Separation of Powers ( Background )

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Background The term separation of powers originated with the Baron de Montesquieu, a French enlightenment writer. However, the actual separation of powers  among  different branches of government can be traced to ancient Greece . It is safe to say that a respect for the principle of separation of powers is deeply rooted in every American.
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Separation of powers in U.S.A

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Separation of powers in U.S.A

 Today, the USA presidential election process is not beyond controversy. Some of the criticisms are given below: Critics   argue   that   the   Electoral   College   is   archaic   and inherently undemocratic. With most states using a winner-take-all system, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party candidates are all but certain to win all the electoral votes from the    predominately    Democratic    and    Republican    states, respectively. This gives certain swing states (states in which no single   candidate   or   party   has   overwhelming   support) disproportionate   influence. 
  
Thus,   presidential   candidates usually spend more time, money, and energy campaigning in a historically swing state like Ohio than either a Democratic state like California or a Republican state like Texas.
Another view is that the Electoral College is overly and unnecessarily complex. The Electoral College does not provide a straightforward process for selecting the president. The winner of the popular vote can still lose in a hypothetical Electoral College system. The elections of 1876, 1888, and 2000 produced an Electoral College winner who did not receive the greatest amount of the nationwide popular vote. Such outcomes do not logically follow the normal concept of how a democratic system should function. Some view that the Electoral College violates the principle of political equality, since the USA presidential elections are not decided by the one-person one-vote principle.
Reform Proposal
The proposal is based on the current rule in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the USA Constitution. According to this article each state legislature has the authority to determine how it chooses its electors. A proposal has been made to restore the 'one person one vote' principle without having to change the Constitution. Proposed reforms include the National Popular Vote Interstate   Compact,   an interstate   compact   whereby individual states agree to allocate their electors based on the winner of the national popular vote instead of just their respective statewide results.  Eight states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact. These eight states of the compact collectively have a total of 132 electoral votes, still 138 votes short of the 270 needed for an Electoral College majority.


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