Another demonstrative part of the constitution has to do with representation, a checks and balances system when the republican body (the people/the state) has representation that is not overly out of balance with its populous. The senate, arguably a more powerful body has two senate seats for each state while population determines the house seats, with no state having less than one representative. "The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative." Article I Section I thus, creating a check to ensure a reduced possibility of a larger state attempting through political power channels to retain all or most power for itself.
Within each body of the three there are balances, where the other has some semblance of control over the other to but not so much that any one has supreme authority over the other. Of the executive branch:
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. Article II Section I [2]
So, the president can appoint the judges and other high officials but only upon approval of the congress. Once again another example of how the collective power structure works, each has his hand in something the other does or is and yet there is an ultimate...
Otherwise the Court is the arm of both other subsets.
In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. Article III section I [2]
One final example, rather obscure is the demonstration of the desire by the framers of the constitution to maintain the state of the whole as anything but one of the individual forms of government discussed by Aristotle and Cicero as inherently or potentially despotic.
No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or foreign state. Article I Section VIII U.S. Constitution
No other fear was greater than the fear of becoming what the framers most feared a despotic monarchy. Great care was taken to make sure that even in name the union would never act as a monarchy.
M.D. Lloyd "Polybius and the Founding Fathers: the separation of powers" at http://www.sms.org/mdl-indx/polybius/polybius.htm
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 6th ed. 2003 "U.S. Constitution www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/
US Constitution Text www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup
