The American National Government And Politics

The United States would lose its name and stand divided if the Constitution did not bring the thirteen colonies into one body. Within this governing body, fears arise from the difficulty of controlling power in a central government, while still trying to keep unity between the states. Understanding that the United States was formed based on the people’s irritation with the corruption of the control of power in England, the Constitution reassured the people that their freedoms were going to be kept, but it required their trust. The founders of the United States Constitution established a just government through encompassing equal representation, with the people as the foundation, and protecting the injustices that could arise with the misuse of power.

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.

This book emphasizes the alternative interpretations offered by Americans on the origins of the Constitution. Holton’s purpose with this book was to show that the framers interests involved making America more attractive to investors. In order to do so, they purposefully made the government less democratic with the writing of the Constitution. However, with the addition of the Bill of Rights, one could argue the Framers had at least a slight concern for the American people and their civil liberties.

When America’s founding fathers broke away from England, they weren’t the first colonial Englishmen on the American continent, there were plenty of French, Spanish, Dutch and even Russian colonial outposts established before them. What makes the English colonies along the Eastern seaboard story so important, was the fact that 13 colonies joined together to form what is now known as the United States. Furthermore, this 13 colonies New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia risk their lives, fortunes, and sacred honors to start a new nation free from Great Britain’s rule. In the mist of declaring independence from the most powerful nation on earth, America’s founding fathers created a governmental system that was unfamiliar during their era. America’s founding fathers created a government designed to protect civil liberties and encourage independence, a complex yet young and evolving system.

In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was just written on September 17th. During this time, the common man was still under the power of the Articles of Confederation, a weak document that loosely connected the 13 former colonies. Although the Articles didn’t give the United States of America the strong centralized power that it needed, opposers to the new Constitution would argue that the Constitution took away the rights of the common man and gave that power, that the individual once had, to the federal government. Although this statement is correct, the federal government’s newly given power was used to protect the fundamental rights and liberties of its citizens and create a powerful government in the hopes that it would benefit

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 creates a federal democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Governement, 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 achieve this purpose our Founding Fathers created three main principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). Government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems there are 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 year of 1776 was a time of revolution, independence, and patriotism. American colonists had severed their umbilical cord to the Mother Country and declared themselves “Free and Independent States”.1 The chains of monarchy had been thrown off and a new government was formed. Shying away from a totalitarian government, the Second Continental Congress drafted a document called the Articles of Confederation which established a loose union of the states. It was an attempt at self-government that ended in failure. The Articles of Confederation had many defects which included a weak central government that lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, required equal representation and a unanimous vote to amend the Articles, and had only a

Shortly after America gained independence from England, Americans were faced with the trouble of setting up a strong central government. Several delegates representing their respective states were called to the Continental Congress, where they decided to put together a constitution for the new nation. Delegates agreed that the powers of the government must be limited, so that they wouldn’t resemble the British government. The constitution created by the Congress became known as the Articles of Confederation (1777). Although the government under the Articles of Confederation proved to be useful in establishing western lands, they provided an ineffective form of government due to the economic failures that plagued America.

During and subsequent to The American Revolutionary War, the new Country operated under The Articles of Confederation. Fearing that any central government in time would grow oppressive and tyrannical The Articles deliberately produced a weak government, which in time was destined to fail. The primary causation for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was the failure of the Articles of Confederation. The Delegates of the Convention acknowledged that the only component that possessed the ability to inhibit the public’s freedom was their own government. Whether it was too weak and decentralized (in that it gave too much power to the states) or too centralized and powerful (similar to the British monarchy). The Constitution’s Framers did not believe in a direct democracy; they

Four years after a unit of rebels won their independence from an overseas country, they had decided to form a Constitution that would last, unlike the previous one. They knew that this Constitution would have to protect their citizens from tyranny because their old ruler, King George the Third, was too powerful and unjust. Some ideas that were included in the previous Article, being that there was “...no chief executive, there was no national court system, and there was not even a way for the national government to force a state to pay taxes” (Background Essay), made it too weak to hold the states together. James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution”, was extremely worried that the Constitution would not be strong enough to prevent the government from turning into a tyranny. He believed that anybody in a government with all power is a Tyrant.

In the early parts of America as we know it, there was a document labeled the Articles of Confederations. This was the first written document that was made to set rules and guidelines for how the colonies shall act and be representative. The Articles of Confederation had quite a few flaws however first of which was the lack of power that was allowed for a central government. It is important to realise that America had just won an emotionally and physically draining war in which they fought to abolish the tyrannical rule. They were cautious to make sure they didn’t make a central government too overbearing, and thus ultimately lead to a weak one. Then on May 14, 1787 in Philadelphia, delegates from every original state but Rhode Island gathered in a Constitutional Convention to do their best to improve a flawed Articles of Confederation. In the end, there were three main proposals that were heavily discussed.

Although the constitution was written over 200 years ago, the constitution continues to form the foundation to our modern day america. Nowadays the general consensus is that the constitution is a reliable document that is still relevant to this day. However the trust that we now place in the constitution wasn’t always present. During the time of its ratification there were two political factions ,the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, whose view on the power vested by the constitution clashed. Creating a massive political debate that would shape the future of the nation.

No doubt today in the world the US government is seen as the one to beat in terms of an organized government system. Even other members of the G8 look up to the USA highly for political advice. Different policies, rules and regulations have been put in place since its inception and no matter where you find yourself in the chain of power you dare not disobey them. The history of the current government philosophy would shock many, as two political colleagues who propounded several theories still followed word for word till date, were torn apart by their different political structural views. Popularly known as the rivalry that forged a nation, the battle between Jefferson and Hamilton. When George Washington gave his farewell address (1796) he warned that the creation of political factions, “sharpened by the spirit of revenge,” would most certainly lead to “formal and permanent despotism’’. So it came as a surprise when his two wingmen Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were the ones who proved his warnings to be true. The two political diplomats set up a dual political party system still used in today’s democracy. Most historians claim though George Washington had warned of this, it was inevitable. Some may refer to it as a form of the Hegelian dialect.

Having established a background into the British system of government we can now turn our attention to the United States of America. Located several thousand miles across the Atlantic, this global superpower has much in common with the United Kingdom, principally the values and institutions that render its political system democratic. That being said, the infrastructure of the system in place in the United States is vastly different from that of the UK.

Hello everyone, today I will speak about political structure of USA. I would like to start with some definitions. I know you know most of them but to not get confused by these terms, first we have to know their meaning.