Tyranny Research Paper

Q3: How did the various American (state and national) constitutions attempt to prevent tyranny? American democracy is founded on federalism, which helps to maintain American democratic principle. The first attempt to create national government failed The Article of Confederation was unsuccessfully. Most power was concentrated on the states’ level, so the national government was lack of authority. The framers of the Constitution understood that people would not accept a centralized government which holds ultimate authority like the British tyranny. Therefore, the National Constitution promised “systematic changes” of government (Wood, 154) and thus created a federalist government with three different branches to avoid tyranny. The main concept of it is based on James Madison’s views of how government should be organized.

“Creating a new central government was no longer simply a matter of cementing the union……It was now a matter, as Madison declared, that would ‘decide forever the fate of republican government (Wood, 153).” Federalism, which divides power across the local, state and national governments, and each of these levels of government, has some degree of autonomy from the other levels. This separation of powers ensures that no branch becomes powerful enough to overwhelm the other two. The legislative branch (Congress) makes the laws, the executive branch (the president) enforces the laws, and the judicial branch (the courts) interprets the law. Each branch functions independently from the others, possessing its own powers and area of influence. No branch can accomplish anything of significance without the cooperation of at