Checks & Balances: Maintaining Our Liberties
Nancy Salvato, Director of Constitutional Studies

It is important in a republic to guard against the oppression of its rulers as well as the factions within the society. In the federal system of government in America, there is a compound republic. The sovereign power given by the people is divided between the Federal and State governments. Each of these governments is subdivided into separate, distinct departments. The different governments should control each other as well as themselves.

James Madison is quoted quite often as saying that, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” Madison believed that in order to preserve liberty, the structure of the government must furnish the proper checks and balances between the different departments. To achieve this effect, each department must have a will of its own and the members, thereof, should have as little to do with the appointments of the members of the respective departments. The salaries of the members of each department must be free from obligation toward other departmental authority. “…those who administer each department (must have) the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others.” Although the primary control on government is the people, there needed to be auxiliary precautions. Madison included one line about the Executive role in government. He said that, “the weakness of the executive may require, on the other hand, that it should be fortified.”

One might conclude that the appointments for all the departments should come from the authority of the people but Madison felt that deviations must be admitted - especially in the judiciary department because the primary consideration would be to select the most qualified people who would be granted a tenure which would destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them.

“In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit”. By dividing the legislature into a House of Representatives whose members are elected directly by the people of their districts every two years and the Senate whose members (chosen by the Legislature thereof, though later changed by the 17th amendment) are fixed at two per state, for terms of 6 years, the legislature has a check within itself as well as making sure that states are represented proportionately and equitably.

Madison felt that the purpose of government was to achieve justice. Some societies are set up in such a way that a stronger faction can unite and oppress the weaker resulting in anarchy. “In the extended republic of the United States, and among the great variety of interests, parties, and sects which it embraces, a coalition of a majority of the whole society could seldom take place on any other principles than those of justice and the general good…”

The anti-Federalist George Mason predicted that the Federal government would expand at the expense of State government. One way this has been demonstrated is through the withholding of federal funding for state roads and education if the states do not adhere to Federal guidelines. The Federal government seems to be acting like a benevolent parent that knows what is best for it’s children…looking at long term results instead of the short term effects state laws have on transportation and education. The Executive Branch has extended its influence over the natural rights of citizens through the Patriot Act of 2000. The interference with airline travel would be seen by Federalists as a necessity to guarantee the security of the people, to maintain their liberty. Madison can be quoted as saying that, “Justice is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.” Too often have our public policies been dictated by shortsighted objectives and a lack of attention to the distant future. Our current President seems to be more far sighted, and has the republican civic virtue expected of a man who holds the most esteemed of public office. He seems to be functioning on a level unconcerned with money, reelection or personal favor. Instead, he is modeling as well as expecting personal sacrifice for the good of all in leading the country in a war on terrorism (whose goal is to squelch our liberty and natural rights). He wants to protect our liberty well into the 21st century and beyond.

As part of the system of checks and balances, the framers intended to have the will of the people somewhat filtered through the electoral processes, i.e. Electoral College and United States Senators being chosen by the individual state’s legislatures. Madison saw the difficulty for factions to impart their will on the people as a good thing…a natural check on their power in an extended republic. Madison felt that in a republic that the goal of it’s elected leaders should be to maintain the authority of the Constitution, which of course gets it’s authority from the people living under its laws. He would have expected the leaders in such a republic to work toward maintaining the liberty insured by the Constitution and to have a higher sense of purpose when interpreting the needs of the people. In any republican form of government, the good of all needs to be taken into consideration over the individual rights and liberties of people if the sacrifices made for the common good are for the purpose of maintaining these individual liberties.