The balance of powers system exists to do more than simply check the inevitable abuses of power. When Congress has a say, it brings in representation of a more diverse range of viewpoints. When it comes to war, for example, a president may want to act. Her job is to move, and everyone is looking at her. But members of Congress represent the districts and states where constituents have been fighting those wars for two decades. It is the “most exact transcript of the whole society,” as delegate James Wilson put it.38 They have a better understanding than the president about how those people
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