query: What are the branches of government?
passage: Separation of powers
The separation of powers is a model for the governance of a state. Under this model, a state's government is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with the powers associated with the other branches. The typical division is into three branches: a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary, which is the trias politica model. It can be contrasted with the fusion of powers in some parliamentary systems where the executive and legislative branches overlap.
passage: Separation of powers under the United States Constitution
The system of checks and balances makes it so that no one branch of government has more power than another and cannot overthrow another. It creates a balance of power that is necessary for a government to function, if it is to function well. This, in most situations, makes it so that each branch is held to a certain standard of conduct. If a branch of the government thinks that what another branch is doing is unconstitutional, they can “call them out” so to say. Each branch is able to look at the other branches wrong doing and change it to meet the needs of the people whom they serve. Humans as a whole have a history of abusing positions of power but the system of checks and balances makes it so much more difficult to do so. Also the fact that there is more than one person running each branch gives room for debate and discussion before decisions are made within a single branch. Even so, some laws have been made and then retracted because of the fact that they were an abuse of the power given to that particular branch. The people that created these laws had been serving a selfish agenda when forming these laws instead of looking out for the welfare of those people that they were supposed to be protecting by making certain laws. While this is a horrible scenario, it does happen. That does not mean that it cannot be fixed though. Indeed it can be, by another branch of government stepping up to right the wrongs that had been done.