hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history now we've been going through unit 1 of the ap government curriculum and in this video it's time to talk about a foundational principle of american government namely separation of powers and checks and balances so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked within let's get to it so in this video we're going to try to do two things first explain the constitutional principles of separation of powers and checks and balances and then second explain the implications of separation of powers and checks and balances for the u.s political system okay so two things the separation of powers and what that means for our political system so let's begin with separation of powers what does that mean well it means that power is separated anyway the principle of separation of powers means that no one branch of government holds all the authority and we can see how this is established in the constitution instead of a unitary branch of the federal government like we had under the articles of confederation the constitution separates power into three branches the legislative the executive and the judicial and let's have a look at the power each of these holds the legislative branch is composed of two houses which together make up congress and within congress you have the house of representatives and the senate which represent the people of the various states and the power given to this body is the power to propose and make laws no other branch can do that except the legislative branch the executive branch refers to the president of the united states and the bureaucracy which is under the president's authority the power given to the executive branch is to execute the laws or in other words to enforce the laws congress can pass laws all day long but unless there is someone there to enforce the laws ain't nobody gonna pay attention to them the judicial branch refers to the supreme court which is the highest court in the land and the system of federal courts scattered throughout the nation the power given to this branch is to interpret the constitutionality of the laws and no other branches given that power however none of these branches has supreme power even in the powers that lawfully belong to them and that's where the system of checks and balances comes in in addition to power being separated among the various branches each branch also has the power to check the other branches and let me give you an example for each branch the legislative branch can check the executive branch with its power of advice and consent which is a checking power specifically designated to the senate what it means is that the senate must vote to approve certain high-level presidential appointments like cabinet positions or supreme court nominees additionally congress holds the power of impeachment over the president which has the potential to remove the president from office on account of the president acting like a turret and in the history of our fair nation only three presidents have been successfully impeached andrew johnson bill clinton and donald trump none of which was removed from office as a result of the trial even so impeachment demonstrates the checking power congress has over the president the president on the other hand has power to check congress and the main way the president does that is by the veto which is a power granted to the president by article 2 section 7 of the constitution now remember for a bill to become a law the last step is to have it signed by the president but if the president doesn't like the law either because it's unjust or just doesn't jive with the presidential policy agenda then the president can veto the law and he gets sent back to congress to start all over again however congress does have the power to check the president's checking power in the veto if the president vetoes a bill congress can override that veto with a two-thirds vote and if they can muster that much support then the bill becomes a law without the presidential signature and then the judicial branch has some checking power of its own probably the most significant example is the court's power of judicial review which although it's not in the constitution was established very early on and basically it just means that the court has the power to declare laws passed by congress unconstitutional and therefore null and void so you can see the principle of separation of powers and checks and balances in our governmental system now the question is why did the framers of the constitution make it this way after all this is a very slow system it can often take a long time to get things done like if you just concentrated all those powers in one person that guy would get things done quick fast and in a hurry my fellow americans i am here to inform you that we are going to a 90 income tax rate because as you may or may not know those gold-plated toilets in my private jet ain't going to pay for themselves well if you want to know why our system slow as it is is better than that then let's have a look at one of our foundational documents federalist 51 and just like every required document in this course i have a whole deep dive video on it so you can check that out for more information but for now we just want to emphasize that in federalist 51 the argument goes like this separation of powers and checks and balances are able to control the abuse of power by any one branch and if this protection is going to work then each branch has to work as independently of the others as possible but also possess the necessary checking powers to keep the others in their lane in fact in federalist 51 the chief danger to the flourishing of the new republic would be investing too much power in one branch above the others so that's why despite how slow it can be the framers took great care to invest each branch with roughly equal power and to give each branch power to check the others okay now there's one more thing you need to know in this topic and that's the various access points available to stakeholders in our system of government now a stakeholder refers to anyone with a vested interest in the outcome of policymaking and in a system of government like ours we the people are the stakeholders since we are the ones who will be affected by the outcome of legislation so it's going to be very important for you to understand how stakeholders have access to speak into the work of each branch of government in the legislative branch stakeholders can speak into the law making process in various ways for example interest groups can pay professional lobbyists to meet with representatives in order to make them aware of the group's causes and try to persuade them to vote in the group's interests but outside of interest groups average citizens can write letters or emails to the representatives and the executive branch stakeholders have influence too and you know you can't really just call up the oval office and tell the president what you think but average citizens do have access to the bureaucratic agencies run by the executive branch stakeholders can file a complaint with these agencies if a law is being broken or if a crime is being committed in the judicial branch stakeholders can use the courts to challenge unjust and unconstitutional laws or appeal wrongful convictions so the point is in all of these branches of government we don't just put all the people in power and set them on their merry way average citizens like you and me have means by which we can influence and interact with the process of governance okay well that's what you need to know about unit 1 topic 6 of the ap government curriculum if you want to consolidate your power and get an a in your class and a 5 on your exam may then click right over here and grab my review packet and hey if you want to become a stakeholder in the reach of this channel then by all means subscribe and let's see what we can do in this world heimler out