Compare And Contrast American Government Vs Colonial Government

Great Britain provided many basic constitutional principles to the colonies. These ideas founded our government and shaped our country. Some principles we adopted from England helped develop our representative government, one being republicanism. In all colonies except for Georgia, republicanism was a common practice. However, it was not mentioned in a colonial charter for an extended period of time. Later, the charters of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the second charter of Massachusetts recognized and ratified the idea. It was later written into our constitution; Article IV, Section Four states “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…". The principles of checks and balances and separation of powers also

Throughout England 's history, the main three social classes were royalty, nobility, and commoners. Over time, the center of power shifted from the higher classes down to the lower classes with documents such as the Magna Carta. This led to Parliament having two houses, the House of Lords for the nobles and the House of Commons for the commoners. The House of Lords was the higher and more powerful house at the time, although this changed in the 19th century when limitations were placed on their power. Their primary responsibility was checking bills passed by the House of Commons to make sure that they were not making a mistake. However, the House of Lords was unable to propose laws that involved money. In contrast, the House of Commons was the lower house, and at the time less powerful than the House of Lords. The House of Commons’ main function was to propose and approve bills for new laws, and then send them to the House of Lords. Unlike the House of Lords, there were no limitations on what bills they could propose. However, the United States decided to run its government very differently from British