checks and balances

[ cheks uhn bal-uhn-siz ]

plural noun

1. limits imposed on all branches of a government by vesting in each branch the right to amend or void those acts of another that fall within its purview.

checks and balances

plural noun

1. government competition and mutual restraint among the various branches of government

Word History and Origins

Origin of checks and balances¹

First recorded in 1780–90

Idioms and Phrases

System whereby each branch of an organization can limit the powers of the other branches, as in The union has used a system of checks and balances to prevent any large local from dominating its policies . This system was enacted through the Constitution of the United States in order to prevent any of its three branches from dominating the Federal government. The term is occasionally transferred to other mechanisms for balancing power.

Example Sentences

They will help determine whether Trump can undo the checks and balances the founders wrote into the Constitution, and turn the executive branch into an instrument of a would-be autocrat’s will.

From Los Angeles Times

There are, of course, other brakes on the tendency of one-party rule to subvert the system of separation of powers and checks and balances.

From Salon

The vetting and approval process for nominees can be lengthy - but it's in the US Constitution to provide checks and balances on presidential power.

From BBC

Other aspects include, once those leaders are given temporary powers to represent us—we hand over our sovereignty to them for a temporary period to represent us—they’re constrained by checks and balances, by the rule of law, and by the protection of individual rights in order to ensure that, at the end of the day, our granting to them of our sovereignty as “we, the people,” is temporary and we get to take it back at the end of their term in office.

From Slate

You’re seeing the cleaving off of the liberal part of liberal democracy, whereby if I win an election with the most votes, then all those other things, like checks and balances, the rule of law, the protection of individual rights—they don’t matter because I’ve been given a mandate to do away with all those other things.

From Slate