When the US became independent, it created the Articles of Confederation. It was the first Constitution of the United States. Under the Articles of Confederation, states had the power. The new nation had a fear of strong central government. People thought that their liberty will be limited if a king had the power. Even though the Articles of Confederation was created to ensure a stable country, it has some weaknesses, which were creating problems. In order to bring solution to the problems, the US Constitution was created. Although the Constitution solved a lot of problems, it still shows a pessimistic view of government. The Constitution’s distrust toward the government is reflected through its principles such as checks and balances, separation of powers, limited government etc. These principles reveal a negative view of the government because of the fact that powers are divided up among different branches and each branch acts as a checkpoint for others. One of the most important principle of the Constitution is the separation of powers. This principle divides power between the legislative, executive and judicial Branch and each branch has its own duty. The separation of powers was established to prevent the concentration and abuse of power by any one branch. For example, the legislative branch is responsible for making laws, whereas, the judicial branch is responsible for enforcing laws (Article 1 & 3). On the other hand, the executive branch cannot make laws, but it can
The separation of power is a concept established by framers and refinements that influenced the establishment. It was designed to prohibit one branch of government from having too much power it is also known as checks and balances it distributes and limits the use of power between the three branches of government: legislative, executive ,and judicial. However, Each branch has certain abilities but is checked by another branch to make sure that branch does not abuse its power( Three...Gov. ). For example,”The president appoints judges and the departmental secretaries, but theses appointments must be approved by the senate. The congress can pass a law, but the president can veto it. The Supreme Court can rule a law to be unconstitutional, but the congress, with the state, can amend the constitution” (Three...Gov. ). The legislative is the primary branch made up of the house of representative and the senate. At first, the framers had planned to for the house of representative to have its center of attention on daily concern, while the senate is further deliberative but as time passed by their roles changed both now have an identical amount of power as well as duties(legislative). This branch has the ability to make laws and also to impeach officials like the well known investigation that occurred in 1974 when president Richard Nixon was involved in the watergate scandal that led him to getting impeached but, step down before the processes had finished.
With the U.S. Constitution one of the strengths is how it divides federal powers between three main branches, legislative, executive, and judicial. Which is defined by the separation of powers doctrine, and provides a system of checks and balances to prevent one branch from overpowering the other. This is why separation of powers is important because if one person had unlimited power, then others would be suppressed. The separation of powers divides certain tasks among the three branches so that they can check each
One of the most important principles incorporated in the U.S. Constitution is separation of powers. The U.S. Constitution divided the central government into three branches and created a system of checks and balances as a way to prevent the concentration of power. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” In order to be sure that the main
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.
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.
“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it,” (Albert Einstein). Just as Einstein said, United States citizens needed to decide whether or not they should uphold the Constitution with the "determination" Einstein illustrated. After the Revolutionary War, colonists tried to find new means of national government. Subsequently, they settled with the Articles of Confederation. Realizing that the central government was given barely any power, a variety of political leaders came up with a solution which was soon released to the public: the United States Constitution. Federalists and Anti-federalists took sides and set off into a fierce debate, determining whether they should support the ratification
Furthermore, the Legislative makes the laws. Executive, enforces the laws. And Judicial, judges the laws. This way, each of these branches can check each other. Federalist paper #47 states, “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.¨ This is saying that without the power being divided between the three branches of government, there would be
After the American Revolution, the US was in deep trouble. The Articles of Confederation had failed, and the nation needed a new form of government. The first option was using the Constitution. The Constitution provided a quick solution for the nation. It gave the national government the power to act in place of the people (i.e. the government would be representing the people). America would be a democracy. The people would be able to elect leaders into the government who are smart, strong, and will best represent what the people want. This democratic form of government has proven to work within individual states, so it will work to govern the nation as a whole. Also, the Constitution will not allow a monarch to form. Laws will consistently be enforced, which also means that everybody will be paying fair taxes. People's natural rights are provided and protected in the preamble of the Constitution, and the constitution will unite us as one large nation which will be stronger. Despite all of these strong aspects of the constitution, many people were concerned about having one government rule over so much land, and because of the crisis that the United States was in, the constitution had been rushed, and there were many little parts that had been overlooked when it was made. Another viewpoint said that a bill of rights had to be added to the constitution. This side believed that the constitution should be revised carefully and thoroughly before it is used to govern America.
The constitution splits the power given to national government into three branches, which are separate from each other: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The separation of powers was based on the ideas of Montesquieu, with him ‘L’esprit de lois’ which means the spirit of the law. The executive plays the role of administrating law. The president does this in many ways , for example he; executes federal laws and programs, conducts foreign policy , commands the armed forces, negotiates treaties and other such roles. Checks and balances another main factor of the constitution comes in here, as the people get to keep a check on the president every 4 years with the presidential election, which stops any tyranny of powers. This can also be seen in another branch of government. The legislature passes law, this is done through congress. Congress is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Its roles include;
The constitution first started to provide protection over tyranny in the summer of 1787 where fifty-five delegates met in Philadelphia to help readjust the national government for the better. The task of each representative was to come together to create ideas without letting one person or any one group be in hold of too much power in order for the central government to grow stronger. The constitution had help led by the Articles of Confederation with their influence on not having a court system to make the state force a pay on taxes. The main challenge was to generate a Constitution that would be strong enough to retain possession of power for each state to a minimum so not a single person was the only one to have power or control. The guard on tyranny was supported in 4 ways federalism,separation of powers, checks and balances and small/large state compromises.
The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation prompted the states to call a meeting to revise the Articles. The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia led to an entirely new framework of government. As the Constitutional Convention drew to a close, Americans debated whether or not to ratify, or approve, the Constitution. Many states insisted that a bill of rights be added. In the end, the Constitution was ratified and it included the Bill of Rights. The Constitution has successfully served as our framework for more than 200 years.
So, in turn, the separation of powers separated into three governing entities legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judiciary branch. The legislature is responsible for making laws and making sure there is sufficient money to operate the government (An overview). The executive branch is responsible for the applying and running the public policy passed, and the legislature branch funds it(An Overview). “The judiciary branch is responsible for construing the constitution, laws and applying their interpretation to controversies brought be for it” (An Overview). The reason for the distribution among the three branches was to save the people from autocracy (Magleby 45).
Countless people within our world note the constitution of the United Kingdom as an admirable example of a democracy existing with an uncodified constitution, arguably one of only two in the world- seeing as there are at least several other countries that maintain uncodified features. Arguably there are several strengths to the UK constitution, such as its flexibility, the fact that it has democratic rule, implements effective government and that it is based on history and tradition. On the other hand, it debatably has its weaknesses: centralization, its occasional incoherency, lack of protection of rights and the rise of elective dictatorships have backed criticism. Firstly the main strength of the British constitution is its flexibility,
When written, the Constitution laid out the basis for the separation of powers. In order to prevent any one branch of having complete control and power, each of the branches of government has certain powers and responsibilities in order to keep each other from exerting too much power. This is known as checks and balances.
The doctrine of the separation of powers is defined as the constitutional principle that limits powers vested in any person or institution. In the doctrine of the separation of powers, it has been divided into three branches, which is a legislative, executive, and judicial power of a government. First of all, the legislative is talking about the making of laws; it also consists of the Parliament and the senate. Next, the executive is to place the law into operation, which is it is a branch that execute the business of the government, such as the President, Vice-Presidents, Prime Minister, the Cabinet, the