the legislative branch must approve some executive appointments. On the other hand, the judiciary may declare the actions of the legislature and executive unconstitutional. Any power that is not vested to the United States by its Constitution is reserved to the States or the people. However, some government decisions can only be exercised by the federal government, and these include matters regarding bankruptcy, coin currency, waging war, and entering into treaties. In other instances, both the federal government and the state governments may exercise concurrent government powers especially in issues that touch on spending, taxation, and police power (Mann and Roberts 75). The Constitution is the one that acts as a gatekeeper. The Constitution enables the government to control the governed and also obliges it to control itself. Nevertheless, the ultimate power lies with the people. The Constitution only serves to divide the power both vertically and horizontally. The Constitution is designed in a way that the Congress represents the legislative branch of the federal government with broad powers to enact laws. The legislative branch is the closest branch to the people with its members representing specific regions and population groups. The Congress has power to impose taxes and regulate commerce among the states. The bills that raise revenue originate from the House of Representatives whereas the Senate concurs with amendments. Under the Article 1, Section 2, the Speaker is the leader of the House of Representatives (Geer, Schiller, Segal and Herrera 401). The Speaker is voted by the House members every two years. The other leaders of the House include House party leaders. That is; the House majority leader and the House, minority leader. Legislations that are passed in the House and Senate must go through committees. The committees are separates according to specific issues such as education, energy, and agriculture. Each committee consists of the majority from both the House and the Senate, and the Committee chair is chosen from the majority party and approved by party caucus. Each chamber also has its standing committees. In matters public, hearings are done in public settings (Geer, Schiller, Segal and Herrera 406). The Executive power is vested in the President of the United States. According to Articles II, Section 2, the Presidents should acts as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, make treaties, grant pardons, make appointments of ambassadors, judges, and cabinet-level officials as well as receive foreign ministries (434). However, the legislative branch limits Presidential powers by passing them through checks and balances. The Senate ratifies treaties, confirms the appointments, and may also impeach the President. There is the need to allow the public to contribute to government propositions before making decisions. The government has always used traditional approaches to public engagement. Traditional approaches, for example, include citizen testimony at hearings. However, most recently, there are other ways in which public and government engagement can be enhanced. For example, opinions were drawn from the public about the fate of the site where 9/11 terrorist attacks were staged. In another case, the public in Florida was engaged in the restoration of the Everglades. New opportunities that the public can be engaged in governmental decision-making include consultations, involvement, and collaboration among many others. Public involvement in decision-making ensures that democracy is maintained. Cornwall and Gaventa observe that there is a shift where citizens are not taken as mere consumers but active shapers of government policies and programs (23). The government of the United States greatly depends on the public when it is making decisions. The public expects the government to establish mechanisms for reviewing issues or potential actions. The issues that have far-reaching effects and consequences are presented to the public for discussion. However, public input has been found to be varied and conflicting (Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force 37). When the public is involved in decision-making, the expectations are kept realistic. The more public participation there is in governmental decision-making, the less the possibility of surprise. The modern era of public participation in federal policy decision-making started with the passage of the Equal Opportunity Act of 1964 (Lukensmeyer and Torres 12). The public wants the government to be transparent and accountable, and its influence on decision-making has grown significantly. There is a common belief that public involvement in decision-making produces more public-preference decision-making and better appreciation of government actions. The public organizations deal with shortcomings in all three branches of government using different methods that range from investigations, individual lawsuits, and highly publicized exposes to class-action. In an earlier case in 1995, Public Citizen prevailed in a precedent-setting case, Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President,2 which decided that executive branch electronic records are subject to the Freedom of Information Act (Rosen 111). The substance of accountability places at least four requirements on all the government branches. The government is required to: i. Ensure that laws work as intended with a minimum of waste and delay ii. Exercise lawful and sensible administrative discretion iii. Recommend new policies while proposing changes in existing policies and programs as needed. iv. Enhance citizen confidence in the administrative institutions of government. Works Cited Cornwall, Andrea, and Gaventa, John. From Users and Choosers to Makers and Shapers: Repositioning Participation in Social Policy. Brighton: Institute for Development Studies. 2001. Print Geer, John, Schiller, Wendy, Segal, Jeffrey and Herrera, Richard. Gateways to Democracy: An Introduction to American Government. Mason: Cengage Learning. 2006. Print. Gershman, Gary. The Legislative Branch of Federal. California: ABC-CLIO. 2008. Lukensmeyer, Carolyn, and Torres, Lars. Public Deliberation: A Manager’s Guide to Citizen Engagement. IBM Center for The Business of Government. 2006. Web. Mann, Richard, and Roberts, Barry. Essentials of Business Law and the Legal Environment. Mason: Cengage Learning. 2015. Print Rosen, Bernard. Holding Government Bureaucracies Accountable. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. 1998. Print Singh, Tej. Principle of Separation of Powers and Concentration of Authority. J.T.R.I. Journal, 4&5. Accessed [Web] [March 15, 2015] http://www.ijtr.nic.in/articles/art35.pdf United States Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force. The Ecosystem Approach: Implementation issues. Michigan: Michigan State University. 1995. Print. Read More