At different times in our history, critics have found that the supposed balance of power embedded in the U.S. Constitution has shifted from one branch of government to another. At times it has been claimed that we have a Presidential system of government, meaning that the Executive Branch predominates, while at other times it has been said we have a Congressional form of government, with Congress dominating. The Judicial Branch has been accused of trying to legislate at times, but it was developed as the weakest of the three branches of government and has never been said to be predominant as have the other two branches. The degree to which the people can influence their government may depend on which branch is in the ascendancy at a given time. In the long term, we have a three-branch system, for while we might have what is called an Imperial Presidency at one time or an Imperial Congress at another, which branch comes to dominate depends more on circumstances and personalities than on design.
The U.S. Constitution was constructed as a series of compromises between the two major factions involved in its writing, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The framers of the Constitution feared the potential "mischiefs" of faction and designed a governmental system that would balance competing interests and prevent the ascension of any one faction. A given faction might gain control of one of the branches of government or one level of government, but this would not enable that faction to control the entire system or to create a tyranny over other factions. The Constitution embodied a series of checks and balances to prevent one faction from gaining ascendancy over others.
The overriding intent of the Framers was balance, to balance the rights of different groups, to balance the powers of the different branches of government, to balance the power of the states against the power of the federal government. The aristocratic Fe...