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Strengths and weaknesses of limited government
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In the previous week I agreed with the philosophy of originalism and felt that the Founding Fathers had created a timeless framework for our government in the Constitution. They certainly did not expect the “modern government” we have now to get past their carefully worded Constitution. I do believe they thought they had protected us and were right in their mistrust of the government and the loss of individual freedom which comes with its growth. The Founders aim in the Constitution was to declare their reasons for independence and show the choice of government they chose over the large unresponsive English Government (Pilon, Page 259). Pilon further explains the only reason to have government is to keep the rights it is bound to protect. Our right to individual “pursuit of happiness” is perhaps our own idea of utopia. Kristol (Page 299) suggests this crisis of modernity “will require new ideas – or new versions of old ideas”, We are guaranteed this right of individual pursuit in the Declaration of Independence - as long as our pursuit does not harm or obstruct another’s pursuit. David Boaz (American Vision and Values, Page 86) expressed clearly, “the Americans sought to devise a constitution that would limit the government…..to make it clear that the Constitution was not a general grant of power to the government…”. I believe Ronald Reagan spoke for us all in his Message to Washington, February 20, 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAwAY0LH9hg&feature=related) “Our Constitution is a document in which we the people tell the government what it is allowed to do. We the people are free.” Government seemed to maintain a path consistent with the Constitution until the period 1890s to 1920s – known as the Progressive Era. This era happened to be about the same time as Roosevelt’s New Deal, but it is not directly related. The creation of a “fourth branch” of government seemed to appear with the Administrative Branch. The bureaucracy did not really create another branch of government, but did implement agencies which were to oversee legislation and “empowered it with broad governing authority” (Pestritto, Page 203). Machiavelli (The Prince, Page 229) speaks at length using the term “Prince” to explain how to acquire and maintain political power, “Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.
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 legislative branch. As a result the United States lacked respect from foreign countries. These flaws were so severe that a new government had to be drafted and as a result the Constitution was born. This document remedied the weak points of the federal government and created one that was strong and fair, yet still governed by the people.
Did the Founding Fathers actually create the constitution to help us? Alternatively, did they create the constitution just to protect their beliefs and so on? The Founding Fathers was an elite group that sought to create a constitution for their own interests. Several members apart from this strategic group agreed to create the constitution only for their selfish ambitions. The Founding Fathers created the constitution rather than amend the Articles of Confederation. Just because some decline the ideas of others apart from the group, which created a break in the group. As a result, members of the elite group saw this as a way of starting over to fresh new start. Therefore, the person who always seemed to make everything a problem in this elite
However the federalist lost out to a new Republican government. Federalist saw a government that would be defined by expansive state power and public submission to the rule of elites however; Jefferson (a republican) said the American nation drew energy and strength from the confidence of a reasonable and rational people. “Once the legitimate party prevailed, Madison and his allies believed, the “monocratic” crisis would end, parties would be rendered unnecessary, and the high-minded decision of enlightened natural leaders would, at last, guide the nation.” (Wilentz, pg. 65). A strong central government would be one with checks and balances to keep fairness as well as branches to represent different parts of government. A strong government would also help to prevent riots and chaos in America when people did not like the decisions made. However, it still upheld the ideals of a weak central government where fairness of the people was in place. Incompletion the formation of the Republican opposition in the 1790’s continued the legacy of the American Revolution through inclusion of all Americans and fairness in the
Through the years many changes have taken place, and technologies have been discovered, yet our Constitution remains. Some say that the Constitution was written for people hundreds of years ago, and in turn is out of step with the times. Yet its principals and guidelines have held thus far. The framers would be pleases that their great planning and thought have been implemented up until this point. However this does not compensate for the fact, that the we the people have empowered the government more so than our fore fathers had intended. Citizens were entrusted with the duty to oversee the government, yet so many times they are disinterested and only seem to have an opinion when the government’s implications affect them. As time has changed so has the American people, we often interpret our freedoms in a self serving manner, disregarding the good of the whole and also the good for the future. Thus there are no true flaws in the Constitution, it appears that the conflict emerges in the individual and their self, and poses question when we must decide when to compromise the morals that our Constitution was founded on, or when to stick to what we know is right and honest.
"This inquiry will naturally divide itself into three branches- the objects to be provided for by a federal government, the quantity of power necessary to the accomplishment of those objects, the persons whom that power ought to operate," writes Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist #23 in reference to the separation of powers. The basic concept here is the idea of the federal government being divided into three separate branches that would balance excessive democracy through a system of checks on each other. The three branches, respectively known as the legislature (Article I), the executive (Article II), and the judiciary (Article III), were designed to entice the opponents of the Co...
The Founding Fathers accepted that the basic rights of individuals, rights to life, liberty, and private property, were not arranged by the government, and so when the Founders composed the Constitution, they were not surrendering new rights to people. It was just to create a steady form of representative republican government that would assure that the basic rights of mankind were less likely to be compacted upon. The objective of the Framers was not to make a extreme form of “democracy” (which the Founders reviled for its strong inclination to throw off the rule of law) in which everybody had the equal kind of say in government or in which nobody felt as if they were in a minority.
A Vision Achieved Jefferson envisioned a government that allowed its citizens to exercise inalienable rights. In exact words, he states, “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” To be more evident, how can we define these “inalienable rights” of “life”, “liberty”, and the “pursuit of happiness?” Have these inalienable rights, achieved Jefferson’s goal? I am convinced, Jefferson’s revolutionary vision of life, liberty, and happiness has at last been achieved in America.
By the late eighteenth century, America found itself independent from England; which was a welcomed change, but also brought with it, its own set of challenges. The newly formed National Government was acting under the Articles of Confederation, which established a “firm league of friendship” between the states, but did not give adequate power to run the country. To ensure the young nation could continue independently, Congress called for a Federal Convention to convene in Philadelphia to address the deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation. While the Congress only authorized the convention to revise and amend the Articles the delegates quickly set out to develop a whole new Constitution for the country. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the new Constitution called for a national Executive, which was strongly debated by the delegates. There were forces on both sides of the issue trying to shape the office to meet their ideology. The Federalists, who sought a strong central government, favored a strong National Executive which they believed would ensure the country’s safety from both internal and external threats. The Anti Federalists preferred to have more power in the hands of the states, and therefore tried to weaken the national Executive. Throughout the convention and even after, during the ratification debates, there was a fear, by some, that the newly created office of the president would be too powerful and lean too much toward monarchy.
During the construction of the new Constitution, many of the most prominent and experienced political members of America’s society provided a framework on the future of the new country; they had in mind, because of the failures of the Articles of Confederation, a new kind of government where the national or Federal government would be the sovereign power, not the states. Because of the increased power of the national government over the individual states, many Americans feared it would hinder their ability to exercise their individual freedoms. Assuring the people, both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison insisted the new government under the constitution was “an expression of freedom, not its enemy,” declaring “the Constitution made political tyranny almost impossible.” (Foner, pg. 227) The checks and balances introduced under the new and more powerful national government would not allow the tyranny caused by a king under the Parliament system in Britain. They insisted that in order achieve a greater amount of freedom, a national government was needed to avoid the civil unrest during the system under the Articles of Confederation. Claiming that the new national government would be a “perfect balance between liberty and power,” it would avoid the disruption that liberty [civil unrest] and power [king’s abuse of power in England] caused. The “lackluster leadership” of the critics of the new constitution claimed that a large land area such as America could not work for such a diverse nation.
Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the US Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic. Since then, the design has often been imitated, but important principles have often been ignored in those imitations, with the result that their governments fall short of being true republics or truly constitutional. The Framers of the Constitution tried very hard to design a system that would not allow any one person or group within the government to gain too much power. Personally, I think they succeeded. In order to guard against what one of the Founding Fathers called an "excess of democracy," the Constitution was built with many ways to limit the government's power. Among these methods were separating the three branches, splitting the legislature so laws are carefully considered, and requiring members of Congress to meet certain criteria to qualify for office. The Founders did leave a few problems along with their system.
According to Thomas Jefferson, all men are created equal with certain unalienable rights. Unalienable rights are rights given to the people by their Creator rather than by government. These rights are inseparable from us and can’t be altered, denied, nullified or taken away by any government, except in extremely rare circumstances in which the government can take action against a particular right as long as it is in favor of the people’s safety. The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America mentions three examples of unalienable rights: “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. I believe these rights, since they are acquired by every human being from the day they are conceived, should always be respected, but being realistic, most of the time, the government intervenes and either diminishes or
Few people would take issue with the statement that America faces monumental challenges both to its own well-being as well as to its self-imposed duty to become "a more perfect union". Over the years, many speakers, authors, and dreamers have used the dirty facts of this nation's (and its predecessors') seemingly unrepentant capitalism, paternalism, belligerence, and tendency toward cultural assimilation to declare the entire enterprise bankrupt and to focus, not on where, exactly, the USA went wrong, but instead on what the truly ideal civilization would look like. They have created, in speech or on paper, entire realms of happiness and harmony, free of injustice, crime, and any other negative social vice. They have failed, however, in most cases, to free themselves from the trap of the nature of the human animal and his uncanny ability to absolutely avoid accurate prediction or even adequate description. It is my suggestion that, out of the bulk of utopian proposals the world has seen, the Constitution of the United States does, in fact, come the closest to creating "no place" for the greatest number of people through its pragmatism, its admission to not knowing the nature of every man, and, most importantly, its allowal of alternate visions of Utopia.
After the Revolutionary War ended, the founding fathers still deeply influenced the establishment of our nation. By writing the Constitution, they created a republic form of government based on equality and fairness. They believed this would be most beneficial to the colonies and for ...
The Constitution is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “the basic written set of principles and precedents of federal government in the US, which came into operation in 1789 and has since has been modified by twenty-seven amendments”. The Constitution was originally drafted in Philadelphia in 1787, a year later it was ratified, and in 1789 was put into working order and referred to as the new government. However some states did not conform as quickly and felt there was a “lack of specific guarantees of personal liberty” (Silberdick Feinberg, 2015). To address these concerns government representatives from state and federal legislature met to develop better transparency on the limitations of federal government and protection
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.