What do a platypus and the Constitution of the United States have in common? There have never been and will never be anything like them again. Of course, for the platypus, that is obvious because God created all animals uniquely. But the Constitution is a different story. It was the first of its kind. No country had ever attempted a government like it before. So what makes it special? It was the blueprint for a democratic republic, and it actually worked. The Constitution has one main pillar that has supported it for the last 2 centuries. This is its precise balance of the power held by the government. To accomplish this, the Constitution specifically states what powers Congress and the president have. The government may not exceed these
Think of the word tyrant. Now just imagine that there was a simple and easy way to stop him or her. That’s what the constitution has done for the U.S.A. Our Constitution has protected us against tyranny since the day it was drafted. The constitution is an official document that was written in May 1787 in the city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The purpose of the constitution is to form a central federal government, to form a separation between federal and state rights, and to give personal liberties to its citizens.
The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.
Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the US Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic. Since then, the design has often been imitated, but important principles have often been ignored in those imitations, with the result that their governments fall short of being true republics or truly constitutional. The Framers of the Constitution tried very hard to design a system that would not allow any one person or group within the government to gain too much power. Personally, I think they
The Constitution lists all the powers states agreed to give to the federal government, and powers not on this list belong to the states or the people. The Founders knew it would be impossible to think of every tiny power the federal government would need, so the list they wrote in the Constitution was basic. To cover to details, they added what we call the “Necessary and Proper Clause”. This clause provides power to Congress to make laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.
To begin with, the US Constitution is the foundation in which the country was built on and what also held the country together in difficult times. The constitution was established to keep states from operating as independent countries, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. “Before Each state acted almost like an independent country. Each ran its own affairs exactly as it saw fit, with little concern for the needs of the republic. The
After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, early Americans were hesitant to create a new federal government and feared that it would become too powerful. To avoid this, the Founding Fathers created the Constitution of the United States of America. The new Constitution was based on several basic principles that limited the power of the federal government and kept it from gaining too much power. These systems helped set a base for the federal government while limiting the powers that it withheld. One of the main parts of the federal government are the three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial.
An example of checks and balances is the two-third vote of Congress to approve a bill that the president has vetoed. Another provision of the Constitution that provides a means of preventing the abuse or misuse of governmental power is higher law which is to be obeyed by the government in the U.S. Constitution. The higher laws were established to protect individual rights. The government cannot use any of its power to take these rights away from any person without due process of law or in times of war. The last but not least provision that prevents the misuse or abuse of governmental power is the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was put into our Constitution to help each person receive the rights they deserve, and to limit the government’s power in order to secure people’s rights.
One example of this is that the President can veto Congressional legislation(Document C). This protects against tyranny by having the separate branches be able to check each other because if Congress were to try topass a law that would harm the rest of the country but benefit only them then the President can protect the country and reject the law. Congress could also try to pass a law that would give them more power than any other branch which would be tyranny. To stop this from happening the President has the power to step in and prevent this from happening. Without the Constitution, the president would not be able to do this.
Did you know that the founding fathers fought to end tyranny? The founding fathers experienced tyranny under King George of England. After the Articles failed, they knew they needed a new, stronger government but they needed to prevent tyranny as well. How does the constitution prevent government abuse of power? The constitution prevents tyranny with the use of federalism,separation of power and a two house congress.The constitution prevents tyranny with the use of federalism.. Federalism is a division of power between central and state governments. The power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments (Doc A). This gives the two governments equal power so one government is not more powerful than the other. The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself .
The Constitution was made to avoid tyranny. They wanted to create a government that avoids having too much power to a person or a group. They also wanted to create a government that wasn’t to weak to support the nation. The Constitution guards against tyranny by creating checks over the branches, giving power to the central government and the states, and creating the three branches separate and distinct.
One of the founding fathers’ major concerns was that having a strong federal government would lead to tyranny, which is defined as “...power (concentrated) in the hands of one individual.” In order to ensure that the United States would not end up with such an overpowered federal government, several principles are included in the constitution that aim to minimize corruption and abuses of power. Some of these principles include: federalism, the separation of powers, checks and balances, and popular sovereignty.
Image a life with the people of your country and you living with fear of the unknown of what the government’s next move because of their absolute power and make decisions and choices without any of the people’s consent. To prevent this our Founding Fathers have written a constitution that has prevented this from ever happening to our government. They have written the constitution to guard from tyranny by incorporating Federalism, Representation of the people, and Checks and Balances.
Federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances and the bill of rights are the four main elements that the constitution is made up of. All four of these elements are what made the constitution strong, lasting over two hundred years. Three separate branches were created that had their own specific powers. The government was then given the power to tax and enforce its laws. The structure of how this one document has governed is what makes the constitution unique. The U.S. constitution established Americas national government and fundamental laws. The constitution guaranteed certain basic rights for the citizens that were unheard of at the time. The constitution established the structure of the federal system and distribution of power between state governments. Citizens that live within the borders of the united states had their own protection of rights. Although the constitution can be flawed in some ways, the document is what had created a great nation; however, the constitution created Americas national government and laws, guaranteed rights for the citizens and continues to represent those living today which makes the constitution unique.
How The Constitution Guarded Against Tyranny Our Founding Fathers met in 1787 to discuss a huge problem: the Articles of Confederation. A few of the problems included were that there was no chief executive and no official court system. After a lengthy debate in Philadelphia, they decided to get rid of the old and replace it with the new United States Constitution. This document includes the basic laws and principles that determine the power given to the government in order to guarantee certain basic rights. James Madison’s big worry about creating this new Constitution was meeting the needs of the people while not giving an individual absolute power, otherwise known as tyranny.
Tyranny in America How does the Constitution guard against tyranny? In May 1787 55 individuals went to Philadelphia to respond to the call for a Constitutional Convention. They met to fix The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was the current system of government that did not work out so well. It did not have a court system and any ruler could be a tyrant, with The Article of Confederation.