Separation of powers#Checks and balances

Checks and balances is a term for the mutual control (English checks ) of constitutional organs of a State, for making a success of the whole beneficial system of partial equilibria (English balances ), initially mainly in order to prevent a dictatorship. Analytically comes from the approach already ancient times, namely the analysis of the Roman constitution life by the Greek historian Polybius.

This principle, which has been ( in The Spirit of Laws ) taken up again in the Enlightenment in 1748 by Montesquieu, was built in 1787 for the first time enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

The different power centers of the U.S. political system: Congress - consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate - President and Supreme Court to control each other and thus prevent one of the institutions gaining more power than you will be assured by the Constitution and thus destroyed the balance of power.

Through checks and balances the system of separation of powers can be maintained. This is based on the idea that it is not enough just to separate the powers and to guarantee them their independence, but we must also give the various forces of the instruments of power in his hand, to defend their own interests. On the one hand, the President has the right to veto acts of Congress, the Supreme Court, in turn, can explain these laws or directives of the President unconstitutional and Congress finally, both the judges of the Federal Supreme Court and the President of their offices relieve ( see impeachment ), and set up committees of inquiry. Even within the legislative, the principle of checks and balances, because laws must be passed by two differently composed chambers. Disputes and corrupt laws should therefore be balanced, and prevented, whereby on the one hand, the balanced implementation of the popular will, on the other hand hopes that a stable political system. The political scientist Richard Neustadt, close advisor to several U.S. presidents, speaks of " separate institutions sharing power", by separate institutions, but the need to cooperate in the exercise of power, so connect with mutual independence forced to work together.

The term is also used in the context of German corporate law for the ratio of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board to the Annual General Meeting. This is particularly characterized by the legislative attempt to put the organs in a balanced relationship to each other. The systematic approach is fundamentally different from the right of the limited liability company ( GmbH), in which the general meeting of shareholders controlled the managing side.

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