6 A government of limited powers
is now simply a highly decentralised unitary state. Attempts have been made
to reverse this process, particularly by Presidents Nixon and Reagan. They
proposed the introduction of ‘revenue-sharing’, which would return functions
to the states and finance their activities through unconditional block grants.
The attempt to return to an earlier era did not have much success at the
time, but recent changes in federal legislation, particularly in the field of
welfare, have moved power back to the state governments.
The separation of powers
The Founding Fathers of the American Constitution were determined to
prevent any section of the new government from abusing its power. They
had experienced what they considered to be the despotism of George III,
the King of Great Britain, and of the royal governors of the colonies, but
the democratic excesses of the state legislatures after the revolution had
also frightened them. Like most of the men of wealth and property in the
eighteenth century, the framers of the Federal Constitution did not believe
that government should exercise considerable power. They were frightened
by two spectres: despotism and democracy. They wished to avoid the tyranny
of one man, or of many. They therefore constructed a constitution that would
avoid both evils, by separating the parts of government, and by balancing
them against each other.
The twin doctrines of the separation of powers and checks and balances
characterise the American Constitution. The president was to be elected in-
directly by means of an Electoral College that would remove the choice of this
official from the hurly-burly of mob politics. The Congress was to be divided
into a House of Representatives, which represented the people in proportion
to population, and a Senate, which gave equal representation to the states.
The judicial power was to be vested in a Supreme Court. No member of the
legislature was allowed to be a member of the executive branch (with the
exception of the vice-president), thus ruling out cabinet government on the
English model, which at that time was seen as a monarchical or aristocratic
device to control the representatives of the people. The personnel of the three
branches of government – legislature, executive and judiciary – were strictly
separated, except for the vice-president, who was named as the presiding
officer of the Senate. But the Founders were not satisfied that this alone was
a sufficient check to the abuse of power, in particular the abuse of power by
the legislature. They had witnessed the experience of the American states
during and after the Revolution, when the state legislatures had interfered
in executive and judicial affairs, and there had been nothing to prevent them
from doing so, except, as Jefferson put it, ‘parchment barriers’, that is writ-
ten constitutional provisions. They therefore instituted a number of checks
to the exercise of power. The president was given a limited power to veto
legislation, and the Supreme Court would interpret the laws and the Con-
stitution, although the latter power was implicit rather than explicit in the