Title: What Separation of Powers Means for Constitutional Government | The Heritage Foundation
Headings: What Separation of Powers Means for Constitutional Government
What Separation of Powers Means for Constitutional Government
Charles Kesler
Key Takeaways
The argument from liberty holds that separation is needed in order to prevent tyranny.
THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
THE FRAMERS' CASE FOR SEPARATED POWERS
Balancing Executive and Legislative Power
Preserving Liberty
Promoting Good Government
The Constitution as Supreme Authority
THE PROGRESSIVES' ASSAULT ON THE CONSTITUTION
Rejecting the Separation of Powers
Redefining the Role of the Executive
The Rise of Administrative Lawmaking
Replacing Traditional Notions of Good Government
The Demise of Constitutional Government
Authors
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Content: With the contemporary executive the case is different. Beset by both Congress and the Court, the President has found it difficult to defend his institutional prerogatives. This is partly a confession of the enormous political power now wielded by the other branches, Congress in particular. On the whole, the executive branch is torn between the search for a national electoral mandate to legitimize and empower it against the Congress and Court, and the knowledge that the means to capitalize on such a mandate are ultimately elusive, given the executive agencies' dependence on congressional subcommittees and their various clients. This quick sketch of the politics of American national government is not meant to be exhaustive, of course, but it does convey the salient facts about the current situation in Washington. Those facts point to the following conclusion: The chief constitutional basis of our politics, the separation of powers, is under severe pressure from the institutions and practices of the administrative state. Paradoxically, the principal beneficiary of the growth of the executive bureaucracy has been Congress, not the President, who sees his responsibilities (as head of the executive branch) continually enlarged but his power steady diminished. Even so, not all congressmen equally have seen and approved of the growth in the federal government's authority, or have cheered Congress on in its own superintendence of the executive. For almost a century a faction has existed within the national legislature in favor of the administrative state as the emblem and vehicle of national progress.