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Episode Description:
To ensure that no individual or institution would have too much power in the American republic, the Framers of the Constitution designed a system of separation of powers and checks and balances. Learn more about these important checks on the power of government in this episode!

Copy of 60-Second Civics, Episode 4565

Separation of Powers: Checks & Balances: Democratic Norms, Part 4 

Welcome to 60-Second Civics, the daily podcast of the Center for Civic Education. I’m Mark Gage.

We are joined by Meena Bose, the Peter S. Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies and Executive Dean for Public Policy and Public Service Programs at Hofstra University.

Professor Bose, tell us about the democratic norm of separation of powers and checks and balances.

To ensure that no individual or institution would have too much power in the American Republic, the framers of the Constitution designed a system of separation of powers, checks and balances, that sometimes is known as separated institutions sharing powers. 

What this means, as James Madison wrote in Federalist 51, is that ambition must be made to counteract ambition. 

So Congress would pass laws and the President would sign or veto them. 

The judiciary would declare the constitutionality. 

The President is Commander in Chief, but only Congress has the power to declare war. 

The president can nominate Supreme Court justices, but they must be confirmed by the majority of the Senate. 

The president can negotiate treaties, but two-thirds of the Senate must ratify them. 

All bills for raising revenue start in the House of Representatives. 

These are a few examples of how the institutions share powers and check one another

Thank you so much Dr. Meena Bose. 

That’s all for today’s episode. 

60-Second Civics, where civic education only takes a minute.