In the given question, a statement of Assertion is followed by a statement of Reason. Mark the correct answer.

Assertion: The institutional architecture of the American state itself is a constraint on American hegemony.

Reason: A system of division of powers between the three branches of government places significant brakes upon the unrestrained and immoderate exercise of America’s military power by the executive branch.

Both the Assertion and the Reason are correct and the Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion.

The correct answer is option 1- Both the Assertion and the Reason are correct and the Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion.

The assertion claims that the way the US government is structured limits its ability to exert total control (hegemony).
The reason explains that having separate branches (legislative, executive, judiciary) makes it harder for the president (executive) to use military force freely. They need approval from Congress (legislative).

Conclusion- The division of powers creates a check on the executive branch's military power, which can be seen as a constraint on how forcefully the US can act on the world stage. Hence, both the Assertion and the Reason are correct and the Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion.
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Text from NCERT:

History tells us that empires decline because they decay from within. Similarly, the biggest constraints to American hegemony lie within the heart of hegemony itself. We can identify three constraints on American power. None of these constraints seemed to operate in the years following 9/11. However, it now appears that all three of these constraints are slowly beginning to operate again.

The first constraint is the institutional architecture of the American state itself. A system of division of powers between the three branches of government places significant brakes upon the unrestrained and immoderate exercise of America’s military power by the executive branch.

The second constraint on American power is also domestic in nature, and stems from the open nature of American society. Although the American mass media may from time to time impose or promote a particular perspective on domestic public opinion in the US, there is nevertheless a deep scepticism regarding the purposes and methods of government in American political culture. This factor, in the long run, is a huge constraint on US military action overseas.

However, it is the third constraint on the US that is perhaps the most important. There is only one organisation in the international system that could possibly moderate the exercise of American power today, and that is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The US obviously has an enormous interest in keeping the alliance of democracies that follow the market economies alive and therefore it is possible that its allies in the NATO will be able to moderate the exercise of US hegemony.