Checks and balances, principle of
government under which separate
branches are empowered to prevent actions by other branches and are
induced to share power. Checks and balances are applied primarily
in constitutional governments. They are of fundamental importance in
tripartite governments, such as that of the United States, which separate
powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
The Greek historian Polybius analyzed the ancient Roman mixed
constitution under three main divisions: monarchy(represented by
the consul); aristocracy(the Senate); and democracy (the people). He
greatly influenced later ideas about the separation of powers.
Checks and balances, which modify the separation of powers, may operate
under parliamentary systems through exercise of
a parliament’s prerogative to adopt a no-confidence vote in a government;
the government, or cabinet, in turn, ordinarily may dissolve the parliament.
The British Parliament is supreme, and laws passed by it are not subject to
review by the courts for constitutionality. In France, under the Fifth
Republic(1958), a Constitutional Council of nine members (appointed for
nine years by the president, Senate, and National Assembly) reviews the
constitutionality of legislation. The Federal Republic of Germany combines
features of parliamentary systems and of federal systems like that of the
United States. It vests the right to declare a law unconstitutional in
the Federal Constitutional Court (1951).
The framers of the U.S. Constitution, who were influenced
by Montesquieuand William Blackstone among others, saw checks and
balances as essential for the security of liberty under the Constitution: “It is
by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts
in human nature toward tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and
any degree of freedompreserved in the constitution” (John Adams). Though
not expressly covered in the text of the Constitution, judicial review—the
power of the courts to examine the actions of the legislative and the
executive and administrative arms of government to ensure that they are
constitutional—became an important part of government in the United
States. Other checks and balances include the presidential veto of
legislation (which Congress may override by a two-thirds vote) and
executive and judicial impeachment by Congress. Only Congress can
appropriate funds, and each house serves as a check on possible abuses of
power or unwise action by the other. Congress, by initiating
constitutional amendments, can in practice reverse decisions of
the Supreme Court. The president appoints the members of the Supreme
Court but only with the consent of the Senate, which also approves certain
other executive appointments. The Senate also must approve treaties.
From 1932 the U.S. Congress exercised a so-called legislative veto. Clauses
in certain laws qualified the authority of the executive branch to act by
making specified acts subject to disapproval by the majority vote of one or
both houses. In 1983, in a case concerning the deportation of an alien, the
U.S. Supreme Court held that legislative vetoes were unconstitutional
(the House of Representatives had overturned the Justice Department’s
suspension of the alien’s deportation). The decision affected clauses in
some 200 laws covering a wide range of subjects, including presidential war
powers, foreign aid and arms sales, environmental protection, consumer
interests, and others. Despite the court’s decision, Congress continued to
exercise this power, including the legislative veto in at least 11 of the bills it
passed in 1984 alone.
Checks and balances that evolved from custom and Constitutional
conventions include the congressional committee system and investigative
powers, the role of political parties, and presidential influence in initiating
legislation.
In one-party political systems, informal, and perhaps even illegal, checks
and balances may operate when organs of
an authoritarian or totalitarian regime compete for power.
