four branches of government?

Question

We have always been told that their are originally three branches of government and they are the executive, judiciary and legislative, but i have heard the term "four branches" a lot so it gets me thinking. By the way, the fourth branch of government is journalism. If you think about it, the media is very influencial, people get all information from it and their are many ways to influence and inform a person... What do you think?

Answer 1

Hi Music Lover,

I think you're mixing your terms. The media are not called the fourth branch of government -- they are called the "Fourth Estate" [ref: the old French Assembly, the "Estates General" which consisted of three "estates:" the Clergy, the Nobility, and the Commons].

The fourth branch of government would rightly be seen as the Bureaucracy, which because of its control over quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers very often is capable of acting in an independent way from both Congress and the presidency.

Political Scientists, therefore, always use the term "Fourth Branch" to describe the bureaucracy, and "Fourth Estate" to describe the media.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Answer 2

Four Branches Of Government

Answer 3

4 Branches Of Government

Answer 4

Journalism is not a branch of the government. I disagree. Pure journalism is completely objective. It reports news and doesn't report opinions. It should report true news, all important news, and nothing but the news. Of course, this is in a perfect world, but even with "yellow journalists" and the links between Fox News and the Republican party, journalists do not constitute a section of the government.

Those who have read Orwell's "1984" will disagree. In a totalitarian state, propaganda is a form of control over people. The Ministry of Truth is a part of Oceania's government. Yet being a part of it does not make it a branch, it is more a method of keeping power.

Ideally, Journalists will be separated far enough from the government that they can make objective statements in order to educate the American people. In this case, they are the opposite of government.

Propaganda is not journalism, nor is it a branch of the government. Thank you to all the honest journalists of the world. What would we do without you?

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
four branches of government?
We have always been told that their are originally three branches of government and they are the executive, judiciary and legislative, but i have heard the term "four branches" a lot so it gets me thinking. By the way, the fourth branch of government is journalism. If you think about it,...

Answer 6

Media, It has always been referred to as the 4th branch! A honorary degree for sure, but a necessary one if any government is going to be kept semi-honest!

They also are the branch than can make or break you, so they are more powerful than most think, even if they engage in lies, half-truths and plain old omission!

Answer 7

Executive
Judical
Legislative
Haliburton

Answer 8

Bureaucrats are just the hired help and journalist professional on lookers. The forth branch is the people, in particular the corporate lobbyist, not only do they come up with capital that gets the the legislative, executive, and judicial elected. They also write much of the legislation that get cut and pasted into bills, then lubricate the bill's final passage.

Answer 9

No. The best bet would be to lengthen the House terms to 4 years so that they aren't running for reelection as soon as they are elected. I would support getting rid of lobbyists and special interest groups access (over ordinary citizens) to our elected officials. I would also support getting the ridiculous amounts if $$$ spent on these campaigns. I believe if a candidate for federal office could garner say a certain percentage of the voters signatures on petitions to run for office to demonstrate viability, then mandate debates. Also have the local TV stations devote a certain amount of air time for said viable candidates to run "free" campaign ads. Get rid of the attack ad b.s. and have these political wannabe's have to run on their own merits and ideas. For instance here in Florida our new Governor spent $73 million of his own money to buy the job. He has been in office for 2+ months and has still not shown the citizens how he plan's to achieve all the promises he made. I did get a good laugh at the other moron Jeff Greene who spent a paltry $23 million to run for Senate and lost. Why would someone spend that kind of money for jobs that pay peanuts by comparison when not known as philanthropists? It can't all be an ego trip.

Answer 10

the fourth branch of the Government are the bureaucrats