ortant events to occur with each section of the government.
             The checks and balance system deliberately set the three branches at odds with each other. Each department was made responsible for different electoral pressures. As mentioned before the branches were also given the ability and agility to interfere into the jurisdiction of the other. For instance, the President is responsible to negotiate treaties but the senate must ratify it. Congress can pass it and then the President signs. But even if Congress ratifies the treaty and the President signs it, the Supreme Court can declare it unconstitutional (lecture 9/27/99).
             This division of power occurs at two levels; the federal and state level. The federal system consists of the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The state level consists of a governor, representatives, and local courts. The system seems to work very well but does it? When the forefathers forged the constitutional system there were certain problems that they did see, mainly because the country was relatively smaller and consequently less problems to deal with. The government did not have to be so efficient for it to work. The American society was wealthier in the sense that products were less expensive. For instance energy was cheaper, it only cost $1.15 for gas while in France it was 5 franks. But now the United States is involved in a competitive global economy and therefore lacks the efficiency that it once obtained. Another reason why the system worked so well was because the forefathers intended it not to work rapidly (lecture 9/27/99).
             Can anything be done about the inefficiency that the system faces in such a competitive modern world? There are some alternatives that Theodore J. Lowi provides in an excerpt entitled Presidential Power: Restoring the Balance, but these solutions will come later on after the presentation of the three branches. For now I would like to expound ...