On February 27th,
1951, the 22nd amendment was ratified which made permanent a
tradition that has profound influence on the philosophy of government in the
United States of America. This amendment
may not be the most well known amendment but its place in the fabric of
American history cannot be overstated.
That is because the 22nd Amendment mandated that…
No person shall be elected
to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the
office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term
to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office
of the President more than once.
The limitation
of service as President of the United
States to two terms was one that up until
the 22nd amendment was more a matter of custom than law. It began when George Washington refused to
run for a third term. But by making the
limitation of power in the presidency in the 22nd amendment, the
American people made a bold statement about how their government would be run.
One of the most
unique aspects to how the United
States of America organized its government
was the concept of citizen rulers. This
concept was born in the very halls and pubs where the founding fathers gathered
to discuss this new country that was just getting started. By reducing the idea of a “career
politician”, especially at the presidential level, the 22nd
amendment dealt a deadly blow to the concept that America would ever be ruled by a
king or a “president for life.”
This was clearly
a reaction by America
to the abuses that had witnessed by the pilgrims and immigrants that make up
this great country in their homelands.
They reacted strongly and negatively to the deification of kings and the
virtually unlimited powers that too many times systems of royalty tended to
give to their leadership. This was one
of the central themes that caused so many to flee Europe, Central
Asia and other parts of the world to seek a land where it was the
people who were the center of the governments will, not the arbitrary ideas of
a king who was cut off from the real needs of the people he served.
The way America set up
its presidency was in every way an attempt to “fix” the flaws and abuses of the
European models and refocus the center of power in government on the electorate
rather than on the elected. Another
aspect of the American federal system that was put in place deliberately to
limit the ability of those in power to abuse that power is the system of checks
and balances. This system assures that
none of the branches of government, The Congress, the Presidency or the Supreme
Court could dominate the other or take complete power and rule without
challenge. By insuring that all in power
had to answer to the opposing party and be prepared to answer to the American
people for what they did and even said, this completely eliminated that chances
that one part of the government would stage a “coup” over the other.
Accountability
is a word that is not very exciting but it is the concept that has kept the
American system of government healthy and in service to its people rather than
putting them in service for over 200 years.
In addition to
these several highly innovative methods the founding fathers gave to this young
country to eliminate the abuses of past governmental systems, they also put a
system in place that assured the orderly transition of power. The system of elections every two years
stopped two evils, the occurrence of a politician who served for life without
accountability and a system wherein the only way to loose your job in
government was by violent overthrow. As
a result the American system, albeit contentious and argumentative, has been
and continues to be one of the most peaceful and orderly systems of federal
administration in the world and indeed in the history of the world.
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