Checks and Balances
Checks and balances (to German verification and compensation ) is the name given to a system that the maintenance of the separation of powers in a state permit and must ensure long term. The aim is mutual control and the barring of power by constitutional organs of a state in order to establish a system of partial equilibria that is conducive to the success of the whole. It is considered an integral part of the United States' political system .
Conditions in the USA
This principle, which was revisited by Montesquieu in the Enlightenment in 1748 (In The Spirit of Laws , De l'esprit des lois , 1748) , was first enshrined in the United States Constitution in 1787 .
The various power centers of the US political system: Congress - consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate -, the President and the Supreme Court are supposed to control each other and thus prevent one of the institutions from gaining more power than the constitution guarantees it and thus destroying the balance of power .
The system of separation of powers is to be maintained through checks and balances . This is based on the idea that it is not enough just to separate the powers and guarantee them their independence, but that the various powers have to be given the means of power to defend their own interests.
On the one hand, the president has the right to veto laws of the Congress, the Supreme Court in turn can declare these laws or presidential directives to be unconstitutional, and finally, the Congress can remove both the judges of the Federal Supreme Court and the President of their offices ( see impeachment ) and set up committees of inquiry . The principle of checks and balances also applies within the legislature , since laws have to be passed by two different chambers. Disputes and corrupt laws are thus to be balanced and prevented, whereby one hopes for a balanced implementation of the popular will on the one hand, and a stable political system on the other. The political scientist Richard Neustadt , close advisor to several US presidents, speaks of " separate institutions sharing power ", of separate institutions which, however, have to cooperate in the exercise of power, i.e. combine mutual independence with the compulsion to cooperate. However, this also creates a personal connection between the powers which, in the sense of Montesqieu, should actually remain separate. James Madison pointed out in 1788 that "in no single constitution [...] of our individual states" (which are considered to be the models of the federal constitution of the USA) "the three branches of government are absolutely separate." He continues to refer to examples of the English constitution of his time in which institutions, particularly the executive and legislative branches, influence each other. The tenor of the article is defensive, apparently in response to contemporary criticism.
German company law
The term is also used in the context of German stock corporation law for the relationship between the management board and the general meeting and the supervisory board . This is characterized in particular by the legislative attempt to put the organs in a balanced relationship to one another. The systematic approach differs fundamentally from the law of the limited liability company (GmbH), in which the shareholders' meeting unilaterally controls the managing director .
literature
- Peter Lösche (2004): Features of Presidential Democracy. In: Information on political education , issue 283 ( Political System of the USA ), p. 12.
Individual evidence
- ^ Checks and Balances ( Memento of April 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), americanet.de.
- ↑ Imanuel Geiss, History at hand , Vol. 5, Dortmund 1993, p. 411 / Sp. 2.
- ^ So Peter Lösche : Features of the Presidential Democracy , Federal Agency for Civic Education , October 2, 2008.
- ↑ Cf. Alexander Hamilton et al. a., the federalist. Article 47 , ed. by Felix Ermacora , Manzsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna 1958, pp. 277 ff.