Should The US Constitution Adequate Abuse Of Power By The Government?

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A “government of laws” is one that limits as much as possible the arbitrary exercise of power by government. The US Constitution attempts to do this in a variety of ways, although none are fail-safe. These include the “separation of powers”, the manner and timing of elections, and the statement of liberties in Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. More fundamentally, it provides for a large republic, perhaps the chief safeguard against the abuse of power. Each of these are discussed briefly in turn. Immense power is entrusted to the national government. To have it concentrated in one department would be dangerous. Consequently, dividing the power is a means of making it less likely to be concentrated to ill purposes. But merely dividing power is not enough. The Constitution provides for the members of each branch to be selected in different ways ensuring that the membership of each will have a different character and outlook, will not easily act in concert, and will in fact be jealous of any encroachment by the other branches. The Constitution completes this design by harnessing this jealousy to good advantage. It does this by blending the powers of government to create a dependency in the exercise of power among the branches. This makes it possible for each branch to exercise a check on the…show more content…
In popular forms of government, the majority always governs. The danger is that the majority can be animated by a passion or interest that disregards the rights of the minority. The Constitution has certain speed bumps built into it that are intended to slow these harmful majorities down and make it more likely that the passion will subside before it causes serious harm to the minority. Speed bumps include the longer terms of US Senators that permits responsible members to take a longer view of the human good and to temporarily withstand a clamorous
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