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Reflection about federalism
Reflection about federalism
Explain separation of powers
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James Madison once said,” All men having power ought to be distrusted.” Through these words, Madison made the statement that not all government officials use their authority for good; some abuse that power and use it to gain more for themselves rather than vesting it within the people. This issue may lead to tyranny. Tyranny is when all powers belong to only one person or group. In May of 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia to draft a better constitution. One of the topics that concerned many was how the constitution would guard against tyranny. Madison and the other delegates wanted a Constitution that would be strong enough to unite the states and the people together without letting there be one person or group gain too much power. They achieved this in several ways. Today, the U.S. Constitution guards against tyranny by including a separation of powers, federalism, and the fair representation of states. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...re than one government’s protection. The state governments protect their own states while the federal government protects the whole country. In addition, the Great Compromise guarded against tyranny by making sure the larger states would not have more power than the smaller states. The Great Compromise was an agreement to create a two-house legislature composed of a House of Representatives and a Senate. A state’s amount of representatives in the House would be based off of population, while the representation for each state in the Senate is equal.(Document D) Thus, the larger states, such as New York, would not overpower the smaller states, such as Rhode Island. In conclusion, the Constitution guards against tyranny in many several ways. The framers of the Constitution have established a very efficient government system that still protects America today.
You may be thinking how did the constitution stop tyranny? Well we have the answer. Let's start of with what tyranny means, that a leader or king abuses their power. How did the constitution guard against tyranny? Well they abuse their power bad deeds. The constitution guard against tyranny in these four ways. Federalism, separation of power, checks and balances, and small states vs. large states.
Supporters of the Constitution called themselves Federalists, a name referring to a balance of power between the states and the national government. They argued for a federal system as in the Constitution. James Madison claimed that the Constitution was less dangerous that it looked because the separation of powers protected people from tyrannical abuse. The Federalists compile a group of essays, known as The Federalist Papers. In No. 51, Madison insisted that the division of powers and they system of checks an balances would protect Americans from the tyranny of centralized authority. He wrote that opposite motives among government office holders were good, and was one of the advantages of a big government with different demographics. In No. 10, he said that there was no need to fear factions, for not enough power would be given to the faction forming people; thus, they wouldn't become tyrannical. Hamilton, in No. 84, defended the Constitution with the case that the Constitution can be amended by representatives, who are there to represent the citizens' interests.
In conclusion the Constitution does guard against tyranny [Tyranny was prevented by dividing the government into state and federal power when dividing each government into three branches remove the 3 branches with checks and balances.][ Also With federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the Great Compromise without these four guards against tyranny and the Constitution life will be different today for example, larger states could easily rule the smaller States and the president could easily become a dictator.]* These examples show the Constitution guards against tyranny are important because they keep tyrants/tyranny out of our
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.
...ny of a branch by setting controls on each branch set by the other branches. Fairly equalizing representation in Congress protected the power of small states overall while preserving that of larger states. However, the framers may have mistakenly given the power to prevent tyranny to the government, not the people. The framers crafted a delicate system, but one that focused on creating strong inter-governmental relations. Since the first Constitution was drafted, power slowly began shifting to the national government. If the branches wished to control more, it would not matter if they controlled each other because they would all move together. The focus on creating a government as far away as possible from despotic in a group of white, mostly wealthy, and educated landowners may have prevented the creation of the sort of tyranny-free system the people wished for.
Federalism guards against tyranny by distributing power with both of the governments (State and Federal) and checking each other. According to Madison's federalist paper number 51, “the two different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” That means that they always have to be checking each other, but they still have their own power. Also in the federalist papers number 51 it says that the two distinct governments gives us double security in the U.S. Some of the powers the state government are: Established schools, pass marriage and divorce laws, regulate in-state businesses, hold elections, and set up local governments. Some powers of the Central government are: Regulate trade conduct foreign relations,provide an army and navy, declare war, print and
The constitution existing before 1787 was not working for many people. There was no chief executive, no court system and not even a way for the central government to force the state government to pay taxes. The challenge for James Madison and his colleagues was to write a constitution that guards against tyranny. Tyranny is when a person or a group of people seizes all the power in a very harsh manner. What aspects did James Madison consider when writing the new constitution in Philadelphia? The constitution guards against tyranny in the following ways, it deals with tyranny with federalism, separation and distinction of power, and checks and balances.
The fourth way the constitution guards against tyranny is the equality of large and small states which is defined and means larger states are not controlling over small states. An example of how the equality of the state’s guards from tyranny is, the senate of the United States is made up of two senators from each of the states, and the House of Representatives are elected by population. (Document D). This is how equality of large and small states help guard our constitution against
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.
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.
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.
As James Madison said, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” What James Madison is trying to say is that the central and state governments have enough power that they don’t control everything. The central government has enough power to help some of the country’s major needs, and the state government has enough power to help the state’s needs because the state’s needs may be more specific. From this, you may conclude, that dividing powers between the central and state governments prevents tyranny. The first guard against tyranny was Federalism, which means a system of government in which power is divided between a federal government and state government.
Federalism is where power is separated into two distinct governments, state and federal, but they both also share powers. (James Madison, Federalist paper #51) There are specific laws for the state and for the federal government, like the federal
On Federalist Paper #47 of 1788, James Madison states, "The accumulation of all powers... in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." (Doc 1) Tyranny is prevented by the Constitution in many ways. This includes using a type of government known as Federalism, forming Congress with both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as using a system of checks and balances. Although the United States has been protected from tyranny due to the Constitution for over 200 years, it was not the first attempt of the country to create a government that would not lead to tyranny. The Articles of Confederation, the original constitution of the U.S. was the first step. But, the Articles of Confederation clearly did not do enough to protect against tyranny. For example, under the Articles of Confederation, the states were not obliged to pay taxes to the federal government which lead to the states
Double security, otherwise known as federalism, gives the state power to check on higher forms of government. While the legislative, executive and judicial branches are horizontally equal on top, the local, state, and federal governments are a vertical separation of power. The reason for so many different separations of powers is because the more power that is spread around to people with different opinions and ideas at various levels of government, the less likely any of them are to become an overwhelming majority. “The power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people.” This idea comes full circle with the idea of expanding the sphere to refine and enlarge government. The more people that have their voice heard in government the less likely any of the are to become a majority faction. The best way to control faction is by keeping it a minority. Through double security, the power is put into the different tiers all the way from the president to the local government so that there is no voice that is not heard and no voice can become the only