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How Does the US Constitution Prevent Tyranny
How Does the US Constitution Prevent Tyranny
Doctrine of checks and balances
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DBQ ESSAY
The constitution is our very best defense against tyranny. Tyranny is when one person or group of people is in total control. The constitution is a written set of rules that everyone has to live by. Our constitution was written at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in May of 1787. How does the constitution guard against tyranny? It guards against tyranny with Federalism, the separation of powers, checks and balances, and with the Big State Little State Compromise.
One way that the constitution can guard against tyranny is with Federalism. Federalism is the distribution of powers between the state and the federal government. This prevents both the state and the federal government from having too much power. For example, in Doc A, it says that only states can set up schools, but only the federal government can set up post offices. This makes it
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so that the central government doesn’t have too much power, but neither does the state either. Another way that the constitution can guard against tyranny is by the separation of powers.
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.
A third way that our constitution guards against tyranny is with checks and balances. Checks and balances are ways for one of the three branches to stop one of the other branches from doing something that isn’t right. For one example of many, in Doc C, it says that the Legislative branch can can veto the president (executive branch) after he (or she) votes on a law. This protects against tyranny because if one of the branches does something bad, the other branches have ways to stop
it. The last way that the constitution guards against tyranny is with the big state little state compromise. It explains what this is in Doc D. The big state little state compromise is a compromise between, well, the big states and the little states, based on population. Originally, the constitution was going to let states have votes based on population, but then the little states got mad because they wanted to have representation. The big state representatives and the little state representatives got together and came to an agreement. In the senate, everyone has an equal amount of votes, in the house of representatives though, the amount of votes that you got was based on population. This is a great guard against tyranny because it allows everyone to have equal representation, and no one will get an unfair amount of votes. The constitution is amazingly important. Without the constitution, we wouldn’t have democracy, and our country might look like North Korea. Without checks and balances, federalism, the separation of powers, and the big state little state compromise, we could be worse off than Zimbabwe. We should be very thankful of the constitution. It’s what makes America, America.
The same things go to the three branches of government; they don't have too much power because of checks and balances. So each branch has its own powers split evenly. This is another reason why separation of powers protect America from tyranny. Checks and balances help protect America from tyranny. Checks and balances protect America because each branch can cancel out one another.
To start out with, the constitution divided power so no one branch or person had complete power over the nation or others. In document B it states, ¨Liberty requires that the three departments of power are distinct and separate.¨ This means that in order to prevent and guard against tyranny we must have different and separate branches holding power if there is only one or they are too similar that could create a small group with close to complete power creating a tyranny. Power must be separated into three branches so that they may check and limit each other so that no laws are passed that will harm the nation and are unconstitutional. The three branches are very separate but can
[Separation of powers is where the government divides power between 3 branches of government so no one branch becomes too power.] [ Document B was written by James Madison in His federalist paper 47.] According to James Madison in document B “Liberty requires that the three departments of power should be separate and distinct this means that each branch should have its own unique and separate jobs.” This quote clearly explains that each branch should have there own separate and distinct jobs so no one branch becomes too powerful.*This quote guard against tyranny because the quote is saying the branches will all have their own powers but can control all the others
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...
After the American Revolution, America had earned it’s freedom from Britain. In order to govern this new country the Articles of Confederation was created. This document was flawed by the colonists fear of putting too much power into a central government. Knowing the document needed to be fixed a constitutional convention was called. The document created at this convention has been our constitution ever since. But even the Constitution was meet with criticism. One major concern when writing the constitution was how to protect the citizens rights. The Constitution did this through the preamble, the legislative process, the limit of presidential terms, the judicial branch, and the bill of rights.
The Articles of Confederation was America’s first constitution. The Articles of Confederation failed to create a strong central government, however. With the demise of the states in sight, the need for a stronger and more structured central government became apparent. An invitation was sent to all thirteen states in February 1787 by the Confederation Congress to resolve the matter. The events that took place over the next several months would create the United States Constitution. Going down in history as a revolutionary form of government, the U.S. Constitution would give life to a country that is still running strong over 200 years later.
The men who wrote the American constitution agreed with Thomas Hobbes that humans were naturally evil. Therefore, they agreed that in order to prevent a dictatorship or monarchy, the citizens should have influence in the government. The writers wanted a more ideal constitution, but they realized evil human motives would never change. One of the main goals of the constitution was to create a balanced government that would allow the citizens to prevent each other from being corrupt. The writers wanted to give citizens liberty, but they did not want to give people so much liberty that they would have an uncontrollable amount of power. The writers agreed that a citizen’s influence in government would be proportionate to that individual’s property.
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.
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.
The first way the constitution guards tyranny was Federalism which is the central and state government. “In the compound republic of america, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments…”(James Madison, federalist Paper #51,1788). What James madison is saying is that there should be powers divided between the Central and State governments. The powers given to the central government can declare war,
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.
Imagine having no freedom, no justice in the courts, and most aspects of your life are controlled by a ruler or a group of people with too much power. This is what’s called tyranny. Fifty-five delegates met in philadelphia in 1787 to repair the U.S. national government. These series of meetings is called the constitutional convention. These meetings lay the foundation of the United States Constitution. The constitutional convention worked to create a functioning government that protected against tyranny using Federalism, Separation of Powers and, and Checks and Balances.
Many years ago, leaders were chosen to lead states. Although, some leaders become power hungry, driving themselves into tyrants. Tyranny can’t only be forced by one person, even a group. There are many forms of tyranny, however is most commonly done by one person. The constitution was to protect a state and people without tyranny overriding them. What did the constitution do to defend themselves and their people from the accumulation of all powers in the same hands. The constitution guarded against tyranny using rules called Federalism, Separation of Powers, and Checks & Balances.
Separation of powers is the separation of branches under the constitution by the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. Federalism is a government system that includes the national government, which shares sovereign powers with fifty state governments.
Lisa Webley and Harriet Samuels defined the separation of powers as a theory or doctrine that describes the way in which a state organises the distribution of power and function between its different parties. The separation of powers is divided into three branches which are the executive, legislative and Judiciary.