The Structure Of The Framers

Government Structures “You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself” –James Madison. The Framers wanted to build a strong government, but they knew that the people were not going to accept too much power from a central government. A strong government is needed to keep the nation in control and out of danger, but it could be dangerous not to put limits on the government, thus the Framers idealized structures to maintain a balance between national government and individual liberty. In order to put limits on the government’s power, the Framers came up with the ideal of separation of powers. This ideal is the way in which the Constitution divides the power between three branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. This division gives each branch a certain role; the legislative branch, which is the Congress, is in charge of making laws; the executive branch, which is represented by the president, is responsible for enforcing the laws, and the judicial branch, which is the Supreme Court, is the interpreter of the laws (Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, 2012, p.57). Although this system puts strict limits on the government, it is necessary to keep each branch in check so that none of them is able to overcome the other two.
This structure assigns each branch the ability to supervise the activities and decisions of the other two branches, and this way, the Constitution ensures that no branch can overcome the others. For example, Congress has the power to pass laws and the president can veto those laws; Congress can override the president’s vetoes and the president can enforce executive actions, however the Supreme Court has the power to declare both, laws and executive orders, to be unconstitutional (Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, 2012,