Justification Of The Constitution Essay

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A constitution is defined as the system of fundamental principles according to which a nation, state, corporation, or the like, is governed. During the years leading up to the ratification of the United States Constitution, the citizens feared a powerful central government with limited representation of the people. Their fear led to the enactment of the Articles of Confederation, which created a national government with virtually no power. But, the Articles of Confederation ultimately proved to be a failure. The Founding Fathers then developed a constitution that not only addressed the fears of the citizens, but also established the fundamental principles which continue to be essential to the growth of American society today. The framers…show more content…
Smaller states were in favor of the New Jersey Plan, which suggested that there should be one vote per state. States with larger populations argued that the New Jersey Plan didn’t account for the majority of the national population. These states advocated the Virginia Plan, which proposed that each state would be represented in proportion to their population. States with smaller populations contended that the Virginia Plan would leave them without an adequate voice in the government. The framers’ solution was a bicameral legislature; a legislature consisting of two houses. The Senate, the upper house, is comprised of two senators per state, allowing equal representation for all states. Senators are elected by the people for six year terms. The House of Representatives, the lower house, is based on the population of each state. A set number of 435 representatives is split among the states according to their population. The representatives are elected every two years. In order for a bill to become a law it has to go through both houses. For example, recently the Senate and House of Representatives had to make numerous compromises before the health care bill was passed. This allowed both the smaller to states and the majority to have significant says in what went into the
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