Title: Principles of Democracy: Limited Government - Civics Nation
Headings: Principles of Democracy: Limited Government
Principles of Democracy: Limited Government
Civics Lesson: Checks and Balances
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Content: and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” However, the power of the executive branch (the president and cabinet) has expanded a lot since those idealistic days, to the point where it has disrupted the balance of powers intended by the framers of the Constitution. For example, presidential use of executive orders to enact laws has increased tremendously. That said, the system of checks and balances is still in place and the system is still functioning more or less as intended. Image: Shutterstock
Because of their all-too-recent experiences with tyrannical kings and queens, the founding fathers wrote limits of the government’s power into our constitution. They did so by defining the specific authority of the federal government, forbidding the government from violating basic rights and implementing a system of checks and balances designed to keep any single branch of government from becoming too powerful. The idea behind constitutional limits is that the power of law, as expressed in rules adopted by the people’s representatives, is superior to the power of any group or individual. As American revolutionary author Thomas Paine wrote in January of 1776, “For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and their ought to be no other.