Controlling The State: Constitutionalism

People have been arguing for years about who should have more power, either the federal government or the state. People arguing that the states should have more power than the government because they care more about the people. Then other people will say that the federal should have majority of the power since they oversee everything the states do. I believe that the federal government and the state government should have shared power, but I think the federal government should have the powers such as declaring war and things to help the people as a whole. Then the states should have the power to do what they think is the best things for the people of their state.

What are ways the constitution limits the power of the federal government? There are three different ways the constitution limits power. The three different ways are the system of checks and balances, the bill of rights, and federalism. Along with ways the constitution limits power, there are the three branches of government as well. The first branch is the legislative branch, the second is the executive branch, and the third and final branch is the judicial branch. Each branch in the government has a lot of power and they use several ways to distribute their power evenly among other branches.

The constitution guarded against tyranny by giving us federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and large vs. small states. The constitution was written in Philadelphia in the year of 1787. This established America’s national government and fundamental laws

Since the ratification of the Constitution, more than 11,000 amendments have been proposed. The Constitution of the United States of America was Officially ratified in 1789. This makes the document over two-hundred years old. Since the time of its writing and eventual ratification, the document has been amended and interpreted in many ways. Whether it be prohibition to the abolition of slavery. The Constitution has been constantly updated over time. It has not laid stagnant with the time. The Constitution has remained the document off of which we have based our country for many years. A major question that has been posed is, why do we as a country still feel bound to this document written so many years ago? The reasons are fairly simple. The Constitution of the United States can and has been over many years amended, the laws and thoughts of a people can be expressed through the Constitution, and the constitution has functioned, with a few bumps in the road, fairly well over the last two-hundred years. The people of the United States should still stand behind this Constitution because it infact still serves us well today in many ways. A few being that it can be amended and “Fixed”, and another being that it does still protect our rights as citizens.

Since the advent of human government, one of the principle fears held by the constituents of the government has always been to prevent any form of tyranny or abuse within it. Tyranny can be loosely described as one person or a group of people having total power in a government leading to the subjugation and oppression of people’s rights. Many new nations wish to eliminate any aspect of their government that may eventually lead to tyranny. The United States was no different in this respect; the framers of the Constitution longed to have no signs of tyranny in their government because they had gone to war with Britain for that very reason. In 1787, a group of fifty-five delegates came from

Refer to Table 1-1 of The American Democracy, and in 100 to 150 words, identify and explain America’s 3 core political ideals and the 3 rules of American politics.

Due to new political philosophies sprouting from the European enlightenment, many societies found themselves deciding between the conventional absolutist government, and the revolutionary constitutionalist government. Ultimately, constitutionalism was the most effective form of government during 17th and 18th century Europe because it best protected the natural rights of citizens and prevented tyranny and corruption.

The Constitution is the Supreme of laws of the nation, which protects the people’s rights. The Constitution includes many amendments that provide the people many unalienable rights. The founding fathers fear of tyranny influenced them to create a restriction of power for the government, and create check and balances between the different branches of government. As a result of check and balances, the judicial branch was assigned to examine the constitutionality of certain laws passed by Congress. Moreover, the judicial branch, that use the judicial review to give power to the Supreme Court to revise and ban laws that are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court tries to balance the rights of the individuals with the responsibility of the society. However, there have been many cases in which the Constitution does not say to whom the power belongs to. For example, Abortion has been a controversial issue

Therefore, the Constitution was made as a primary structure and function of government which includes legitimacy and organization of government. Legitimacy meaning to keep the government's action within the guidelines of its purpose, while the organization of government is the separation of powers. A system assigning specific powers to individual branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial, nevertheless they share their power (39). As mentioned before, “In Texas, the traditionalistic/individualistic political cultures have limited the government’s ability to act” (42). This along with the belief in limited government continues up to today. The division of power between the nation and state, as well as the three branches of government, don't allow any branch from becoming too powerful, nonetheless, the power isn’t truly separated rather it's been overlapping and shared among each other (47).

Individual rights are a very crucial part of our United States constitution, because whether these rights are being provided towards a criminal defendant or a victim the goal of our national government is to provide the same level of rights adequately to all its citizens. From the time in which the new judicial federalism began up until now, these rights have been more and more in debate case after case both in federal and state courts. A good example to this fact is a comparison between 3 different cases that pertain to decisions from both state and federal court, these cases are Maryland v Craig, Pennsylvania v Ludwig, and Ohio v Self. These cases deal with the defendant’s right to confront witnesses when the witness is a child who is

Tyranny is the absolute power held by one person or a group of people . The U.S Constitution guards against tyranny by including the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism.

The Constitution has protected the positive liberties of citizens in the United States of America. However, it is vital to ask the question: How does the Constitution affect governance today? Considering it was written over 225 years ago, by the Founding Fathers who had no perspective on what problems the United States would be facing and what affective governance would be needed for those specificities. It was designed for a nation that was composed of 4 million people and out of that number, 700,000 were slaves. In fact, those who were free, 95% were farmers. Currently the United States has approximately 319 million people Positive aspects included in the Constitution can take form in a plethora of ways, ranging from extensive social

This chapter first begins by discussing America's constitutional history within the role of the federal government. It explains how liberals have changed from the mainly classic liberals such as John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, to ones such as John Dewey and John Maynard Keynes. It also addresses how legislative power is delegated, including the role federal bureaucracy plays in this area. One issue that is brought up in the process of this is whether the practice of delegating legislative power is constitutional or not. Expanding on this is the issue of separation of powers, especially since Article 1 vests all legislative power in Congress. Continuing on with this same thought is the issue of delegating in the domestic context, because while

In creating the Constitution, the states had reacted differently on the subject, whereas some were against it and others understanding. The Constitution was made in the May of 1787 in Philadelphia. It's purpose being to answer the call for a constitutional convention where fifty-five delegates came. Though Rhode Island's representative had not come and New Hampshire's would not come until July. The matter of the meeting was to create a new constitution since the existing Articles of Confederation did not work. It was too weak and let states act independently, and thus the challenge was to create a stronger one without creating a tyranny and hold the nation together. The new constitution would have to hold the states and people together, but not let any of the new branches or governments from the new frame gain too much control. The question was how they did it, how did all of their measures help avoid tyranny? Tyranny is the accumulation of power used unfairly in the hands of a certain person or group. The Constitution guarded against tyranny by including federalism,

Thank you for taking time to write to me and let me know that you have completed Hillsdale College’s course entitled Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution. As you now, this valuable courses teaches us the meaning and history of the United States Constitution, and allows us to have a deeper understanding of our Founding Fathers and the special gift of liberty and personal freedom they created for this country.