Branches of Government. BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL SECURITY

BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL SECURITY
Name
Institution
The constitution subdivides the government into three branches; Executive, Legislature and Judicial. These branches are designed in such a manner that there is separation of powers. They are also complemented with a system of checks and balances that limits the excesses of either branch.
The executive is made up of the president, vice president, cabinet, federal commissions and federal agencies. The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and also the head of state. He is elected in presidential state elections by citizens who have attained the voting age of 18 years. These votes are then tallied to create the Electoral College System. A state’s electoral vote is equal to the number of senators and representatives it has. The executive has the power to enforce the laws of the nation and is responsible for executing diplomacy and foreign policy.
The legislature (Congress) has the power to make laws and fund the government. It is made up of two houses; the Senate and the House of Representatives. Their members are voted by the voters. The Senate has 100 senators; two from each state while House of Representatives has 435 representatives determined by the size of the population. For a bill to become law, both the Senate and House of Representatives must pass the same version of the bill before it’s taken to the president for assent or rejection.
The Judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court and the lower courts with the mandate of interpreting the law. The Supreme Court, as the highest court, is composed of 9 justices responsible for hearing cases that only deal with the constitution. There are also 13 courts of appeal and 94 federal district courts that make up the federal judiciary. Members of the federal judiciary are presidential nominees and can only be approved by the Senate.
For the system of checks and balances, the president can reject legislation from Congress by exercising veto powers. He may also check Congress by executive action, memoranda or by proclamations. He can influence the Judiciary by nominating the federal judges. Congress can override a veto and pass legislation by a two thirds majority vote in both houses. Congress can also impeach both members of the judiciary and the executive CITATION Emm17 \l 1033 (Emma Carlson-Berne, 2017). The judicial review by the Judiciary determines the constitutionality of the acts of both the executive and Congress.
National security is described as the capacity of the federal government to provide protection in a country. Threats to national security include terrorism, cyber threats, espionage and weapons of mass destruction. National security concerns may also be environmental like climate change. Separation of powers in the three branches help to prevent the term “national security” from being used as a pretext for suppressing dissenting social or politi...