Federalists vs Anti-Federalists Political, economic and government views. After the American Revolutionary War, the founding fathers had to build a government virtually from scratch, they drew up the Articles of Confederation in 1781 as the first national law. But this was considered weak because it placed too much power in the hands of individual states without establishing an effective national government. The founders wanted a republican form of government where voters would elect officials to represent them. Many, like George Washington, were Federalists.
Many people believe that the Electoral College is outdated and we should not use it anymore. One will argument that the Electoral College can make sure people are making the right choice in choosing our president. Another reason why we are still using this voting system is because in order to get rid of it, it would require a constitutional amendment, which is extremely hard to pass. In order to pass/ratify an amendment, three fourths of the states have to agree upon changing the Constitution. This is very unlikely to happen because the Electoral College benefits the smaller states.
Mostly the Anti-Federalists thought that the Constitution created too strong of a central government. They felt that the Constitution did not create a Federal government, but a single national government. They were afraid that the power of the states would be lost and that the people would lose their individual rights because a few individuals would take over. As a result, they proposed The Bill of Rights, to make sure the citizens were protected by the law. They believed that no Bill of Rights would be equal to no check on our
Faction, a problem could not avoid in American society because of the vast different opinions. In favor of republican, James Madison emphasized that the strong Constitution has the control to deal with violence and aggression caused by faction which those in favor of democracy could not because of its instability government. Furthermore, in the federalist no.51 he stated that the Constitution’s separation of power also helps mitigate the problem of factionalism. Believing in pluralist theory that power is relatively broadly distributed among many more or less organized interest groups in society, and the fear of majoritarian rule, James Madison one more time convinced that the Constitution will mitigate the problem of factionalism by diving
At the Constitutional Convention the Federalists drew up plans for a new constitution while the Anti-Federalists complained and picked apart their plan, even though the Anti-Federalists had no plan of their own. The main issue the Anti-Federalists had with the new constitution was that they thought that it would not protect the rights of states and individuals. Federalists argued that a stronger government was necessary, not to impede individual rights, but to be able to pass and enforce laws. Federalists also argued a stronger bond between states was needed to improve the economic state of the country. Under the Articles of Confederation each state printed their own currency which became worthless in any other
50% + 1 = 270 votes • What if no candidate has a majority? The House of Representatives determines who the next President will be. Each state may cast one vote and an absolute majority is needed to win. Similarly, the Senate decides who the next Vice President will be. • What is the purpose of the popular vote?
Checks and balances provide a way to make sure no one branch reaches total power. For instance, Congress can try to pass a law but the President can veto any bill that comes his way. Also, if the President ends up doing something unconstitutional, Congress has the power to conduct a trial and impeach the President if necessary. In essence, these checks and balances prevent the US from becoming a totalitarian country. The court case of Marbury v Madison happened when Marbury’s was withheld by Madison and ended up suing James.
By creating a government divided into the presidential, legislative, and judicial branches meant that no one’s power could come into absolute power. There is however a downside to having three branches of government. If there is a democratic president and one of the branches is a republican run branch they may not agree on some of the same ideas. When we have different branches vetoing bills and not making them laws this in turn affects the citizens who may need the change. Checks and Balances The system of checks and balances is part of our constitution.
The Electoral College is the main part of the government that elects the president. Article II section I of the constitution establishes that each state is set up to have as many electors equal to their number of senators and representative in congress (Patterson A-10). When the presidential election time comes around these electors cast their votes and decide the president based of what their district wanted. The reason this system was set up was because the framers were afraid that a direct vote would link executive power to popular majorities (Patterson
This was his second time running, in 1796 he lost to his close friend John Adams, but he has enough votes from the Electoral College to become the Vice President. Jefferson took oath on March 4th, 1801; at this time the partisan strife between the two political parties was growing at an unexpecting rate and needed change. Jefferson after winning his party’s nomination ran against Aaron Burr, the election came to a tie in the Electoral College which meant the election came down to the congress. The congress didn’t want either to be president but Hamilton convinced them that Jefferson would do less damage to the country the Aaron Burr. Then in 1804 Jefferson ran for re-election, his popularity declined, mostly due to foreign affairs and wars in Europe.