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The U.s. Political System

Decent Essays

The U.S. political system was planned out in the Constitution. This is a living document that can be amended and that is still constantly up for interpretation. The document has seven articles that lay out how the government is set up, plus 27 amendments. The first ten amendments make up the Bill of Rights. It is significant that our political system includes the Bill of Rights because it illustrates how we not only set up our government to govern but how we also set it up in a way that inherently protects the rights of the people. This was largely due to the influence of John Locke, who believed every person has the right to life, liberty, and property, and that the government has a responsibility to protect those rights. In Article 1, the Constitution lays out the powers and responsibilities of the legislative branch. This branch is in charge of creating legislation and controlling the purse. The Constitution establishes two components of this branch: the House of Representatives and Senate, which together make up Congress. The Founding Fathers decided to have two houses of Congress because of representation disputes between large and small states. Big states wanted the number of representatives each state got to be based off of population, so they would have more representation. Smaller states wanted each state to receive the same number of representatives, so they would not have less power than bigger states. The Constitution found a compromise by making two houses of

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