how checks and balances work
the u s government exercises checks and balances through its three branches the legislative executive and judicial branches it operates as a constitutionally limited government and is bound to the principles and actions that are authorized by the federal and corresponding state constitution checks and balances are also important in businesses and other organizations where one individual can make decisions that affect operations for example large corporations have legal departments and internal compliance officers to ensure adherence to regulations and in some factories union stewards act as a check against management checks and balances can cost more money but can be critical in helping to identify internal and external theft by separating the duties of various employees into clearly defined roles businesses and organizations are better able to ensure that rogue employees or executives cannot harm a business without the intervention of other employees having these types of internal controls in a business can help improve operational efficiency in some situations while it may seem that adding these checks on power can hurt efficiency it is possible that they boost efficiency for example if one executive has too much power and is taking on too much responsibilities forcing delegation can make things run smoother and quicker internal control systems of publicly listed businesses in the u s use checks and balances this is a requirement of the sarbanes oxley act the directors of such businesses have a legal obligation to ensure a proper system of internal control that includes checks and balances 1checks and balances in the united nationsthe united nations has six internal institutions the international court of justice the general assembly the economic and social council the trusteeship council the un secretariat and the security council 2each of these institutions has different responsibilities such as maintaining international peace policy review and recommendations on economic social and environmental issues and an international court the individuals working in these bodies and the bodies themselves cannot influence each other given that the un has a wide global influence impacting most nations around the world it s critical that different directives are handled by different groups so as to avoid a concentration of power the un s voting system and veto power policy allow individual countries to check the power of other countries example of checks and balancesthe u s constitution provides checks and balances for the u s government through the separation of powers between its three branches the legislative branch the executive branch and the judicial branch the constitution gives specific abilities to each one of these three branches to ensure that no one section of the government could obtain excessive unchecked power checks and balances are practiced by the u s government in the following ways first the legislative branch is the part of the government that makes laws but the executive branch gives veto power to the president allowing the president to keep the legislative branch in check in addition the judicial branch the part of the government that interprets the laws put into effect by the legislative branch can deem certain laws unconstitutional making them void moreover while the president has veto power the legislative branch can overturn a president s veto with a two thirds supermajority vote by both houses of congress this ensures that the president cannot use his power for personal gain 3 the executive branch can also issue executive orders ordering how certain laws should be enforced or ordering that the government take certain actions but the judicial branch can deem these orders to be unconstitutional executive orders are issued to help govern the country implement policy enforce laws and run the government historically only a small minority have been deemed unconstitutional as the president is not likely to issue one that is obviously unconstitutional however there have been some significant instances of unconstitutional executive orders in america s history they are enacted solely by the president as head of the executive branch of government still executive orders can be reversed by subsequent administrations for example when president joe biden first took office in january of 2021 he signed one of his first executive orders 13986 entitled ensuring a lawful and accurate enumeration and apportionment pursuant to the decennial census this order effectively reversed policies set forth by a prior executive order enacted by president donald trump that would have excluded non citizens from the u s census count 4