Introduction
The prevailing Constitutional system has been hailed throughout history as the greatest masterpiece ever designed, and this has been attributed to its separation of powers. The Constitution succeeded in creating a system of checks and balances, federalism, limiting the powers of the executive branch, avoiding government gridlock, and dual federalism. Constitutional federalism requires that there is no encroachment of powers through the separation of state power (Bulman-Pozen, 1). However, the separation of powers has been beleaguered with judicial enforcement coupled with formal vengeance aimed at rationalizing incursions by one federal branch with the others. It is accepted that the Constitution was framed in this way so that the government powers get separated from other institutions in order to avoid tyrannical leadership and seizure of unencumbered political power by populist demagogues. Powers needed to be separated in various ways throughout history. Often, the powers were separated in accordance with the feudal social order, where the aristocrats, the monarch and commoners were each provided with institutional basis of power. It is argued that the separation of powers is necessary in order to distinguish the administrative functions of the state, which should be devised in a way that all the institutions were bestowed with balanced powers (Clark, 976). One branch of government should not dominate the other nor should the power get influenced by one person or be concentrated into one institution is very critical in guarding against the misuse of power. For example, a Supreme Court ruling can render a law unconstitutional, but the Congress and the States can make amendments to the constitution.
One of the keynote features of the constitutional system in guarding against the abuse of power is the Federal system of governance. The Constitution creates federalism through the establishment of the state and federal government. The roles and powers of each are clearly defined to guide against the concentration of power. The constitutional system makes the state and federal government autonomous by their being independent of each other. At least some of the powers allowed to each entity focuses on keeping the others in check. Thus, the pursuit of ambition and beneficial outcome is the maintenance of separated powers. For example, the separation of powers encourages the interplay of power among the government and the states with each one having its own authority.
Government gridlock can be avoided through the Constitutional system that has the ability to maintain the separation of power among the governmental departments. However, contriving the government’s interior structure through its several constituent parts by mutual relations can be considered to be the basic means of keeping each branch in its own place. A proper design of the separate institutions in terms of how they relate with each other and not just internally is very imperative in avoiding tyranny. Each institution should be designed to make independent decisions as much as possible. It can be noted that each branch should have its own will, and their members should possess minimal agency in the appointment of other branch members. The same fountain of authority should make appointment for the legislative, the supreme executive, and the judiciary magistrates through the use of channels lacking communication with each other (Mason and Grier, 64-70).
Protection of individual rights is another important factor that the Constitutional system maintains. Lately, assertions have been postulated indicating that the tenuous distinctions of the constitution and various judicial indifferences have ensued on how the constitutional system handles individual rights. But, the body of the constitution contains few references on the protection of individual rights. Instead, the document was devoted to implementation of the innovative and intricate political theory that is constitutionally limited, representative democracy and federally structured. The founders of the constitution were focused on the ingenious political structure on the concentration of political power. Almost all aspects of the political structure were based on the premise that power corrupts and so it was necessary that natural and inherent tendency towards for the government to precede to tyrannical leadership was highly likely to occur if institutional devices were not put in place to limit the concentration of power.
The Constitutional system also upholsters the checks and balances. Through the separation of powers, the constitutional system makes it possible for the fostering of the basic political values of checking, accountability and diversity (Kernell, Gary, Thad and Lynn, 16-18). Simultaneously separating power among the government branches and institutionalizing methods aimed at allowing every branch to check on others, the Constitution systems minimizes the chances of one interest group or faction managing to acquire control over another branch in order to implement its political agenda that contravenes the wishes of the people. For instance, the President appoints departmental secretaries and judges but their appointment needs approval from the Senate. The Congress can pass laws, but the laws can be vetoed by the President. Division of power in both lateral and vertical plane seeks to assure that just a section of policy decisions can be made at one political level. In consequence, implementation of a diluted form of public sovereignty, the citizen get assured that leaders are likely to be responsive while minimizing the danger of tyrannical majority.
Unlike the period of Huey Long, demagoguery that has masqueraded as public reform has become the order of the day in the present day and age. The people who want to transform the American society are the ones with minimal understanding of the history of the nation and its constitutional systems. Tendencies towards authoritarian rule have emerged as a result of the ill-informed mobile elitists. There has been failure to understand that American governance was initially built on the rule of law. The society is both built and ruled based on constitutional system that was created in the late 18th and early 19th century whose foundation was the separation of powers to guide against tyranny. The Constitution has played a crucial role in ensuring that powers are separated duly so as to avoid any misuse by the political class (Whittington, 30).
It can be established that the system has greatly evolved in guarding the concentration of power since the time of Huey Long when dictatorship and tyrannical leadership was common. The system has created a way of governance that involves various branches of government, which has made it difficult for power to be concentrated on one individual. It can be noted that the American Constitution system ideally expresses the American uniqueness in governance. It was for this reason that the American constitution was devised on the basis of separation of powers. The division of the government roles into executive, legislative and judicial was at the core of America. Following the roles of renowned European dictators, Huey Long exalted made attacks on the rich while exalting giveaway social programs, initiated structural programs and got caught up in the toils of the Great Depression. The stakes are high that with the clearly distinctive separation of powers, guidance on the concentration of political authority on a specific institution or entity has been curtailed unlike before.
Despite the numerous benefits that accrue to the prevailing constitutional system, the idea of separation of powers often fails to sustain beneficial systems of checks and balances in the presidential system of governance (Manning, 1965). Therefore, the constitutional system is not entirely sufficient in the provision of system of separated powers because it is difficult to maintain the system due to lack of sustainability in the system of checks and balances. The Constitutional system results in bureaucracy of government operations. For instance, institutional conflict and instability can arise among the government branches as a result of either institutional rivalry or uncertainty on the public’s support of the different branches of government. It is a common phenomenon for citizens to complain to the slow nature of government operations without noting that this is a product of the checks and balances. In addition, checks and balances and the separation of powers may minimize the idea of democracy through making it challenging for people to influence the direction taken by the government and making it difficult to ascertain who is responsible for what. However, the constitutional system still remains to be the best way of guarding against the concentration of power in one individual or entity.
In conclusion, the design of the Constitution system does not rely on abstract principle or a sense of improving human nature. Rather, it is based on expectation that motives will guide the leaders and predictability of their behavior can make it possible to incorporate the intentions into the constitutional order. Powers granted to every government branch are aimed at ensuring that ambitions fueling one institution will be the force fuelling the checking of the other institutions against any ill-intended political authority. Therefore, the basic solution to the concern of concentrated power is dividing the power into several components that will be challenging to combine and provide a leeway for the politically greed to tyrannize on the minority interests. A free government should ensure that there is security for both religious and civil rights. The extent of security in both instances depends on the number of sects and interests and it is agreeable that more interests leads to minimized opportunities for concentrated power. Thus, the Constitution system has succeeded guarding against the dangers of the concentration of political authority and the seizure of unencumbered political power by populist demagogues.
Works Cited
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Mason, Alpheus Thomas and Grier Stephenson. American constitutional law: introductory
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