The American constitutionalist James Madison held that, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judicial in the same hands may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” The core of any strong democracy depends upon how the powers of the central government are established. The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power, controlling one-fifth of the world’s population. America’s colonization by the British Empire began in 1607 and continued until the American Revolution in 1776. India was colonized by the British Empire in 1858 until they gained their independence in 1947. Both of these nations established democratic forms of government based on British influence. Democracy in the United States took a presidential style of government while India accepted a parliamentary form of government. These two models of democracy practice separation of powers in different ways. This paper will examine the similarities and differences of the three branches of government in terms of separation of powers between the United States and India. Separation of powers is the principle or system of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of a government. In its usual operational form, one branch of government, the legislative, is entrusted with making laws, a second, the executive, with executing them, and a third, the judiciary, with resolving disputes in accordance with the law. The doctrine of separation of powers is generally credited to the French political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu. His basic contention was that those entrusted with power tend to abuse it; therefore, if governmental power is fragmented, each power will operate as a check on the others. As a further protection, the personnel of each branch are selected by different constituencies and procedures for different terms of office. While the United States government holds to a separation of power within the three branches, there is no true separation of power within the Indian government, especially between the executive and legislative branches.
First, there are distinct similarities between the legislative branches of the Indian and U.S. governments in terms of separation of powers. The legislative branch in India is composed of two houses, the Lok Sabha, the House of the People, and the Rajya Sabha, the Council of States. Both of these houses make up the Indian Parliament. Similarly, the legislative branch in the United States consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate which combined forms the U.S. Congress. In India, the Parliament is mainly the law-making organ. It can make laws on all the matters specified in the union list, which is the provided powers to the central government in the Indian constitution. While the president has the power to sign treaties, it is Parliament that has the right to ratify them. The Parliament controls the union purse. No taxes can be levied and no expenditure can be made by the government without its approval. It determines the financial policy of the country. The Indian Parliament also has the authority to impeach and remove the President of the Republic. Likewise, the United States Congress is the sole law-making organ in the U.S. government. It alone can ratify treaties that the president signs. It enacts taxes, authorizes borrowing, and sets the budget. Finally, Congress has the power to impeach and remove those in the executive branch. However, there are differences between the United States and India when it comes to the legislative branch. In a parliamentary form of government, the Parliament is supreme and the ministers are drawn from the Parliament to make up the cabinet. These ministers which come from Parliament are accountable to Parliament. Therefore, as ministers, they are part of the executive branch. So overall, there is less separation of powers in the parliamentary government because the legislative and executive are so closely knit. This is in contrast to the United State’s presidential form of government where the executive is completely separated from the legislature. The members of the executive are not members of the legislature. In the presidential system, the President appoints persons from outside the legislature as cabinet members, not from inside the legislature. As one can see through this, there is much more separation of powers between the executive and legislative within the United States, as opposed to India.
Next, a comparison of the executive branch between the U.S. and Indian governments in terms of separation of powers needs to be made. According to both the Indian and United States constitutions, the President is the head of the state and the government. The administration of the whole country is carried on in his name. He also takes up the task of negotiating treaties and agreements with other countries subject to ratification by the legislature. In addition, he appoints the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. Even though the President of India is the constitutional head of government, in reality, he is merely a figure head while the real power of the executive branch has been granted to the Prime Minister. Therefore, in order to more accurately compare the executive branches of the two countries, one must consider the duties of the Prime Minister of India to the duties of the President of the United States. The Prime Minister is the true head of the government. All major appointments of the union government are virtually made by the Prime Minister. Additionally, all the major decision-making bodies are under his supervision and direction. Just like the President of the U.S., the Prime Minister presides over the meetings of the cabinet, plays a leading role in making decisions in all domestic and foreign policy, and prepares the annual budget. On the other hand, there are many contrasts that can be made between the executive branches of the two countries. The Prime Minister is selected by a majority vote of the lower house of Parliament. The Prime Minister appoints members from Parliament to form the cabinet of the President. The cabinet of India is the collective decision-making body of the government of India. As stated earlier, the President of India is only a figure head while the President of the United States is the executive head. The President of India is required to follow the advice of his cabinet and has no veto power. However, he does have the ability to dissolve the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the legislative branch. In addition, he can transfer or remove judges from the Supreme and High Courts. To the contrary, the United States President has many different powers. He is elected by electoral college, but through a general election by the people not a parliament. In the presidential system, the President appoints persons from outside the legislature as cabinet members. Unlike the Indian president, the U.S. president is not bound to follow the advice of his cabinet and is the sole decision maker of his actions. He does have veto power over Congress. Furthermore, the U.S. president cannot dissolve any house of Congress and he cannot transfer or remove any judges.
The final branch in which separation of powers must be compared and contrasted between the U.S. and India is the judicial. The Indian Supreme Court has the judicial power to declare a statute unconstitutional. As originally enacted, the Constitution of India provides for a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and seven lower-ranking judges. Only Parliament has the power to increase this number. This is similar to the U.S. in that the United States Supreme Court has the power of judicial review to declare any law passed by Congress unconstitutional. Congress authorizes a set number of judge positions, or judgeships, for each court level. Since 1869, Congress has authorized nine positions for the Supreme Court. However, the judicial systems of both countries also contrast on two points. The India Supreme Court has been given very wide powers, including appellate jurisdiction for both civil and criminal cases. The Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court hold the office up to the age of sixty-five years. On the contrary, the United States Supreme Court has not been given any such type of appellate jurisdiction as India. Furthermore, the Supreme Court judges of the United States are granted life tenure instead of an age limit. In conclusion, this report has examined the separation of powers in the government of both India and the United States. It has divided up the three branches of each government and has compared and contrasted each accordingly. First, this paper examined the executive and legislative branches. Moreover, it concluded with comparing and contrasting the judicial branch as well. In the end, one can see that in some areas India’s separation of powers is very different from the United States, specifically in terms of the executive and legislative. However, at the same time, India’s judicial branch had more comparisons than contrasts to the U.S. One important thing to remember is that no matter what form the separation of powers comes in, it is vital to the survival of any democracy. Thomas Jefferson said, “The way to have safe government is not to trust it all to the one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent.”
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