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Essays on history & principles of federalism
Essays on history & principles of federalism
Essays on history & principles of federalism
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Background Essay Questions:
1. The constitution was written in Philadelphia in 1787.
2. Two weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation are there was no chief executive and no court system.
3. James Madisons big worry about framing a constitution was that “while the constitution be strong enough to serve the needs of the new nation and yet did not create tyranny?”
4. An example of tyranny by the few is when several generals or religious leaders seize control.
5. Constitution: A list of fundamental principles in which a state or organization is acknowledged to be governed.
Articles of Confederation: America's first constitution
Frame: Basic structure of a concept or system
Tyranny: oppressive rule by the government
Document A: Document
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Federalism guards against tyranny because it splits the power, which makes it so no one country can seize all the power.
Document B: Document Analysis:
Madison’s main idea is that if all powers combine tyranny will occur.
Yes, he believes if the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches combine tyranny will begin.
Executive- President; Judicial- Supreme Court; Legislative- Congress
He would not be happy, because he wants all 3 powers to be separated from each other; and that can't happen if there is 1 representative for 2 powers.
The separation of powers guards against tyranny because it separates the three branches, making sure no power is greater than the other.
Document C: Document Analysis:
Madison’s main idea is that each branch should check on each other, “may be the check on the other”
The house can impeach the president
The president can check the power of the Supreme Court by appointing its members.
The supreme court has the ability to declare laws
The branches can approve or disapprove each other. In the constitution it says that depending on your population you can get so many representatives(Doc D).
From five states arose delegates who would soon propose an idea that would impact the United States greatly. The idea was to hold a meeting in Philadelphia called the Constitutional Convention in 1787 meant to discuss the improvements for the Articles of Confederation and would later be called the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution was greatly influenced by Ancient Rome, the Enlightenment, and Colonial Grievances.
Separation of power prevents the power from falling all into the hands of one or a few and therefore having tyranny. (Madison FP # 47) It prevents this by having the U.S Government split into three branches, Legislative Branch (Congress), Executive Branch (President), Judicial Branch (The Courts). The Con...
In document C says, ¨The constant aim is to divide and arrange the powers in a manner that they may be a check on one another.¨ This tells that the constitution is written so that the three branches of government are constantly checked by one another because a law is unfair, biased, or unconstitutional. This also makes it to where the branches of government can't make whatever law they want allowing them to have complete power to do whatever they please thus preventing tyranny. If the branches couldn't check each other they would be able to easily pass laws that only benefit themselves and they could make laws that would put people in harm's way, being able to check each other and putting that in the constitution was a very insightful task. Being able to check each other prevented any one branch from gaining and holding complete control over the
The separation of powers keeps any one branch from gaining too much power by creating 3 separate, distinct branches power can be shared equally among. According to Madison, “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”(Document B) In other words, to avoid tyranny and achieve liberty, the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) must be separate and diverse. The purpose of a separation of powers is to divide the powers of the government so there is not only one central source of power. The three branches must be as distinct as possible to avoid falling into the hands of one individual leader. There are also checks and balances between these three branches. Checks and balances are a system of each branch monitoring an...
Madison states several things in his papers that will be used in the United States Constitution. He says: “authority will be derived from and dependent on the society, because society is broken into so many parts, interests and classes of citizens…”, ”government must protect the weak as well as themselves.”. “Principles of justice” and the “general good” of the people are also mentioned.
The constitution was a document that embodies the fundamental laws and principles by which the U.S is governed. The constitution states basic rights for its citizens. Delegates signed the constitution on September 17, 1787. There is a total of 27 constitutional amendments. The reasoning for writing it was for a stronger federal government - legislative, executive and judicial. The constitution was a break with a past of ‘unfair’ taxes, wars and ‘unfair’ treatment.
The third guard against tyranny was checks and balances which means that each branch can check on each other.It says in Madison's quote in Document C that the several offices were arranged so that they can be a check on the other. Document C shows that the branches are separated by congress, president, and the courts, which are the three main parts of the constitution.Checks and balances protects against tyranny by giving the branches the power to check on other branches.
Madison was very concerned about the negative effects of factions: “[a]mong the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction” (Federalist No. 10). In the most widely-read of the Federalist papers, Madison states that one of the strongest arguments in favor of the Constitution is the fact that, through a system of checks and balances, it
...e protection of individual liberties as well as the expression of self interest were of the highest importance when creating the Constitution and a new system of government. The idea of separation of powers along with checks and balances, coupled with an encouraged environment of expression eventually led to the ratification of the Constitution with a Bill of Rights in 1791 and the birth of dual federalism.
Our Constitution establishes three branches of government and defines their very existence. The reason for the three branches is to separate the powers. The phrase “separation of powers” isn’t in the constitution, but it best explains the intention of the Constitution. It is essential that the assignment of lawmaking, enforcing and interpreting be spread out among the separated powers to ensure that all power doesn’t fall into the lap of one group, or even a power-hungry individual. The powers of which I’m speaking that were intentionally separated by way of the Constitution are the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and finally, the Judicial Branch.
Dividing power helps to check its growth in any one direction, but power cannot be divided absolutely equally. In the republican form of government, the legislative branch tends to be the most powerful. That is why the framers divided the Congress into two branches, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and provided for a different method of election in each branch. Further safeguards against legislative tyranny may be neces...
The principle of separation of powers is laid out in Articles I, II, and III, in effort to avoid tyranny. It is a part of a system called check and balances. The check and balances play the roles of the three branches of government. This system was made so that no one branch will over power the other. The three branches come together and help one another by being independent of the other. The legislative branch consists of the Congress, the judicial branch consists of the courts, and the executive branch consists of the president. For an example, when a bill is in progress and the chief executive (president or governor) does not approve of it, he can reject legislation and return it to the legislature with reasons for the rejection. This is a process called veto power.
The separation of powers protects against tyranny because it makes sure that one branch of government can be more powerful and have more say than another so that there can't be any tyranny. This means that the Legislative Branch should be completely different from the Executive or the Judicial Branch. This would separate all the powers needed into three separate parties. The different branches could have different viewpoints to make sure that almost everyone is pleased with the government. This may prevent tyranny by making people not want to try to take over the government because they think it is in good hands and the three branches of government are hard to take over, since there are three whole branches.
The separation of powers separates the central government into three branches. The three branches are the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. All of the different branches have power over specific things. This guards against tyranny because it doesn’t allow any of the branches to do whatever they want. In Doc B, it says that the great departments of power should be separate and distinct. This helps because if they all had the same power, they would have control over anything they wanted to.