The United States of America (hereinafter USA) are a democratic Country, characterized by a presidential system, where the authority is divided into the legislative, executive and judicial power, which limit and control each other. The purpose of the thesis is to present the “check and balances” system between the President and the Congress. I particularly decided to research this in order to determine, whether the function of the President of the USA is really that important and whether he is fully authoritative and independent in his work. For research purposes I used primary and secondary sources.
In the first part of the thesis, I presented the dependence and connection between the President and the Congress. This dependence is reflecting in the legislative process, where the Congress, despite of its legislative function, depends on the President, who has a veto right and can overturn the adoption of a certain act. The President, on the other hand, at the execution of his function depends on the Congress, since it can initiate an impeachment against him, and for the adoption of certain international treaties and naming of certain functions, the President needs a suitable majority of the Senate. In the second part I also presented, to which extent party affiliation impacts the power of the President. The President will have more power, if his party has the majority in the Congress.
Based on the research, we found, that the “check and balances” system, which is also determined by the constitution, prevents arbitrary execution of the President’s power. The President and the Congress depend on each other and the execution of their tasks demands mutual cooperation. A one-party government provides the President with a little more power, but cooperation with the opposition is nevertheless necessary.
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