of election of
the judiciary and in the adoption of universal suffrage. Summing up the
effects of these changes in the state constitutions, we may say that the
suffrage was placed upon a democratic basis, the state judiciary was
organized on a less irresponsible plan and the appearance of political
responsibility secured by applying the principle of direct election to
every branch of the state government. The longer term of office
established for the legislative and executive branches of the state
government, however, together with the increase in the authority of the
judiciary and the adoption of the system of checks and balances has upon
the whole had the effect of making the state government less responsive
to the electorate.

As seen in preceding chapters, the framers of the Federal Constitution
made use of the scheme of checks and balances for the purpose of
limiting the power of the people. There is little evidence that they
favored diffusion of authority except in so far as that authority rested
upon a popular basis. Hence they carried the plan much farther in
curtailing the power of the House of Representatives than a logical
application of the doctrine would have justified, while at the same time
giving more authority and power of independent action to the other
branches of the general government than was consistent with their
avowed, if not real, purpose.

They gave to the executive and judicial branches of the general
government power to control the administration of Federal laws. The
enforcement of all laws and regulations of the general government, in
so far as the President and Senate might desire to enforce them, was
guaranteed through the power to appoint and remove those who were
entrusted with their execution, while the right of appeal from a state
to the Federal courts precluded the possibility of enforcing a state law
deemed to exceed the proper limits of state authority.

In the state governments on the other hand we find a high degree of
administrative decentralization. The governor, unlike the President, was
not given any adequate power to control those entrusted with the
execution of state laws. A multitude of directly elected local officials
are the agents of the state for this purpose. And since they reflect the
sentiment of the various local interests to which they owe their
election, it may and often does happen that a law to which those
interests are opposed is rendered practically inope