Discuss The Successes And Failures Of The Articles Of Confederation

555 Words3 Pages

Failures of The Articles of Confederation Although The Articles of Confederation were created to give the American colonies a sense of a unified government, it had more weaknesses than strengths. This left our new nation incredibly divided and fragile. In order to correct the debilitated state of our government, a new constitution was necessary. The articles of Confederation failed to meet the needs of the New American Republic because it created a weak central government, Congress could not levy taxes and changes needed approval by 9/13 states. In fear of creating a new monarchical system, no federal court or executive leader was placed into power. This created an imbalance of power between the thirteen states and the central government. Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government had the power to pass laws but had no way to enforce them. If one state did not agree with a recently passed law, the state government of said area could choose to ignore it. One way a federal constitution could clarify these issues would be by placing an independent executive in power who is chosen by an electoral college. It would also grant not only the …show more content…

Without taxes, the federal government was unable to raise or maintain a standing military. This inability to provide for the common defense caused individual states to increase their militaries and a lack of trust became evident between the government and each of the thirteen states. Since Congress couldn't raise money through taxes or control/regulate trade its only revenue was through essentially asking for donations. This left the New American Republic unable to pay back its debt to France or any other national debt. However, with a federal constitution congress would be able to regulate commerce and levy taxes. This would ratify both the need for a national military and help raise money to pay back the public