Lessons · Teaching · three branches, and why there are three
Three branches, each able to stop the other two
The legislative branch makes law, the executive carries it out, and the judicial interprets it and decides whether it fits the Constitution. Each can check the others: the executive can veto, the legislature can override and can remove officials, and the courts can rule an act unconstitutional.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
The diagram is easy and the reason is the lesson: the design assumes the people in office will want more power, and arranges for each to be able to stop the others. That is a claim about human nature, and it is what makes the structure worth teaching rather than labelling.
How to think about it
For each branch, learn the job, then the check it holds over the other two, then the check held over it. If you can only say the job, you have half of it. Name the branch by what it does rather than by the building it sits in.
Worked example
Legislative: makes law, controls spending, and can remove officials from officeControl of money is the check people forget and the strongest one.
Executive: carries out the law, and can refuse to sign a billA veto, which the legislature can override with a large enough majority.
Judicial: interprets law and can rule that an act conflicts with the ConstitutionWhich stops a majority from passing anything it likes.
Every check assumes officials will want more power, and arranges for limitsThe design distrusts the office-holder, whoever it turns out to be.
Your turn
Name the branch that decides whether a law fits the Constitution.
The branch interprets the law
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Describing the branches as three teams that cooperate. The design is adversarial on purpose: each is meant to be able to obstruct the others, and that friction is a feature.