Name: Dareen Khalifeh Date: 12/3/13 How Does the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? Imagine being in a world where you were forced to wear certain things. Forced to practice the only religion allowed. Imagine not being able to know what you want, when you wanted! In 1787 a group of delegates for 12 of the 13 states go together to try to better the country.
How effectively does Congress fulfil its constitutional roles? To start of this essay we must first understand what the role of Congress actually is? The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is the law-maker which is the primary and most important function of the legislature. It is through laws that policies of government are laid down for implementation.
Powers of government are separated into three main categories. The legislative branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to ratify legislation and declare war. (The Legislative Branch) They are also responsible for making laws. Locke would support these obligations of legislation.
The challenge was to create a strong central government without letting any one person, or group of people, get too much power. How did the Constitution Guard against Tyranny? “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, May. 1787). The Articles of Confederation wasn’t working for the fifty-five individuals at the Constitutional Convention on May of 1787 in Philadelphia.
The additional guard against tyranny was Separation of Powers which means the government was separated into different branches. The Constitution states that the Separation of powers was legislative, executive and judicial branches. Separation of power can defend against tyranny simply because there are 3 powers, not one; which does not make America have an absolute power. The third guard against tyranny was Checks and Balances, which were the balances in the 3 branches of power. In the constitution, there is a diagram stating which branch has power for each other.
* Define and give an example of separation of powers and checks and balances * Separation of powers- An aspect of the Madisonian Model of government that requires each of the three branched of government to be independent of and to share power with each other so that one cannot control the others. Ex. Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of govn’t all separate * Checks and balances- balances power- Important feature of the Constitution which enables each branch of government to constrain the other branched activities in order to prevent any one branch from gaining too much power. * After the American Revolution and under the Articles of Confederation, who started to gain/lose political power? * the wealthy lost power and the low income/farmers
Of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, and the Art of the Sale The Constitution of the United States of America is often called the American Experiment by political powers outside our borders. From the time it was drafted it has been scrutinized by enemies as well as allies, each with their own political agenda on what it means to them both individually and collectively. Through the drafting of the Constitution the founding Fathers established a federal government that had more power over their sovereign states but cleverly policed itself from any one organized group within that federal body from gaining ultimate authority over all. This was accomplished by developing three branches of government to counter balance: Legislative, Executive
Branches of Government HIS/301 August 14th, 2012 Branches of Government After reflecting on our class discussion from Tuesday night, it became clear to us why our Founding Fathers created three different branches of government. We think the most important reason the framers of the Constitution decided to form three branches of government, was to make sure the totalitarian system, which was imposed on colonial America by the English King George III, did not occur again. We believe they also wanted a clear system of checks and balances, which would ensure there was no one person or entity, which held absolute power over the people. After two hundred twenty five years, the system our Founding Fathers developed continues to work today.
equally important is the election of the president at the time of the assembly election. The head of the government is head of state: Whereas in pre-parliamentary monarchies the head of state was also the head of the government, in the presidential system it is the head of the government who becomes at the same time head of state. The president appoints heads of departments who are his subordinates: In parliamentarism the prime minister appoints his colleagues who together with him form the government. In presidential systems the president appoints secretaries, who are heads of his executive departments. The
Cynthia Jones Madison’s Federalists #51 The Federalists papers were written for encouragement of ratification to the Constitution. We learn that Madison says “we are all citizens who need checks and balances throughout the government.” There are three branches of government the executive branch, legislative branch, and the judicial branch that all have separate powers in American government. Madison breaks down how each should be keeping pieces of their power in its place within its constitutional means. One goal was to ensure no branch of government have more power to be tyrannical and violate against right and liberties, so that one branch may not dominate another. When we only had thirteen states, they wanted to become sovereign countries,