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Separation of powers and the idea of checks and balances

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This job examines questions about Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution:

a. What were the reasons our forefathers divided the government into the legislative, judicial, and presidential branches?

b. How are the three branches of U.S. Government supposed to interact?

c. Is the system successful? Why or why not? Are the branches balanced in power? Why or why not?

d. How was the conflict between supporters of a strong federal government and champions of states' rights characterized then as opposed to now?

e. How could things have been designed more efficiently, if at all?

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This job notes the effectiveness of separation of powers and the idea of checks and balances. It is approximately 543 words long with no references.

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The Founding Fathers divided the government as they did so that no single branch could assert absolute authority over the people and the nation. The president would, to some extent, serve like the king of England, the Congress like Parliament, and the Supreme Court could check the power of both, and resolve disputes between states, who also retained a significant degree of power under the original Constitution. The dispute between the large states, who wanted all representation to be based on population, and the small states, who feared such a system would make them little more than serfs of the big states, was resolved by dividing Congress into one house with proportional representation (House of Representatives) and one house where each state had equal representation (the Senate). ...

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