The Constitution is a very strong document and any change to it changes the way everyone in the country can live. It is in Article V of the Constitution that tells the methods for adopting amendments. Amendments can be proposed by 2/3 vote by the house of Congress. Then the amendments must be approved by ¾ the states, and by ¾ of the state legislatures. Which usually is a long and complicated process.
The Constitution needed fixing and there were multiple weaknesses and many were unsure that the constitution will hold all the states together. Tyranny is cruel, unreasonable or arbitrary use of power or control. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways which were federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the senate. The first guard against tyranny was federalism which is a political system that allows states united under a central government to maintain a measure of independence. Federalism is included in the Constitution by showing that powers were divided between the central government and the states.
The principle organ of the US state is to legislate, represent and scrutinise the other, safely separated, branches of the government. First of the three elements in which Congress’s primary role plays is in legislation. The very first article of the Constitution lays out how this is done. Bills initiated by both the President and members of Congress are almost certain to be substantially modified as they go through the legislative process, making it very difficult for the President or any political faction to force through their policy agenda. Congress has been somewhat effective in passing laws such as the PATRIOTIC Act under Bush and the Healthcare Reform Act under Obama both show’s that Congress can legislate when it needs be, especially with a majority in both houses.
Constitutional construction is one mechanism by which constitutional meaning is elaborated. It works alongside constitutional interpretation to elaborate the existing constitutional order. The process of constitutional construction is concerned with fleshing out constitutional principles, practices and rules that are not visible on the face of the constitutional text and that are not readily implicit in the terms of the constitution. We can imagine a continuum of actions that political actors can take under a Constitution, ranging from policymaking to revolution. At one end of the continuum, political actors can take constitutional forms as a given and make policy decisions under it, filling government offices and exercising government power in (constitutionally) noncontroversial ways.
The major principles of the constitution were the idea of popular sovereignty, representative Government, Limited government, Personal and economic freedom, separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism. Unit 1 ends off into explaining the ideas of Federalism. Federalism is defined a power shared between national, state, and local governments. The unit goes into the specifics on federal division on power, the Enumerated Powers are powers listed specifically in the Constitution that are given to the federal government. And the Implied Powers are national powers not listed in the Constitution but that have expanded over time, also known as the Elastic Clause.
Although different in nature, congress and the President of the United States both hold positions of upmost power and unequivocally important decision-making for the American people. However, the argument always stands: who has more power? The power problem as it stands “...is the need to grant government enough power to effectively address the problems that people expect government to solve, while also limiting power so that it can be held accountable” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.42). Far from perfect, the political system in place attempts to grant both Congress and The President exclusive and shared responsibilities to provide an equal spread of power. Upon founding of the United States government, not all three branches were to share the same amount of power.
Some cause for concerns can be found in the first writing of the Constitution (the one that will soon be thoroughly discussed) and some lay in more recent Amendments. However, we must not forget that these voices can only be discussed out loud for all opinions to be made on it because of the foresight of those in our past that demanded such rights before approving the Constitution as the foundation of our new government. The Constitution that was written before the ratification debate was adequate in its democracy, but fell short of its goal of creating a government that incorporates all of the citizens views equally and effectively. The Constitution divides the power between the three government
Federalism is the theory of government by which political power is divided between a national government and state government, each having their own area of substantive jurisdiction. Within US politics, this refers to the 2 layers of government designed to demonstrate national unity while accommodating for regional diversity. The theory of federalism in the USA represents ‘E Pluribus Unum’ and K.C Wheare describes the system as “The method of dividing powers so that the general and regional governments are each, within a sphere, co-ordinate and independent.” Despite the aims of federalism, there are a number of consequences. Firstly, there are legal consequences. Throughout the USA, there is a huge variety in state laws on such matters as the age at which people can marry, drive a car and have to attend school.
It does so by consisting of a set of rules and principles, “. . . creating, structuring, and possibly defining the limits of, government power or authority.” (Waluchow) Absolutism, on the other hand, the monarch would claim power by “divine right”. They and only they created law, in a pure absolutist state.
In our government, a system of separation of powers and checks and balances are used to maintain order among the three different branches of government. The purposes and responsibilities of the legislative and executive branches are laid out in Article I and II of the United States Constitution, respectively. To balance state's rights and the rights of all of the nation's citizens, the framers of the Constitution came up with the concept of an executive branch that represents the interests of the nation and a legislative branch that represents the interests of the states. The third branch of government, the judicial branch, is responsible for balancing these conflicting interests. The Judicial Branch, has power that is, arguably, unregulated; power to overturn decisions by both the Executive and Legislative Branches.