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Compare And Contrast The American Government Under The Articles Of Confederation

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Riana Harari Federalism 10/13/14 After the colonies gained independence from England, we needed to make our own government. When they were still under the rule of England the colonists loyalties were to their states, not the king (Morone, 110). One choice we had was a unitary government. This is when the national government made all of the laws for the people and had all of the political authority (Morone, 110). Another option was confederation. This is when independent states have their own sovereign authority, with some power given to a national government (Morone, 110). This is what we had under the Articles of Confederation, which was a …show more content…

The Founding Fathers thought that there should be a division of the powers so this way no one would have all of the power. If this would happen, we would be living in a dictatorship, not a democracy. Most people at the time that our country was built did not want a central government. They thought it would give them too much power. They wanted most of the authority to belong to the states because the state governments were closer to the people and would understand them better. The national government received more control than it had had under the Articles of Confederation. The state governments got to keep most of their powers, but some went to the national government. Some powers of the national government include declaring war and printing money. State governments are in charge of building schools. Both are able to tax and to make laws. Because some powers overlap, there is often conflict between state and national government (Morone, 110). Although most people trust their own state governments more than the national one, there is still a strong sense of nationalism (Morone, …show more content…

It doesn’t give too much power to any one level of government. The power is divided even further within each branch. This assures the people that no one can overstep their boundaries and have total control. I think there should be a strong national government because otherwise the states would never agree on anything. They would only want to do what they think is best for them. The national government helps bring us all together to make decisions. Federalism gives every level of government their own control over certain aspects of our government. It allows different states with different needs to have laws suited for their people, while still giving us the strong central government that we need. Federalism gives the people more opportunities to meet with leaders and to get more involved in the government. We need a strong central government because they give us protection. Federalism allows each state to be different and while we still have a unified country. “Federalism gives advocates on both sides many different political venues in which to challenge policies and assert rights (Morone, 117).” This is why I think the Founding Fathers made the right choice when they chose federalism as the way to run our

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Federalism guards against tyranny, so does the separation of powers, checks and balances, and the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each guard in different, unique ways. All of them do the same job to guard against tyranny. Federalism divides the government into the state and central governments. The division of powers gives each branch of government equal power, while checks and balances allows each branch to check each other.

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“James Madison’s idea of the division of power between central and state governments is known as federalism.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788) The state governments have the power to make local decisions such as establishing schools, passing marriage and divorce laws, and to hold elections. Whereas the central government has the power to make decisions that affect the country such as, to provide an army and navy, set up post offices, and regulate trade. As James Madison said, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”

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With the hopes of unifying the sovereign states under one government that would better protect the rights of its citizens and protect the nation, the Framers of the Constitution met up to revise, but inevitably alter the premises of the Articles of Confederation. After much debating and compromising, the Framers set up the Constitution that gave the national government enumerated powers and reserved powers for the states, with some powers being shared among both spheres of government. Federalism is the separation of powers among the different levels in government (i.e., the national and state governments) along with the restrictions placed on each level of government to avoid tyranny. Some citizens, called the Antifederalists, feared the national

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Following the American Revolution, America was divided into two political groups: the federalists and the anti-federalists. Both parties believed the United states future was in the best interest of the new nation. While the anti-federalists believed in power to the individual states, the federalists believed in a strong central government to body the nation. Prior to 1789, the Articles of Confederation is what held the nation together, despite the immense problems that arose from it. The document was formed in order to equally divide powers in America.

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Federalism breaks apart the powers given to the central (Federal) government and those powers given to the states. As seen in document A1, a source from James Madison from Federalist Paper #51, 1788; Madison states, “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments.” This idea from Madison is the idea of the division of power between the Federal Government and State Governments. Federalism provides a “Double security,” that protects the rights of the citizens of the United States of America. As the governments will be controlled by itself, the separate governments will also control each other.

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The new government, the Constitution, is now able to enforces taxes, which allowed money to come in and the government was able to pay off their debt. One other weakness of the articles was that it gave all power to only one house of representative from each state, the constitution try to solve this matter that creating three separate branches of power, the Legislative branch, Executive branch, and the Judiciary branch, allowing the power to be more divided. Representation was another problem in under the Articles of Confederation because a big state like Massachusetts and a small state like New Jersey both have the same amount of representatives, the Constitution made a compromise by forming two house in Congress the Senate, where each state get equal representation, and the House of Representatives, where each state is represented by the population of the state. The Constitution also fixed the problem of passing a law; under the Articles of Confederation, laws can only be passed if 9 out of 13 representatives agrees on the law because of this not much laws were passed, now under the Constitution only 51 percent of the votes to pass the law. From this readers can infer that the Constitution fixed many of the defects in the Articles

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The United States has a democratic government, which means our citizens get to help choose how our country works. The Constitution is setup to include citizens in the law making and voting process and preventing the US from turning into a tryannical government. Three ways we do thi s is by using Federalism, Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances. Federalism is a system our country uses to make sure power doesn’t stay in one area (Doc A). This method gives specific responsibilities to Central Government and each state.

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Federalism a system of government in which power is divided, by a constitution, between a central government and regional governments. The Constitution restricts the power of the states in favor of ensuring enough power to the national government to give the country s free-flowing national economy. The framers’ concern with the national concern with national supremacy was also expressed

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Before the constitution the states and the government based the way, they lived using the Articles of Confederation. Congress was in shambles and we owed a massive debt, which led to a rebellion later on. To keep the new nation in check they created a constitution. With the constitution they created federalism or shared power between the states and the government, they created this to make sure the government or states don't overpower on another. The Federal system was made up of three types of government powers, these are reserved, enumerated, and concurrent powers.

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The central government was meant to be weak, and state governments had to be strong because a strong state government allowed for different interpretation among regions and allowed the people to choose how to run their states individually. This necessitated less oversight from the central (federal) government. This did, however, mean that the rules the federal government had to be abided. The constitution, for example, was favored to have a strict interpretation. The individual liberties of the people must be protected by the federal government and to keep an honest democratic government there had to be respect among all

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This country was founded with the attempt to separate the federal government and the state government, known as federalism. The goal of federalism is to divide the power of state and federal governments, protect the rights of the state, and prevent tyranny of the majority. Throughout the years, federalism turned into dual federalism where the state and federal government were completely independent of each other and only shared a dependency on the Constitution. The united states suppressing now to cooperative federalism, the national government has assumed even more power, overruling the states with Supreme Court decisions and actions, and executive Orders. Furthermore, the Federal government should grant their state governments more power, due to the connection the state governments hold with their local people.

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Federalism was designed to balance the power of the State governments and limit the powers of the national government. Jefferson and others were convinced that state governments were closer to the people and because of that, more democratic. Checks and balances were used to separate the powers. The government was divided into

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We have federalism because it helps fix the problem of different opinions and interests found throughout the different regions of the United States. It does not always allow one majority opinion to rule over the entire country. I do think its efficient to a certain extent, it’s good that each state can have their own laws and constitutions because it focuses on the welfare of that specific population that resides in that state but issues arise when it isn’t always easy or clear in determining which powers the states should have and which powers should belong to the federal government. Overall I prefer a unified government because there are some issues that all states should agree on, without a unified government chaos would ensure. The civil

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The country had just gotten out of an ownership by another country much larger than she. These countries were ruled by a King. After a revolutionary war, the new-free land, the United States of America, was deemed a federal system by the Constitution. The people who wrote the Constitution did not want another King, keeping in mind absolute power corrupts absolutely. With the federal system, the government would be divided into different levels, or branches.

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