The American Political Tradition Blog Post

Vocabulary terms: Checks and balances: A system of constitutional government which prevents absolute power by providing three separate branches who share powers which thereby check and balance each other. A. In The American Political Tradition the founding fathers feared that if a state lacked constitutional balance one class or one interest would gain control, which then would lead to the plundering of other interests. Majority Rule: The largest number of citizens in a political group should select officials and establish policies. B. The founding fathers wanted to establish rules in a federal constitution. They believed in the federal government to maintain order against popular uprising, if a faction wanted to take complete control by force, the central government could step in and prevent that from occurring. Thomas Hobbes: A political philosopher, who believed all men are selfish and contentious. C. Thomas Hobbes did not believe in man, but believed that a good political constitution could control man. The founding fathers did not want to go along with what Hobbes believed that all men were selfish and any government must be accepted in order to avert the anarchy and terror of a state of nature. Summary: In The American Political Tradition the founding fathers were determined to come up with a federal constitution that would prevent the three branches of government from accumulating too much power. The system of checks and balances was implicated. The fathers wanted liberty and believed it was linked to property not democracy. The possession of moderately sized property would give the people stake in the society under the balanced government and the influence in government would be equal with property, merchants would be dominant and small property owners would be independent and unimportant. The fathers wanted the checks and balances to work like they thought was correct they wanted the legislative to have its own house, and over both houses there should be an impartial executive with the power to veto, the split assembly would be contained within itself which then would lead to the self-control under the governance of the executive and the whole system would be capped by an

independent judiciary. This would prevent absolute power of a branch and would keep the branches separate but equal. Evaluation: The system of checks and balances in the United States government has been intact for almost two hundred and thirty years. The three branches of the government are all entitled to their own power. The legislative branch can impeach the president and create revenue bills; the executive branch holds the president of the United States the president is the commander in chief of the army and can veto congressional legislation; lastly the judicial branch can declare laws unconstitutional and can declare presidential acts as unconstitutional. A recent issue in America was the gun control policy after the horrible shootings that occurred last year and the previous years. Many citizens wanted president Obama to use his executive power and try to limit the use of high powered assault weapons. Obama can only interfere so much, in his first term as a president Obama enforced four Border States to report to the federal government if individuals purchase more than one semi-automatic rifle, anything more than that would be an invasion of privacy. Gun reforms are a current issue and many legislators in congress feel that the executive action of gun control would violate the second amendment which is the right to bear arms. Congress does support the idea of restricting guns to certain classes of people many believe president Obama executive powers could overshadow the laws that were enacted by congress. Even if congress was to sign off on the proposed plans of the president, the Supreme Court would have to rule it constitutional or not. The checks and balances system is still used and in effect to this day, the founding fathers would be quite pleased that the system they devoted their time to was still a major part of the modern day decision making process and how the government is supposed to work.