What Is The Power Of The Constitution

A comparison between the U.S. constitution and Russian constitution is interesting due to the fact that America is often regarded (at least from the view of most Americans) as the pinnacle of freedom and democracy. The Russian Federation on the other hand has a much more complex image. The Russian Federation was formerly a country known as the Soviet Union, which was the pinnacle of communism throughout the 1900’s. Communism is a polar governmental structure compared to the U.S. The Russian Federation is today classified as a democracy, however, there are still remnants of the communist structure seen among leaders as a result of the way that the constitution is constructed.

What are ways the constitution limits the power of the federal government? There are three different ways the constitution limits power. The three different ways are the system of checks and balances, the bill of rights, and federalism. Along with ways the constitution limits power, there are the three branches of government as well. The first branch is the legislative branch, the second is the executive branch, and the third and final branch is the judicial branch. Each branch in the government has a lot of power and they use several ways to distribute their power evenly among other branches.

Federally, there is a commission put together each decade to reassess electoral boundaries; sometimes boundaries are redrawn, sometimes in the event of a population boom in an area – a move from rural to urban. Normally, “the number of voters per constituency should not… vary more than + or – 25% from the average,” (SFU.ca). The number of electoral district equals the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of that province; in New Brunswick, there are currently 55 seats in the Legislative Assembly. This means that, unlike some electoral systems, there is only one candidate running in each riding. For a potential Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to win their seat, they must get a higher percentage of the vote – just one percent higher. Because one only needs one percent more than their contestants, rather than majority of the vote, SMP is sometimes referred to as “first past the post.” Finally, the party and leader can form the government if they have more seats than the other parties; this does not really take into account the popular vote. If the leading party won more than half of the seats it is referred to as a majority government; however, if less than half the seats were won it is called a minority government and, if the opposition and other parties so choose, they can vote to dissolve government, thus calling an election.

“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

Basically, voters select one candidate from their riding, just like in an SMP system, but they also place a vote for which party they would like to form the government. This second vote determines the amount of seats that each party gains proportional to the amount of votes they collected in the countries. The representatives from each party are then made up of the elected representatives from each riding (if that party was able to elect any) and other members selected by the leader1. An STV system, which is what the Citizen’s Assembly recommended to the people of BC, can be found in Ireland, Malta, and in some levels of government in Australia. Voters rank candidates according to their priorities, choosing as many as they wish. For example, a certain voter could select a Conservative as his or her first choice, a Liberal as the second, a New Democrat as third, and then cast no votes for the Green Party. When each a candidate reaches a certain quota of first place votes, they are elected, and the extra first place votes that they did not need are distributed to the other parties according to their overall ranking. If a second candidate is then elected, his or her extra votes are then distributed to the remaining parties, and so on . This system is rather complicated, especially when compared to our current system, but computerized voting systems have generally alleviated any problems.

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was given several new powers, while still allowing the states to maintain their sovereignty. Some of its’ powers included the ability to have jurisdiction over foreign affairs and relations. Similarly, it also possessed the power to make treaties and alliances. Other important powers the new government had were to be able to coin its own money, manage Native American affairs, and create vital establishments such as the national postal service. The army and navy could also be sustained in this new government, as it provided the states with a strong sense of security.

As mentioned the judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court and inferior federal Courts, and the Supreme Court checks and balances the other branches through its power of judicial review. Congress has the constitutional power to create tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court and to change the number of judges. The president nominates the federal judges with the approval of Congress.

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 final reason i think the president has the most power in the constitution is because he’s the chief administrator, chief diplomat, chief legislator, chief of power, and chief citizen. Ever since the constitution started the president has had the most power. I believe the congress has some power they can decline a law and have to authorize some of the president’s actions. But the president can make a law over the congress, so congress is not all that powerful. It’s always been that way and it’s not a bad thing because this country has never been a dictatorship.

There is the Constitutional Court, which upholds the integrity of the constitution, decide how constitutional a law is, and to make amendments to it. The Superior Judicial Council’s job is to solve disputes between the other courts. Its judges are chosen by the other three courts and serve for an eight-year term. The Council of State is the highest court for civil law, and its judges are chosen from a selection of judges chosen by the Superior Judicial Council. The fourth and final court is the Supreme Court of Justice and is the highest criminal court, the judges are chosen the same as the Council of State and both groups of judges serve for four-year terms. All of the courts are as coequal as possible and intertwined as one can see in how they choose their judges.

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.

The system that the Law Commission ultimately recommended was the mixed-member proportional electoral system. In the MMP system a portion of representatives, usually between 50 and 60 percent, are elected from single-member districts, similar to FPTP, with the remainder of seats being elected from party lists, based on the party’s share of the popular vote (Law Commission 22). Each voter gets to cast two votes, one for the party that they support and another for the representative member that they prefer. Party lists can be either closed, where voters are not able to influence the order of candidates, or open, where voters have the ability to influence the ranking of candidates. A threshold for representation is usually set in order to prevent fringe and extremist parties from gaining seats in government. This system is used in Germany, New Zealand, Venezuela and Lesotho (Joseph 113).

Any nationwide endeavor across the world over is always faced with a myriad of challenges when one factor in, the interest of different individuals or groups. During the early years of the USA, there were many problems that politicians at the time faced when trying to create and strengthen the country’s Constitution. In the early 1780’s the young country was in a deep depression, and this played a key role in influencing the exercise as it ultimately led to a heated debate about the powers of the National and State governments. Most of the conservative politicians at the time preferred a stronger federal government while state radicals believed that states should have more power since it was in a better position to determine what was best for their citizens (Jilson, 2009). More sticking points divided the founding fathers which threatened the stability and establishment of the USA, such as slavery and federalism.

The first past the post system runs on the idea that whichever party has the most votes wins. In Canada, the government has split geographical regions into constituencies which are called ridings.Each riding has a representative from each party that has chosen to have an individual represent them. When the election date comes, voters will go to the polling station and cast their vote for whichever individual they want to represent them. Whichever representative that

The number of seats a province is given in Parliament is established based on the population of the province. Voters are then divided into constituencies, also known as electoral boundaries, ridings, or districts. In order to win, candidates must get a highest amount of votes than any other competitor within the same electoral boundary. This means that if candidate A receives 41% of the votes, while candidate B gets 39% and candidate C 20%, candidate A becomes the winner of the election and gains a seat in Parliament. Note that 59% of the electorate opposed candidate A.