state powers

Society

2022

We explain what the powers of the State are, their history and characteristics of each one: executive, judicial and legislative.

The three powers of the State are independent of each other.

What are the powers of the State?

The powers of the State or the public powers are the different institutions that make up the Condition. They exercise their role as controller and guarantor of public life and rule of law.

They work according to the principle of separation of public powers, proposed by Montesquieu in the eighteenth century, as a mechanism that would guarantee a fairer and more equitable State, which would monitor itself.

After the fall of the Old Regime during the Modern age, absolutism was abolished as a system of government in which a king and his entourage had full and indisputable control of the state. Instead, the new societies established that the state was exercised by all citizens.

Thus, sovereignty fell on the citizens, who could be elected to public office, making decisions regarding where the country would go. For this, it was essential that the State had counterweights, that is, that its can it was not absolute and indisputable, but could be controlled by other public bodies, which came to be called powers of the State.

These powers should ideally be independent of each other, sovereign and equally powerful, since all three should be limited to the Constitution and its legal framework of laws. Each in its own way, has the mission of ensuring the adequacy of the others, acting as a counterweight and thus preventing the State from being controlled by a single instance.

The powers of the State are the executive, the legislative and the judicial. In some legal systems there may be more than three powers, but rarely less than three, at least in the nations Republicans and democratic of the world.

Executive power

The executive branch is in charge of the management and leadership of the State, of the decision making policies and strategic. It usually falls on the figure of a head of state, call him thus or president or Prime Minister, depending on the bureaucratic structure of the nation.

This position is usually elected by popular vote (direct or indirect) and may be seconded by a vice president (or several). It is decentralized in the case of Federal Republics in the mandate of provincial governors.

The constitutions of each country stipulate the mechanisms to elect, dismiss or re-elect (if possible) the President, and also the powers that correspond to the executive power, which are generally political and administrative.

Legislative power

The legislative branch deals with the legislation, that is, of the elaboration of laws that govern life in the country and that serve as a counterpart to the executive power.

Many of the presidential decisions, in fact, must be endorsed by the legislature before they can be implemented. Usually this power is in charge of politically prosecuting public officials, since theirs is the voice of the people in their direct representation.

Legislative power generally resides in the hands of a National Assembly, Congress or any other type of Parliament. Its members are elected by popular vote and usually belong to various political parties. There are bicameral parliaments (with deputies and senators) or monocameral (only with deputies).

Power of attorney

It is in charge of enforcing the laws, interpreting what is established in the Constitution so that the State functions in full I respect of the law. For this, it has various judicial bodies, at the head of which is the Supreme Court of Justice, but that spreads like a tree, from highest to lowest hierarchy, throughout the nation.

In addition, the judiciary is responsible for resolving disputes and conflicts among the other public powers, always in light of what is established in the Magna Carta.

It guarantees compliance with the law, the punishment of those who violate it, as well as the different legal entities necessary for the State to function regularly: administrative, criminal, constitutional, procedural, etc.

In this way, the judiciary transmits its decisions through sentences, which constitute legal documents and are part of the legal history of the nation.

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