Worksheet # 44 Home Questions Puzzle Links Next

IDEAS IN ACTION IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION:

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, LIMITED GOVERNMENT,

SEPARATION OF POWERS, CHECKS & BALANCES

Now, to join in this search for the best of government,

Is to visit an age called The Enlightenment,

When ‘twas widely believed that the rational man

Could of all nature and life quite well understand.

And that good government is, neither more nor less,

Than what people themselves decide for the best.

And so the right to rule and to thus keep the peace

Either comes from the people or else it does cease.

Indeed, a two-way street is what justice demands,

And if this deal be broken. . . a new tyranny stands!

So with virtue and valor, those bright men in control

Sought not to seize power but to limit its role.

And a clever French thinker, the man Montesquieu,

Sent out a recipe, most appealing and new.

Wherein laws of the land are spelled out for all,

And power is divided among the parts to the whole.

One branch to make laws, another these laws to enforce,

And a third to interpret and to decide in the courts.

And in the country cooked up, which we proudly call ours,

We call this system: separation of powers.

Yes, Congress is first, while the President comes next,

And the Supreme Court is third (by its place in the text).

Each branch has a job: to keep watch on the others

-- So none is let loose to its unfettered druthers.

Indeed, no law is passed, no high office filled

‘Til each branch gets its turn to express its own will.

Hence the law’s great might, while making allowances,

Is held in its bounds by checks and balances.