The Constitution sets out the authority and the limits of the branches of the government.
a. The term checks and balances means that a. the president "checks" the courts, which "balance" the laws.
b. Congress writes checks and the other branches balance the budget.
c. each branch has some power to limit the actions of the others.
d. the courts balance their authority to the other branches’ checklists.

The separation of powers or division of powers is a political principle in some forms of government, in which the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the State are exercised by distinct, autonomous and independent organs of government. This is the fundamental quality that characterizes representative and presidential democracy.

Montesquieu argued that “every man who has power is inclined to abuse it; He goes until he finds limits. So that the power cannot be abused, it is necessary that, by the disposition of things, the power stops the power ».3 In this way, the vigilance of the three powers among themselves is entrusted as each one watches, controls and stops the excesses of others to prevent, by their own ambition, that some of them predominate over others. It can be contrasted with the fusion of powers and separation of functions in parliamentary systems, where the executive and the legislature are unified, because the legislature appoints the executive.