Americans tend to view their great historical documents as sacred, giving those documents incredible influence over American politics even today. Hundreds of years after the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, these documents continue to shape American political culture. The Constitution appears to be America's most powerful historical document, giving rise to constitutional politics in which every aspect of the document plays a vital role. The most heated political debates often center on the constitutionality, or lack thereof, of the issue at hand. Differing interpretations of the Constitution allow opposing sides of such debates to have views that both appear valid even when mutually exclusive. Debates over specific issues then turn into debates over interpretations of the Constitution. Two of the most widely and hotly debated aspects of the Constitution are the concepts of separation of powers and federalism. Separation of powers is “the doctrine that political power and governmental functions should be distributed among several organs or branches of government as a precaution against tyranny.” » (Landy and Milkis, Glossary - 10). Political power and government functions in America are divided among three distinct branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. This separation of powers goes hand in hand with the concept of checks and balances, "a government structure that gives different branches or levels of government a certain degree of oversight and control over the actions of others so that no one government institution exercises a monopoly of power. » (Glossary - 2). Through a system of checks and balances in every aspect of the U.S. government and at every level, whenever the constitutionality of a policy is called into question. The ongoing nature of these debates demonstrates a flexibility of interpretation in the American system of government that allows the Constitution to remain a politically valid and viable document, a rulebook of the political game with the inherent capacity to be revised and updated. day. as the game evolves. Works CitedLandy, Marc and Sidney M. Milkis. American government: balancing democracy and rights. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Madison, James. “The Federalist 51”. Lanahan's Readings in American Politics – Third Edition. Ann G. Serow and Everett C. Ladd, editors. Baltimore, MD: Lanahan Publishers, Inc., 2003. Pages 105 – 109. Romance, Joseph. Political Science Lecture 6. Drew University, Summer 2004.