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DBQ Essay: How The Constitution Protects Against Tyranny

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The first method the Constitution protects against tyranny is federalism. This principle has the power to govern divided into two levels being the national government and the state government (Doc. A). Each level has power over the other. The national government deals with issues that affect all Americans or issues that deal with the whole country while the state government covers more local and social issues such education and marriage laws (Doc. A). Some of their powers overlap such as making and enforcing laws, taxing and setting up courts (Doc. A). This evidence helps to explain why the Constitution guards against tyranny because neither level of government has all the power and they protect the citizens from the other level.
Another method the Constitution protects against tyranny is the separation of powers with checks and balances. The government is separated into three branches so that all the power is not in the same hands (Doc. B). For example, a person can not hold office in multiple branches because that would give them too much power. The three branches, legislative, executive and …show more content…

The congress is divided into two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives (Doc. D). In the Senate representation is equal; each state has two senators (Doc. D). In the other house, the House of Representatives, the number of representatives is based on population (Doc. D). The House gives the large states more representation because of the larger population giving them more congressmen. The Senate helps the small states gain representation by being giving all states the same amount of senators. This prevents large states from controlling all decisions or the large states being overpowered by the small states. This evidence further explains why a bicameral legislature against tyranny because no state holds most of the power and are all represented in a way that gives power to

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