The Executive Branch

During very important situations, the presidents of the United States have sent troops into war over one-hundred fifty times. Having the president in the executive branch revitalized the importance of that section of government and the essential power the executive branch possesses. Throughout history, there have been many fights about which branch of government is the most important and society says each section has their own exceptional duties which make each one special. Due to Montesquieu’s idea of checks and balances the government tried to make all the branches equal. The executive branch was unintentionally made the most powerful section of the United States government. The executive branch of the United States democracy has gained …show more content…
During war times, the president has a very hard decision to make, whether to go to war or hold back and be conservative. As head role of the executive, and head of the United States government, the president has an important job of making sure that the laws are faithfully executed, commanding the military, and overlooking the judicial branch to see if there is any problems. Stephanie Reid, an author takes a direct quote from the Constitution that states, “[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”(Constitution) The Constitution is saying how the president should be in control of the most prestigious thing the United States possess, the military. This control represents the failure of Montesquieu's idea of checks and balances. The Constitution is basically tearing up the idea of checks and balances. Furthermore, this represents a conflict between the executive …show more content…
Montesquieu's checks and balances seemed like a good idea at first and has just started crumbling ever since the idea was proposed. If this was going to work, the three branches of government would have spread the power more evenly and not given the president that large amount of power. The United States executive branch has been looking more like a dictatorship every time there is a foreign debate or problem. The only thing that would be alright about having a dictatorship would having the dictator only being able to take office for only six months. Being in office for six months seems really short for a tyrant, the United States would need to rebell against the dictatorship to have an election to elect a new tyrant. Having to wait a four year term for the president to leave office seems to long for some people so it could ultimately lead up to some type of tyranny or dictatorship. Janet Napolitano, an american writer adds that, “The executive branch of the government no longer respects the legislative.”(Napolitano) Janet is saying that there is another reason