Articles Of Confederation Strengths And Weaknesses

1. The Articles of Confederation provided for a loose confederation. The government had one house Legislature. There was no separation of powers within the government. Separation of power keeps one body from gaining too much power.

The states were so varied that it was difficult, in not impossible, for them to reach complete agreements. In order for amendments to be made to the Articles of Confederation, the representatives form all 13 States under the unicameral Congress were required to reach a unanimous vote. As a result, change was rare, if near impossible, among the greatly varied states which all acted in their own personal interest. The limitation of the necessity of a unanimous vote can be seen in the letter from the Rhode Island Assembly to Congress, through which, representatives of Rhode Island voted to resist an impost on imported goods, which would not benefit all states, and would prove “repugnant to the liberty of the United States” (Doc A). The fact that opposition from only one state could ruin the unity of all the other states to make change greatly blockaded the effectiveness of the Articles. Even John Jay, on of America’s Founding Fathers, admitted that United States affairs under the Articles always “seem[ed] to lead to some crisis” (Doc G). John Jay, like many of the conservative upper class citizens, favored a government that focused on protecting the upper echelons of societies, such as the industrialists, believing in the policy of trickle down economics, where prosperity of the wealthy would eventually trickle

The Article of Confederation was our first form of government. The Article of Confederation had a couple of weaknesses, the federal government could not tax and there was no executive branch leader. The weaknesses lead to the Continental Convention. The government want to fix these weaknesses. The Federalist believed in a strong central government with most of the power giving the states little power and the Anti- Federalist believed in a weak central government and believed that the states should have more power. The Anti-federalist at the convention knew they were losing the battle for a weak government so they ask for the bill of rights to be added into the constitution, in order to protect the american citizens rights. To balance

Congress was very poor so they did not have enough money to fund a military. The setup of the Articles made it very hard to make any changes to the government. The only branch of government was a unicameral legislature. With each state given a single vote, it took at least nine states to agree for a law to pass. Before the articles could be amended, all thirteen states had to agree.

During the Revolutionary War, colonists believed that they needed a sense of unified government, so this led to the creation of the Articles of Confederation, the first written constitution of the United States (history.com). Although the Articles of Confederation had its strengths, such as allowing the central government to create treaties and maintain military, it had many weaknesses, such as preventing the central government to levy taxes and regulate trade. It also could not be changed unless there was a unanimous decision and it lacked a stable currency. Since the creation of the Articles of Confederation had many issues and weaknesses, the Continental Congress rewrote the Articles into what is now known as the U.S Constitution. The Constitution established a national government, guaranteed basic rights for the colonists and revised almost everything that was wrong in the original Articles, such as the sovereignty that resided primarily in the states and the lack of power from the national government. The Constitution was later ratified by all 13 states in May 1790, with the support of the Federalist Party. [A] Federalists believed in the commitment to a strong national government and in the practice of a separation of powers. However, Anti-Federalists had the opposite view which was the opposition of a strong national government, the support for small landowners, and the representation of rights of the people. Anti-Federalists believed that a strong national government

The Constitution of the United States of America was framed in part by The Articles of

History is full of unique and inspiring moments in time. U.S. History is one of the most fascinating aspects of history with notable events that have shaped the United States significantly. Two documents that led to a united nation were the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. constitution. Even though these documents are extremely crucial in American history, both possess weaknesses of their own. The Articles of confederation has two weaknesses, which were solved in the constitution, but still had a glaring problem.

The Articles of Confederation was an agreement under which the 13 original states established a federal government in 1781. The states called their confederation the United States of America, continuing the name used in the Declaration of Independence. The Articles of Confederation served as the new nation's basic map of government until the first government under the Constitution of the United States was formed in 1789. The Congress of the Confederation operated the government under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles attempted to balance the need for an effective national government with the traditional

The framers of the United States Constitution ultimately decided to give more power to the central government over the state governments. One thing that influenced this are the results of the Articles of Confederation. The strengths and the weaknesses of the Federal Government. Also the Strengths and weaknesses of the State Government. The Central Government was a needed part of America in order for us to be what we are today.

The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.

Unfortunately for the National Government, Congress did not have any power to collect taxes from people in each individual state. The Congress could ask for money, but could not by any mean force states to pay them. The National Government greatly needed money to cover expenses and debts. Congress could not pay the Nation’s debt, which meant they could not provide much needed

The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States. They were written during the revolutionary war to create a more unified government, and to establish what the national government could and could not do. The Articles let each state keep “sovereignty, freedom, and independence,” and created a very weak central government. For example, Congress could not regulate commerce or impose taxes. The impact that the Articles of Confederation had on federalism for the next few years was: the federal government had very few powers, and most of the authority remained in control of each individual state.

The Articles of Confederation, a written agreement that ensured each state’s sovereignty, freedom and independence, led America to victory over the British centralized government. During the late eighteenth century, the empowered government terrified the Americans, hence the thirteen colonies decided to spread governance powers equally to all functional states. The states had absolute dominance over the Congress due to the Articles of Confederation. While the localized power of states seemed to be promising, the system posed great threat to the major components of a democratic government, which are coercion, revenue, and legitimacy (Lecture 1 - The Roots of Government). The system of localized power did not ensure legitimacy, which referred to people’s recognition of national government. Congress’s lack of power to control each state’s actions caused great chaos. Eventually, national government’s lack of power and inability to unify the states exposed multiple flaws in the Articles of Confederation; consequently, a new supreme law, the Constitution was established by the founding fathers. The new supreme law successfully altered the imbalanced system into a novel democratic government.

One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.

The Articles of Confederation were designed and formed from the thirteen states that created a Confederation known as the “league of friendship”; their goal was to find solutions for problems; and one of the first attempts to create a system. The Articles of Confederation was our nation’s first constitution; during the last years of the Revolutionary war, the government had been conducting our country’s affairs helping to negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1783.