Outline Although the founding of the Constitution was a revolutionary, positive turning-point in American history, the US Constitution has a few unconstitutional and democratic shortcomings. Introduction In order to understand the shortcomings of democracy of the US Constitution, is it is important to know the background of its’ founding and how each article serves our country. Federalist No. 10, written by James Madison, asserts the importance of having the image of a democracy without its real substance. There seems to have been a very strong opposition towards democracy at the Constitutional Convention, although the framers were in the midst of creating democratic principles to appeal to the majority of the country.
Strict vs. Loose Interpretation of the Constitution Many argue what were the intentions of the Founding Fathers when creating the U.S Constitution. "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases," quoted Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson believed in a strict view of the constitution while he was an advisor.
It is through the inspection of the balancing forces between government and citizenship that I have come to appreciate both the brilliance and the gravity of the Constitution. As outlined in our Constitution, our government is divided into three equal branches. To ensure the status of this equality, our Constitution also provides a system of checks and balances which will serve to guarantee that no part of the government will ever be allowed too much power. It also ensures the power of the citizens by means of regular elections. As it is impractical for all citizens to directly participate in running the government, the election process asserts the voting power of the people every time.
The Magna Carta explains the role of the government and what you can expect from them. King John at the time was taking peoples liberties and the people wanted their liberties back. Magna Carta (Influence) The Magna Carta has many elements of the document written in the Constitution of the United States, such as free religion, trail by jury and the right to be an individual within the limits of the law. Magna Carta is the oldest document to make up the Constitution of the United States. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk Mayflower Compact (Summary) The first written law of the new land was written by 41 members of the Mayflower.
He thought that the government would be given too much power. His thoughts on the injustices in the Constitution greatly influenced the making of the Bill of Rights. At the time, Federalists argued that the Constitution didn’t need a bill of rights, due to the fact that the people and states kept any powers not given to the federal government, but Anti-Federalists said that a bill of rights was necessary to safeguard individual liberty. So when the Bill of Rights was made it listed prohibitions on governmental power and the rights that were granted to people. When the Bill of Rights was adopted into the Constitution it was became the fundamental rights of all citizens in 1791.
How Democratic is the US Constitution? The United State Constitution was written to establish a democratic style of government for American citizens. A democracy can be defined as the type of government where as all citizens of a country actively participate in government, where citizens uphold the right to decide on laws that affect their lives and where the government acts to provide political to its citizens. The Founding Fathers modeled the U.S. after a representative democratic country. In order for a country to be a true representative democracy it needs to fulfill three major criteria.
Explain the principle of the separation of powers found in the US Constitution. The separation of powers is the main underlying principle of the US Constitution whereby political power is distributed amongst the three branches of government – the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The branches act both independently and interdependently. The idea was originally of French political thinker Baron de Montesquieu, it was then incorporated by the Founding Fathers into the 1787 codified document. The principle was adopted by the Founding Fathers due to their fear of totalitarianism.
John Locke was a great philosopher and the father of Classical Liberalism. In his work “Second Treatise of Civil Government” many of his values. His ideas had the intention of making all men free and equal, the foundation of the law in Virginia Declaration of Rights, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States was directly influenced by Locke’s work in that he believed that when people give up complete freedom and some rights to form a government and elect people in authority to act in this government. Whoever refuses to follow these laws will be punished accordingly.
However, both principles function under one principle which is checks and balances. The second part of the U.S. Constitution focuses on individual rights and liberties. However, we will only be discussing the first part of the Constitution in this essay. The framers of the U.S. Constitution wanted to prevent the concentration of power into the hands of one individual, or even one group of individuals, within the national government. In order to accomplish their goal they decided it was necessary to divide the governmental functions into three: legislative, judicial, and executive.
Popular Sovereignty- a given must. Popular sovereignty is one of the six foundational principles upon which the US Constitution is built and today is important to the citizens of the United States. The other five principles are: limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, judicial review, and federalism, each of gives the Constitution a basis for authority and legitimacy. The people, limited government, separation of powers and the Bill of Rights and Articles of Confederation influenced the constitution to entail more popular sovereignty in their own unique ways. Popular sovereignty is the idea that the people govern themselves, meaning that the people choose who they would like to be in charge of the country or state as stated in Madison’s report of the Debates in the Federal Convention speech, the members of the first branch of the National Legislature will be elected by the people and that the second branch will then be elected by the members of the first branch.