What do transportation laws, public education, and welfare programs have in common? All of them are not instituted solely by the state governments but by the central government. These are just a few examples that show the power of the central government has dramatically increased from when it was first instituted (Nosotro). There are many factors that have fueled this increase, but one major cause is the Seventeenth Amendment. The Seventeenth Amendment was added to the Constitution in the early 1900’s and called for the direct election of senators. Ironically, this amendment, which was sold as an expansion of democracy, greatly increased the power of the United States federal government.
In order to understand how this amendment has increased the power of the federal government, one must have a good understanding of the background to this amendment. It was not proposed and ratified due to a fanatical last minute whim of a few senators. Rather, a combination of bribes, scandals, electoral deadlocks, malapportioned legislatures, and the changing of the political tastes combined to make direct election of senators a popular option at the turn of the century (Schiller 2). At the time the House of Representatives was the only body directly elected by the people, and senators were elected by their respective state legislatures rather than by straight vote from their constituents (Keesee 51). The idea for the direct election of senators was not a new idea. Reformers as far back as the 1800’s were interested in limiting the role of state legislatures in Senate elections. Even Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth president of the United States, proposed an amendment that would elect senators through popular election (Levin 44).
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In order to understand and analyze the forces that shaped politics during this time period, political changes must first be examined. One of the biggest changes during this time period was the change in the number of voters. Between 1812 and 1840, the percentage of eligible voters in the United States presidential elections almost tripled, increasing from 26.9 to 80.2 percent while the percentage of states allowing voters to choose presidential electors more than doubled, rising from 44.4 to 95.8 percent, shown in Document A. By 1840, Rhode Island was the only state that didn’t allow all free men to vote.
In Mark R. Levin’s book, THE LIBERTY AMENDMENTS, he proposes amendments to the Constitution called “The Liberty Amendments” (Levin 18). His hope for producing this book of proposed amendments is to “spur interest in and, ultimately, support for the state convention process.” (Levin 18). Levin states he undertook this project because he believes the way that the Constitution, as originally structured, “is the necessity and urgency of restoring constitutional republicanism and preserving the civil society from the growing authoritarianism of federal Leviathan” (Levin 1). Levin believes that the Congress operates in a way that was not intended by the Framers of our country, and has become oppressive to its people in its laws (Levin 3). He also
For the most part, the connection between the Presidential election process of 1788 and the present Presidential election procedure are both determined through the Electoral College process. The Electoral College process made sure people played a crucial role in the selection of the President of the United States. As was previously stated, I have expounded on the process of how the President is elected; the vital role that people played in the election, and the responsibility of the House of Representatives in response to the
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2014. Book.
Cutler, Llyod N. "If it aint broke keep your amendments off my constitution." Washington Monthly, 1 Sept. 1997. Bigchalk Library. Proquest. Centreville Hs Lib.; Clifton, Va. 12 May. 2005 www.library.bigchalk.com.
Foner, Eric. "Chapter 9." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Brief Third ed. Vol. One. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Do the First and Fourth Amendments Protect?" Current Issues & Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument with Readings. Ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 1999. 316-324.
Following the failure of the Articles of Confederation, a debate arose discussing how a centralized government ought to be organized. The prevailing opinion ultimately belonged to the Federalists, whose philosophy was famously outlined in The Federalist Papers. Recognizing that in a free nation, man would naturally divide himself into factions, they chose not to remedy this problem by stopping it at its source; instead, they would limit its effects by placing strict structural safeguards within the government's framework. The Federalists defined a facti...
Foner, E. (2008). Give me Liberty: An American History. New York, Ny: WW. Norton &
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Foner, E. (2012). Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company
30.) Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. 4th ed. (W.W. Norton, 2012), 599.
Kraig, R.A. (2000). The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Volume 3, Number 3, Fall 2000, pp. 363-395
[4] Hickok, Eugene Jr., ed. The Bill of Rights: Original Meaning and Current Understanding. Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1991
According to the Federalists in the early stages of the American republic, a strong central government was necessary to provide uniform supervision to the states thus aiding in the preservation of the Union. This necessity for a more organized central government was a result of the ineffectiveness of the Article of Confederation’s government that was without a unifying government body. One component of this philosophy was the creation of an executive and other federal branche...