Three Branches of Government and the System of Checks and Balances
By: Elizabeth Archer
ED 205 on-line section
Main Slide About the Author Resources Three branches of governmen
t Judicial Branch Legislative Branch House of Representatives House of Representatives (pic
tures) Senate Senate (pictures) Executive Branch
Executive Branch (pictures) System of Checks & Balances Federalism Checks and Balances Checks and Balances
(pictures) Checks and Balances
(overview) Video Clip Concept Map
Resources www.socialstudentshelp.com www.whitehouse.gov/government/judg.html www.youtube.com
• My Name is Elizabeth Archer, I am currently a sophomore at Grand Valley. My major is social studies and one day I wish to be a high school teacher and then possibly a college or university professor. I am very family oriented, I have one brother who is sophomore in high school and we hang out a lot when I am, which isn’t very often. I also have four cats named Emma, Oliver, Peanut, and Tiger.
Judicial Branch
Consists of the Courts: Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and the District Courts
Supreme Court is the highest court in the land The number of justices is determined by congress and since
1869 there have been one chief justice and 8 associate justices Judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the
Senate Their job is to interpret the laws The justices are appointed by the President and confirmed in
by the Senate The judges that are appointed serve life terms, or until they
voluntarily resign or retire
Legislative Branch The Congress
House of Representatives Senate
Congress approves presidential nominations and controls the budget
Congress’s job is to make the laws for the country
House of Representatives The house has 435 seats which are filled
with representatives of each state, the number of reps. A state is allowed to have depends on the population of that state
The representatives are elected for 2 year terms and must be at least 25 years of age
House of Representatives
Chamber of the House
Senate The Senate confirms the presidential judge
nominations There are 100 seats in the Senate, 2 for
each state regardless of population They are elected for 6 year terms and must
be at least 30 years of age Every two years 1/3 of the Senate is up for
re-election
Senate
Chamber of the Senate
Executive Branch Consists of the President of the United States, currently
George W. Bush is the 43rd President, the cabinet, and other independent agencies
The job of this branch is to enforce and carry out the laws
The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces
The president must be a natural born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years of age, a resident in the United States for at least 14 years and is elected for a four year term and can only serve two terms
Executive Branch
White House
George W. Bush : 43rd United States President
This system was put in place by the founding fathers, they wanted to avoid tyranny so they set up two systems, one was federalism and the other was the policy of checks and balances
Federalism Federalism was put in
place by the founding fathers and was set up to balance the power of the national government and state governments so that the national government couldn’t get too powerful
Checks and Balances The whole concept of this idea
is separation of powers, it was based off the philosophy of Baron de Montesquieu
This system divided the government into three branches and have them all different powers in order to prevent on branch from gaining too much power
Each of the three branches have powers over the other two branches and can check on them to make sure they are doing their job properly
Check and Balances
Checks and Balances Legislative Branch
Has the power to override a presidential veto Has the power to impeach the president and
appoint/remove federal judges Executive Branch
Power to veto bills passed by Congress Appoints Federal Judges
Judicial Branch Can declare the presidents actions to be unconstitutional Can declare laws passed by the congress to be
unconstitutional
Now here is a short video clip to help you understand a little more about what the Legislative Branch does and the checks the President has on them…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ
Concept Map