Question

some opponents of the constitution worried that separating powers would not be enough to prevent one branch from dominating the others. to address these concerns, the writers of the federalist papers describe another way the constitution structures the new government. read the passage. then answer the question below.
federalist no. 51
but the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. the provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
encroachments: interferences
commensurate: equal
based on the passage, how does the structure of the federal government limit the power of its branches?
the branches are given the power to check, or resist, one another.
the executive branch has the final say over all actions taken by the other branches.
the people can vote to overturn actions taken by any branch.
all three branches must agree in order to implement any major government action.

Explanation:

The passage from Federalist No. 51 states that each government branch is given constitutional means and personal motives to resist the encroachments (interferences) of the other branches, with ambition countering ambition. This directly describes the system of checks and balances. The other options are not supported by the text: the passage does not give the executive branch final authority, mention public votes to overturn branch actions, or require universal branch agreement for major actions.

Answer:

The branches are given the power to check, or resist, one another.