Why did the framers of the constitution develope a structure of government with 3 branches?

Question

also, how does the system of checks and balances help protect people's rights?

Answer 1

"One of the most persistent and overarching complaints the American colonists had about the rule of the British monarchy was the extent of its power. One of the most persistent and overarching complaints about the early government of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation was the weakness of the federal government. Attempting to form a more perfect union, the framers of the Constitution designed a government that clearly assigned power to three branches, while at the same time guaranteeing that the power of any branch could be checked by another.
No one branch of government can wield unchecked authority, thereby helping to ensure the rights of the citizenry.
This is exactly the point James Madison makes in Federalist Papers No. 48. He notes that "the legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex." The founders of the American states, he says, "seem never for a moment to have turned their eyes from the danger to liberty from the overgrown and all-grasping prerogative of an hereditary magistrate" and therefore overlooked "the danger from legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power in the same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by executive usurpations."

"The Framers of the U.S. Constitution were extremely wary of the potential dangers of concentrating power in any single political institution, and so deliberately undertook to divide authority among different branches and levels of government. The decentralized American system contrasts with the strict "majoritarian" model of democracy, which holds that government should enact legislation and pursue policies that are immediately responsive to what the majority of the people want.

The American model of democratic government, pluralist democracy, has a number of advantages over the majoritarian model, and these reflect the Founders’ vision for America. Pluralist democracy requires government power to be dispersed and authority to be decentralized. According to this model, democracy exists when government authority is divided among multiple centers of power that are open to interests of various groups—for example, labor v. management, farmers v. food stores, coal companies v. environmentalists. Groups like these compete against each other in a pluralistic society.

The dispersion of authority in pluralist theory prevents government from taking hasty, possibly imprudent action, but it also can prevent any action if important power centers disagree. Although decentralization of power characterizes American government, some institutional features tend to centralize power, enabling government to act even while lacking universal agreement on policy. This essay describes how key features of the U.S. political system contribute to achieving a balance of decentralization and centralization of political authority."

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Answer 2

Having come from countries with either monarchies or oligarchies, they witnessed corruption and unfair practices in government. They wanted to form a more democratic structure in which the people had more say in what laws and rights a citizen had. They put in place a system of "checks and balances. the 3 branches of government insured that no one branch had total control of the legal process. The legislative branch can vote on a bill, but the president has veto power. The Judicial branch can intervene if a law is not constitutional. The bill in question must be agreeable or at lease acceptable to all three branches in order to pass. It keeps the citizens in the law making process, and is more fair that just one group handling everything. This is just a small sketch of the system. Hope this helps