Presidential and Congressional Powers

Presidential and Congressional Powers The separation of governmental powers is one of the hallmarks of the American Constitutional system. In Britain and in the many other countries that follow the Westminster model, the executive, legislative and judicial functions are all handled, wholly or in important measure, by the single entity known as parliament. In the United States, however, a separate branch of government, namely the Presidency, the Congress and the Judiciary, carries out each of …

…scholarly survey, examining a number of areas where the separation of powers is unclear and selecting five of them for detailed consideration. These are: The office of independent counsel, the uses of inspectors general throughout the government, the doctrine of executive privilege, the issuance of executive orders and the War Powers Resolution passed in 1973. All are related in some way to the contentious debates that arose out of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.