Welcome back, citizens! Caroline here. I am beyond excited today!
I saw the word "powers" on the lesson plan, so
I think we're going to be talking about superheroes!
Oh wait, hold up a second. Oh. This lesson
is about the "separation of powers" in the U.S. Constitution and government.
Oh, I don't think this has anything to do with superheroes at all.
Hm, I really wanted to wear my cape and mask for a lesson about superheroes!
You know, I may just leave them on as we discuss the "separation of powers."
I was pumped about the possibility of talking
about superheroes, but I gotta say, this separation of powers is interesting stuff too.
You may remember in a previous lesson we discussed the different types of government.
To recap, they include autocracy, oligarchy,
and democracy, with variations of each found around the world.
So, why did the United States choose to become a democracy?
Specifically, why did the U.S. become a democracy with three branches of government?
That's what we're going to answer today, super friends!
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to define the separation of powers, elaborate
on the reasons a separation of powers was supported by Charles Montesquieu (sounds like
a superhero name), and cite the reasons why the Founding Fathers adopted Montesquieu's
ideas when creating the U.S. Constitution. Let's fly into it!
As you learned in a previous lesson, there
are certain functions that most all governments handle.
Those include making and enforcing laws, providing
a military, and a system, such as courts, to carry out justice.
Like the U.S., many governments also have
elections, which is what makes the U.S. a representative democracy.
That means citizens elect leaders to make decisions and carry out the tasks of government.
Elections are important because they make
government officials accountable to the citizens who vote for them.
But it can be a long time between elections, so the Founding Fathers
wanted to make it hard for a particular person or group to get too much power.
If that happened, some citizens might have their rights and freedoms taken away,
something that is called an "abuse of power." Sounds like something a supervillain would do.
Many of our Founding Fathers read a lot of books and were familiar with the writings
of Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes,
John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, but especially Charles Montesquieu.
Some ideas of Enlightenment philosophers were included in the Declaration of Independence,
which stated that the government gets its
power from citizens and that its main purpose is to protect their natural rights.
This quote by Rousseau reflects that mindset.
Montesquieu, a French nobleman, wrote a book known as "The Spirit of the Laws," in which
he advocated for concepts such as religious liberty, free commerce, and the rule of law, which
basically means that all rules apply to everyone equally.
In this book, he expressed admiration for
the British Government and its separation of powers.
Back then, it went something like this: Parliament made laws, the king enforced laws,
and the courts interpreted laws and applied them in specific cases.
For example, Montesquieu believed that before the king ordered someone to prison, it must
be proved in a fair trial that they actually broke an existing law.
Let's be honest, things weren't quite that super in Great Britain.
At the time, Parliament held most of the power and didn't really represent all of the people.
But Montesquieu's writings about separating
powers made sense to our Founding Fathers, one of the original super teams!
They also liked his idea about giving different
branches the ability, the superpower, to prevent each other from abusing its authority.
Above all other aspects of government, Montesquieu supported dividing the power among different
branches to keep any one group, or person,
from becoming too powerful. Kinda like kryptonite, huh?
You already know that our Founding Fathers
were inspired by great thinkers while creating our government.
But did you know that they got ideas from other civilizations as well? Can you remember a couple?
One was the Roman Republic, which split power three ways between a presidential figure,
a senate of wealthy folks, and an assembly of land-owning citizens.
Another was the Iroquois Confederacy, which guaranteed equal representation among its
members at council and had all members follow their decisions.
When it came time to create the U.S. government, they used the thoughts from Montesquieu and
other thinkers and examples from past cultures.
But they also had their own "marvel-ous" ideas.
The Founding Fathers had an agenda and goals when they came up with the Constitution.
Remember, they had recently declared independence
and fought the Revolutionary War because the British Government was unacceptable.
As you learned in U.S. History, the British Government abused its power by giving different
rights to colonists than to people living in England.
They also administered justice unfairly and
passed laws that most colonists did not agree with or have a say in.
The Founding Fathers wanted to prevent all that from happening in the future.
They also agreed that a national government had to have more power.
Their first attempt at a constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was a flop.
It had several problems, but the biggest was that the U.S. Government lacked the ability
to enforce its decisions and laws. Talk about a super dud.
When it came time to replace the articles they designed a government based on the separation
of powers so that each branch of government was powerful enough to get things
done but would be able to limit the powers of the other two.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, most delegates went to Philadelphia expecting
to revise the Articles of Confederation. Some had other ideas.
Chief among them were James Madison from Virginia and New York's Alexander Hamilton.
Their political views differed greatly, but they agreed that great change was needed.
Discussion centered on many topics, including the election and power of the president
and whether to have a Congress with one house or two.
In the end, Madison, Hamilton, and a majority of the delegates agreed on a document.
At the heart of the new government was one primary concept: the separation of powers
among the three branches.
Well over 200 years after the U.S Constitution was written and approved, our government still
maintains the separation of powers to keep
any one branch, person, or group from becoming too powerful.
Our legislative, executive, and judicial branches
maintain checks on one another, limiting the superpowers of each branch.
We will be taking a close look at each of the branches and their powers soon, heroes.
Until next time, you "wonder-ful" citizens, vote, debate, and participate!