Almost 230 years ago in Philadelphia, 55 representatives from 12 out of the 13 colonies met up to revise the Articles of Confederation. They felt the Articles were too weak and went into this meeting with the intention of only changing a couple of things on the regarding America’s protection against a dictatorship. Instead, they ended up creating a completely new system; the Constitution. The Constitution protects Americans from tyranny through federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and protection of small states. Federalism was created to ensure neither the states nor central government hold too much power. Document A shows that federalism is achieved by using a compound government made up of the central and state powers. …show more content…
The idea about separation of powers is established through the three branches of government. These three branches are legislative, executive, and judicial. Document B shows that each branch has their own specific powers. The legislative branch holds power regarding the Senate and House of Representatives. The executive branch is home of the President and deals with the congress. The judicial branch has control over the supreme court and appointing judges. The three branches of government fight against tyranny by ensuring that no one branch has too much power over the other …show more content…
This two house system ensures that each state has fair representation in congress. Document D states that the House of Representatives is based off of the population, while the Senate has equal representation from each state. In the House of Representatives, larger states, such as virginia and Massachusetts have more representatives than a small state such as Rhode Island or Delaware. The Senate, however, is made up of 2 senators that are chosen by the people of each state. Although bigger states have more representatives in the house, smaller states don’t feel threatened because they have fair representation in the Senate. The bicameralism system keeps America protected from tyranny by keeping the representatives fair and not allowing different states to hold more
Speaking against the ratification of the Constitution, Patrick Henry says, "If a wrong step be now made, the republics may be lost forever. If this new government will not come up to the expectation of the people...their liberty will be lost and tyranny must and will rise..." The leaders of the country created the U.S. Constitution due to an immense dissatisfaction with the system of government stated in the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation support a government in which there is only one branch, but it's power would be limited in order to protect the people's liberty and rights. Although the Articles of Confederation establish a better system of government than when the states were under British rule, some weaknesses were found and amended in a new document called the United States
Finally, in 1787, many states gathered in Philadelphia to fix the Articles of Confederation. This meeting turned into the replacement of the Articles to the Constitution. Document 2 explains how the Constitution guarantees an independent and strong leader, a Supreme Court, a powerful congress, and valuable money which the Articles didn't have. Now, the Constitution only had to be ratified. This was a problem because anti-federalist, who didn't believe in the Constitution, wanted the Articles of Confederation to stay in place. This complication was fixed when the Bill of Rights was added into the Constitution as the first ten Amendments. As stated in Document 3, people, including federalists and antifederalists, felt more safe when the Bill of Rights were added and ratified into the Constitution because there was no way of bending or changing the Bill of Rights. A strong part of the Constitution was that it promised that it could never become a monarchy or government where one individual ruled everyone. This was possible by checks and
The legislative branch (Congress) has the power, according to Article 1 of the Constitution, to make certain kinds of laws. In Article 2, in the Constitution states that the executive branch (headed by the President) has the power to enforce or carry out laws. The judicial branch (headed by the Supreme Court) established in Article 3 of the Constitution has the power to interpret and apply the law in federal court cases. Each one of these branches are able to check on one another to keep each other in check. Separation of Powers is able to be a limited government while protecting the people against abuse from the
The legislature of the United States consists of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The bicameral system was created by the Founding Fathers in order to carry out one of the most imperative functions of Congress, representation amongst other function such as legislation, deliberation and scrutiny. The Senate ensures each state is equally represented with two congressmen, equally the House of Representatives also has to carry out the function of representation but its representatives unlike the Senate are proportioned to the population of the states for example California has 55 representatives however Alaska has 1. Even though
The Separation of Powers was derived to ensure that not one branch of government had too much power. "The concept of Separation of Powers is embodied in the Constitution in the 1st Article, in the 2nd Article, and in the 3rd Article"(Mount). "Article 1 established the Legislative branch of government"(Mount),which makes the law. "Article 2 established the Executive branch of government"(Mount),which executes the law and "Article 3 established the Judiciary branch of government"(Mount), which interprets the law. Power is shared between the three branches. The power of one branch can be challenged by another and each branch has an effect on the other. This is also known as checks and balances. By creating three branches of government, the
The concept of Separation of Powers is to divide powers of the three branches of government for each branch to have independence and equality of power. The United States constitution has three articles also called the government branches. These Articles or branches are recognized as the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Each of those branches have a job that are tied to the law and government but operate from each other. Article I known as the Legislative branch has the House of Representatives and the State Senate in one house, making them the Congress; Congress has the right to make a law. Not only that but the president has a act in the legislative,
Federalism is the division of powers between state and national governments. Federalism gave lower levels of government power that they did not have. The purpose of federalism is to give the people a sense of power, and essentially more liberty. However, it also allows a balance of power by giving states the rights to make their own laws, all while still recognizing the national government as superior.
The notion Separation of Powers was put into place with one single objective: to keep any form of authority or government establishment from ruling with an iron fist. Once America gained her independence from monarchal Britain, the framers made sure that no one branch or person could have too much power. Thus, this system of separation of powers was divided into three government branches, each of which was designated certain individual powers. This system, also known as Checks and Balances, proposed by the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, is embodied in the U.S. Constitution in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd articles. These powers are allocated in such a way that each branch must “check” the other, keeping their respective powers limited and further upholding the
Separation of powers is a very important part of society today. The three different powers is the Judicial branch, Legislative branch and the Executive branch. Those are also known as the 3 branches of government. Each branch has a different power and certain types of laws and rules they can enforce. They have separation of powers sdso that one branch does not have to much power or too little power.
Separation of power allows each branch of government to do its role while rectifying and improving each other branch in the process. This is in order that each branch has equal power and there is no branch with more or less power than another. The executive branch consists of the President and various departments and agencies. This branch is responsible for enforcing laws. The legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate. Among other things, the legislative branch makes laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies. The Judicial
When our country is faced with severe war debts, currency with no value, and no taxes to fund our country in order to prevent our country from forcing our country and denizens into bankruptcy we will issue several requirements and orders. First there will be uniform currency across the country which will be converted from metals to paper. Each state will be responsible for the taxation of their citizens, while the Federal government will be liable for taxing the states and their citizens in order to maintain a functioning government. Congress shall be held responsible for the coining of money and deciding its value, which will be agreed upon based in if there is enough gold to back in.
According to the textbook the separation of powers is “a feature of the Constitution that requires each of the three branches of government-executive, legislative, and judicial- to be relatively independent of the others so that one cannot control the other.” The Legislative Branch includes the House of Representatives and Senate where they can veto each other’s bills. In the Executive Branch there is the President. Finally, within the Judicial Branch there are the Courts which include the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and district courts.
Separation of Powers is a system in which power is divided between three branches of government. These branches consist of Legislative (Congress), Executive (President), and Judiciary (Supreme Court). Each one of the branches is given a duty to fulfill. If one branch doesn’t fulfill its duties, the other branches can force that branch to fulfill it. There is another system that helps these branches of government to check on each other and limit each other’s powers. It is called Checks and Balances. It helps each branch to limit the power of the other. Each branch has specific duties. The Legislative branch is made to create or repeal laws. The Executive branch executes and enforces the law and the Judiciary branch interprets the laws. The Separation of Powers prevents the power going to one branch. The system prevents the abuse of the power given to each of the branches. The system was used to limit the power of one branch for a reason, now it is used to make obstacles for bills that will help the citizens of this country.
The U.S. Constitution divides the government in three separate powers. These powers of government are known as the legislature, executive, and judiciary branches. This division allows for responsibilities to be divided among the branches and regulates each from becoming more powerful than another. In other works, the separation of powers also provides a check and balance system for the government.
Separation of powers, is the segregation of branches under the constitution. The separation of powers identified three branches of government: by the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. The principle of Separation of power involves the branching of the governmental functions according to the guidelines as outlined in Articles I, II, and III of the US Constitution where these features include judicial, executive and legislative branches, to avoid tyranny. It is a part of a system of checks and balances. Checks and balances play a significant role in the three branches of government. No one branch of government is powered the other. The three branches are independent of the other. Legislature consists of the Congress, the judicial branch consists of the courts, and the executive branch