I believe the Constitution did a better job of protecting liberties, specifically in the areas of the federal court system, representation of the people, and the levy of taxes. Alexander Hamilton, statesman and economist, proclaimed "Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation”. The Articles of Confederation which gave rise to the Confederation government that took effect in March 1781, did not give the national government any means to enforce the federal laws. The states could, and often did, choose to interpret or enforce federal laws in any manner they saw fit. This led to disputes amongst the states that could not be readily settled, as it relied on each state’s court system which invariably chose to discount the ruling of the other states.
A Virginia dollar could be worth more than a South Carolina dollar, or worth less than a New England gold coin. In the table showing the “Estimated Market Value of United States Exports to Great Britain” one can see that after the Revolution, there less trade with Great Britain, which also hindered the economic situation of the United States. Politically, the Articles of Confederation was unable to maintain order. They allowed each state one vote for equality; unfortunately, many members would often fail to attend Congress, more concerned about what was going on in their state, therefore, the vote was not cast. Also among the states there were many disputes, especially about boundary lines.
Some of the measures that the British government brought in might have over stepped the boundaries and this will also upset the colonist. The colonies have never been happy with the fact that Britain had the right to regulate trade, but they have never really been happy with the face that the British policies will increase the internal tax. Then the stamp act was brought in the colonies together agreed that Britain had no right to tax them in this area. The stamp act was tax on documents. If you wanted to print anything such as newspapers
The first issue was that of what people would be involved in the government. This problem was centered on the idea of different classes of people that were in the nation. By limiting the types of people in the government however, it would limit the types of personalities that would play a role in the government. Some argued that the private men, the working class individuals who represented the majority, had no business being involved in politics and government. Thomas Gordon argued against this because he thought that if anyone would know how the government worked, it would be the private men.
“Under the Articles, disorder within the states were not manageable. Some states adopted trade tariffs and further barriers to foreign commerce that were contrary to the interests of other states. Tax and other barriers were also being erected between the states. But even after the ratification of the Constitution, the states continued to be more important than the national government. For nearly a century and a half, virtually all of the fundamental policies governing the lives of Americans were made by the state legislatures, not by congress.” (American Government pg.
England believed that the colonist should share in the cost of the recent French-Indian war since England maintained troops in America. They imposed the Stamp Act of 1765, where the colonist were to pay extra taxes on every piece of paper they used to include newspapers, deeds, contracts, cards, etc. The colonist felt this was a violation of their rights as Englishman because, in England, taxes could not be imposed without the consent of the people or their representative in Parliament. Since the colonist did not have a representative in Parliament and they did not consent, they felt they could not be taxed, thus the expression, “no taxation without representation”. After the failure of the Stamps Act, Parliament tried taxing other British imports such as sugar, in the Sugar Act, and tea, leading to the Boston Tea Party.
Major differences in political culture included the lack of a strong aristocratic class in America, the growing diversity and factional conflicts in different regions of the colonies, and the American view that members of their representative assemblies had the right to make changes in local constitutions. Americans had a long record of disobeying and rejecting acts of parliament. They thought the British discarded this common heritage of liberty that kept the empire together and felt there was a conspiracy to destroy it on both sides of the coin. Before the seven years war, the colonists had set up their own political arena though they were similar to England. When the war was over that is when the issue of taxation without representation started.
The Revolution was revolutionary based on economic factors because, as apart of the empire the colonies were protected from foreign invasion by the British military. In return, the colonists paid very few taxes and could engage in violent economic activity without much interference from the British government. For the most part the colonists were only asked to maintain to regulations concerning foreign trade. In a series of acts passed by Parliament during the seventeenth century the Navigation Acts required that all trade within the empire be conducted on ships which were constructed, owned and largely manned by British citizens. Certain number of goods that were exported or imported by the colonies had to be shipped through England regardless of the final port of destination.
The parliament would have been able to muster volunteers, but there was no money to equip them with weapons, and the only way that the Parliament would have been able to make money, would be by introducing taxes. However, the Parliament simply couldn’t just create money from taxes as everyone refused to pay the taxes. The payment of taxes could have been enforced, but there was no army to do the enforcement. There were no consequences to the people of the German Empire if they disobeyed the decisions of the Frankfurt Parliament, so decisions were not followed by the people. This was not surprising, as there was no previous history of a democracy in Germany before the Frankfurt Parliament, therefore there was not much support from the ordinary people for the new concept.
Another structural problem was the meeting schedule for the Assembly; they only met up once a year. This meant that they could not respond to immediate problems or disasters and would be no help to a crisis. Another problem in the assembly was that ideas or decisions had to be passed with a unanimous vote, with lots of different countries and people this meant passing a decision was very hard. This was crucial as the assembly voted in the budget for the league. All funding to support the work of the committees and organisations came for the assembly- this was a one major failure.