Separation Of Power In America Essay

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.

The feebleness of Congress was a major weakness of the Articles of Confederation. When the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777, they created a “loose confederation” of states (Pageant, 181). This meant that each state was independent and sovereign, linked by Congress only to deal with common problems and foreign affairs. Congress was meant to be part of a united central power of the government, but due to the abuse suffered from the king, the states so limited the powers of the central government to the point of powerlessness.

Through the years America has been built on freedom. Freedom to choose, freedom of religion, freedom to speak, and freedom for just about any person to complete anything they wish within that of the law. These laws have already been place in spot to keep and protect our freedom.

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

The Articles of Confederation was a loose “league of friendship” between the thirteen colonies that would create a confederation in contrast to Great Britain 's unitary system. While the Articles of Confederation helped establish a systemic role in trying to unify many of the states under a weak central government, it later created many more problems than solutions. One of them being that Congress had no ability to propose taxes to deal with war debts and running the government. Another weakness was that Congress did not have the ability to regulate commerce among states and foreign nations which hurt Congress’s credibility. One of the most considerable weaknesses of Congress under the Articles of Confederation was its failure to provide for a strong central government. The Articles of Confederation was created to not compare with the totalitarian regime of the British and made sure of not creating a strong central government. The problem was that without a strong central government it eliminated all sovereignty that the central government had, giving increased sovereignty to states which lead to increased chaos. It is seen that Shays Rebellion was that nail in the coffin of The Articles. Lead by David Shay a group of farmers who had served in the Continental Army marched to Springfield, Massachusetts to stop the state court from foreclosing on the veterans farms. Congress’s failure in being able to formulate a militia and stop the disgruntled farmers was the end of The

The thirteen American colonies unified by forming a national government that began as a singular body of government under the Articles of Confederation and evolved into a government with multiple branches under the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation acted as a plan of government to help America get back on its feet during and after the Revolutionary War. However, Congress could not enforce the laws of The Articles of Confederation or ensure that their taxes would be collected. After the war America owed a lot of money to other countries and could not pay it unless they started to tax more. They faced serious economic problems and had to rely on the states for money. Therefore, people did not agree with the Articles because it taxed

However, the most important power was that Congress had the right to obtain territory and control development of the western territories, which was previously controlled by their mother country, Great Britain. (Doc D) With the Articles of Confederation, the United States was able to break away from their mother country and become a free nation, setting up their own government. Although the articles set the United States free, it was unable to provide them with a solid government. Leaders like John Jay and James Madison criticized the Articles of Confederation because of the weak government. (Doc G) There were several problems between the states and the central government. For instance, sometimes the states refused to give the government the money it needed, and they engaged in tariff wars with one another, bringing interstate trading to a halt. The government could not pay off the debts it had incurred during the revolution, including paying soldiers who had fought in the war and citizens who had provided supplies to the cause. (Doc C) In addition, the new nation was unable to defend its borders from British and Spanish encroachment because it could not pay for an army when the states would not contribute the necessary funds. Another serious problem was that Congress could not pass needed measures because they lacked nine-state majority required to become laws. The states

In United States v Nixon, five burglars broke into the Democratic Party headquarters. After investigations, president Nixon received a subpoena ordering him to release tapes and transcripts connected to meetings between him and some individuals who had been indicted in the incident. Although the president released edited copies of the transcripts, his attorney filed a motion to quash the subpoena on grounds of executive privilege. The attorneys claim was that the judiciary lacked the powers to determine the president’s claim of executive privilege. It was held that no individual, not even the president is above the law and, therefore, the president cannot use executive privilege to withhold criminal evidence. The problem of separation of powers in this case arises from the president’s attorney that the concept of executive privilege stems from the doctrine of separation of powers and the independence of the executive insulates the president from judicial proceedings. Although the constitution provides for the separation of powers, these powers are not intended to operate independently and the assumption that the president is immune to judicial proceedings would affect the constitutional balance and impair the functionality of the judiciary. It is noteworthy that the offenses that led to the resignation of Nixon were relatively minor and the crisis was constitutional.

Imagine if you had to write a whole new form of government that would protect corruption, freedom and ensure a good future for the sake of all its people. In May of 1787 they began to drift into Philadelphia, 55 individuals all responding to the call for a Constitutional Convention. The problem facing this remarkable group of men was that the existing Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, just wasn't working. The challenge was to write a Constitution that was strong enough to hold the states and the people together without letting any one person, or group, or branch, or level of government gain too much control. How does the government protect the citizens from an oppressive and cruel leader or group?

Document A: Federalism guards against tyranny because separating the power between the National government and state government allows there to be no one government with too much power. This is because since the two governments have different jobs and different powers this makes it so each government has its limits and the government will be protected from becoming a dictatorship. For example in document a it says that Central or National government can regulate trade, conduct foreign relations, declare war etc. while the each of the States are allowed to set up local governments, hold elections, establish schools, pass marriage and divorce laws and regulate in-state business, which are all things you would normally do locally. Although both

Drafted in 1777 and later ratified in 1781, The Articles of Confederation created a very weak central government and just about left the 13 colonies to govern and rule themselves. It was extremely weak for a number of reasons,*1 One major reason being that the government did not have the power to tax the states and another reason was the fact that laws required a 9/13 vote to pass in congress. The Articles of Confederation made it so power was distributed between each individual colony, who then had powerful state governments. While these were just a fraction of the things that caused the Articles of Confederation to be inadequate, surprisingly this is in fact what the states wanted, a national government with less power. *2 “The fights

The Articles of Confederation was ratified on March 1, 1781. Under these types of articles, “the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress, serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes” meaning that the colonies will have to govern their own differences unless it’s substantial to contact their colony’s delegate. (Foner, Garraty) The Articles of Confederation had many flaws or weaknesses in which the colony/state only had one vote in Congress, regardless of size, “small states and large states had the same voting weight in Congress and there was no proportionality in voting matters.” (Brackemyre) This was a major situation, many states with larger populations felt cheated and felt as if it was unfair. They also did not have the power to tax in any situation “only the states, not Congress, (has) the authority to impose taxes and raise revenue” how the money was raised within each colony/state was up to the state legislatures. (Brackemyre) Time after

The Articles of Confederation was weak because it had the inability to regulate trade and levy taxes. And due to that, the states refused to give the money to the government that they needed so they engaged in tariff wars. With in fact, "stopping interstate commerce.” Due to all of this conflict, the government can not pay off the debt due to the revolution, includes, paying off the soldiers and citizens. In the end, the states ignored congress and therefore, they are powerless to make any further actions which meant they really couldn’t carry out their duties.

The articles of Confederation had many faults and weaknesses. Firstly, it had a unicameral legislature to one vote per state. A 2/3 majority needed to pass legislation and vote to amend Articles. The unicameral legislature left the states with one legislative or parliamentary chamber. This left the 13 states and the central government with no separation of powers. The central government had no national executive or court system. Along with those problems the central government had no power to collect taxes, raise an army, or even regulate trade. With one vote per state to change or amend the Articles a unanimous agreement. This left the 13 states and the central government with no separation of powers. This intern left the central government weak since the states maintained a majority

They did not trust strong governments, so the central government very little power (Murphy). There was no court system given to the national government so the states were in charge of it all, which meant complaints could not be filed against them (Brackemyre). One of the only powers the national government had was to declare war but they were not allowed to raise an army to fight it and it lacked a chief executive to conduct foreign affairs. The United States also had an ineffective legislative under the Articles of Confederation. Amendments that they wanted to be passed needed to be vote on unanimously and there had to be a nine out of thirteen vote to pass a law (Kelly). Each state also had only one despite their population. Under the Articles, the government did not have a stable economic system, lacked key central leadership and had an inefficient legislature.