Checks and Balances. Legislative Branch can be checked by: Executive Branch can be checked by: Judicial Branch can be checked by: Legislative

	Legislative Branch can be checked by:	Executive Branch can be checked by:	Judicial Branch can be checked by:
Legislative Branch Can check:	NA	Can overrule veto (2/3 vote) Controls appropriations Controls by statute Impeachment of president Senate approval of appointments and treaties Committee oversight	Controls appropriations Can create inferior courts Can add new judges Senate approves appointments Impeachment of judges
Executive Branch Can check:	Can veto legislation Can convene special session Can adjourn Congress When chambers disagree Vice-president presides over Senate and votes to break ties	NA	President appoints judges
Judicial Branch Can check:	Judicial review of legislation Chief Justice presides over Senate during proceedings to impeach president	Judicial review over presidential actions Power to issue warrants Chief Justice presides over impeachment of president	NA

The national government’s power is not limited by state’s power. The only powers the states have are those the Federal government has not reserved for itself. But in a dispute the Federal government can and will use military force if necessary.

A whole article of the Constitution is devoted to the states. Article 4 recognizes the limited sovereignty of the states by denying the federal authorities the power to alter the boundaries of existing states without their permission. Constitutional procedures for the admission of new states on an equal footing with the original thirteen and a clause guaranteeing them a republican form of government recognize states as the main blocks of the American system. The importance of the states is also woven into other provisions of the Constitution, such as the rule that membership in both chambers of Congress and the election of the President are determined by states. In addition, amendments to the US Constitution can only be made with approval of three-quarters of the states. The above protections and privileges alone go a long way toward explaining the current movements for statehood in Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

At the time, it was thought that the Constitution provided for a division of powers between the national authorities, the states, and the people that was appropriate to each. The great and aggregate interests were referred to the national, and the local and particular to state governments. Thus some powers are prohibited the states by the Constitution. They can neither coin money, nor conduct their own foreign policy, keep their own military services, make war, or set their own customs duties.

All these were recognized as ‘delegated authorities’, aggregate interests that had to be exclusively the national government’s to prevent conflicts among states and between them and the federal government. The Constitution specifically gives the national authorities the responsibility for protecting the states from foreign invasion and internal rebellion. To protect the rights of the people from both levels of government, clauses such the right to a jury trial were included in the main document and many more rights were secured through the Bill of Rights.

A considerable list of powers remained that were ‘reserved’, considered to be local and particular interests inappropriate for the federal government. The powers of the federal (national) government include the right to declare wars; the right to tax; the right to borrow and coin money, and to regulate its value; the right to regulate commerce between the states; the right to maintain a postal system. To the states was reserved the establishment of local governments and protecting public safety and morals, which came to mean providing police, fire, and sanitation departments, among other institutions. States also took responsibility for furnishing educational and health facilities as well as levying taxes and borrowing to fund all these activities. States wrote their own codes of civil and criminal law.

The structure of state government parallels that of the federal government. Each of the fifty states has a written constitution. Each also has a separation of powers among three branches, which share power through a system of checks and balances.

All the state legislatures, except Nebraska’s, have the same format as Congress with two houses, usually called the state senate and state assembly. State legislatures also work through committees and pass laws through a process very like that used in Congress. Like the President, the chief executive of a state, the governor, enjoys the powers of administration, appointment and veto. The structure of a state judiciary is also broadly parallel to the federal court system. In most states there is a state supreme court and under it appeals courts and (parallel to the US district courts) county or municipal courts.

TASK 1. Choose one of the new words to make the sentence complete.

1. Every country want to be independent and every country want to … itself.
2. … power in our country belongs to Duma.
3. … was always the main source of business for island nations. Easy access to the sea allowed them to trade easily with their neighbours.
4. In the United States the decisions of the … agency can be overruled by the courts as not conforming to the law or the Constitution.
5. The situation is different in Great Britain which does not recognize … control. The final authority in British law is Parliament.
6. When the interests of different countries … the result can be a war.
7. There are 26 … to the American Constitution.
8. All over the world there are constant … between countries over the borders.

TASK 2. Match the word and its definition.

Govern	to collide with a loud noise, to come into conflict
Amendment	relating to courts of law
Dispute	relating to law
Legislative	an addiction to, revision
Executive	adj relating to a person or group having administrative or managerial authority in an organization; n the chief officer of a government, state, or political division
Judicial	buying and selling of goods
Clash	to make and administer public policy and affairs, to regulate
Commerce	to argue about, debate

TASK 3. Match the English words and word-combinations given below with their Russian equivalents.

1) осуществлять власть	a) civil liberties
2) исполнительная власть	b) to pass a constitution
3) «сдержки и противовесы»	c) to exercise power
4) принять конституцию	d) the legislative branch
5) законодательная власть	e) the judicial branch
6) судебная власть	f) the executive branch
7) гражданские права (свободы)	g) a system of checks and balances
8) осуществлять контроль над какой-л. ветвью власти	h) to exercise a check on some branch

TASK 4. Answer the following questions.

1. What document is the operation of the US government based on?
2. How are the powers of government distributed between the federal government and the state governments?
3. What are the three branches of the national government?
4. What is the system of “checks and balances”? How is it exercised?
5. In what way does the legislature exercise a check on the executive branch?
6. What limits the powers of the national and state governments?
7. What is known as the Bill of Rights?

TASK 5. Render the following text.