Dr. Armendariz is correct insofar as the U.S. owes a significant amount of its success to the legacy of the Roman Republic: separation of power, checks and balances, and a robust civil servant corps, to name a few.

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There's a reason why the Founding Fathers in America wanted all those checks and balances on executive power.

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And how can we find structural ways to create a system that provides checks and balances to police power?

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But unlike the American version, this superstate would not be a system of checks and balances but one where effective power would reside overwhelmingly in Brussels.

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Our Constitution, filled with checks-and-balances and separations of power, was designed to ensure that policy choices are made in a measured and deliberate fashion.

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Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan told the BBC the original bill would have given the home secretary too much power, been too expensive and did not have the right checks and balances.

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Many believe that power has become so centralized in Venezuela that there are no checks and balances and the executive controls the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral commission, and the military.

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Unlike the UK government, in which a majority government has more power to push through their own agenda, the system of checks and balances in the US requires more compromise and deal-making to get anything done.

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Our Founding Fathers would be aghast at such power grabbing, which makes a mockery of the separation of powers and the checks and balances that they took such pains to enshrine in the U.S. Constitution.

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