ipl-logo

How Did The Constitution Shape The Structure Of Government

912 Words4 Pages

The greatest fear of the Founding Fathers was to have a government ruled by one person, a tyrant. After the revolutionary war against Great Britain, the Americans wanted to make sure that they would be seen as an independent and strong newly emerged country. Their first shot at a government was with the Articles of Confederation. However, they failed because the central government that had been put in place was weak. Noticing that that was a problem, the founding fathers sought to make a stronger government. Of course, they always kept in mind that having a really strong central government would lead to a similar incident to the one they had recently had with Great Britain. As a result, they created the United States Constitution that we still use now. This new document became the ultimate rule of the United States of America. The Constitution shapes the national structure of the government. Within the Constitution, we are presented with the …show more content…

In order to prevent one branch from obtaining absolute power, the founders created a system of checks and balances. They also decided to form a federalist form of government in which not only the national government had power to make decisions but also the state governments. The three systems of separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism, allowed the Framers of the Constitution to prevent the federal government from gaining absolute power.
In order to prevent the national government from being one absolute power, the framers of the Constitution decided to separate the powers from within the government. “The doctrine of separation of powers is based on the idea of dividing government into three distinct parts—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches”(Separation of Powers, 2003). This separation of powers system was intended to keep any one office from becoming a monarchy or a tyrant. Each branch of government was assigned a unique task that they would work to accomplish

Show More
Related
647 Words | 3 Pages

One of the ways that the United States guarded against cruel and oppressive government or rule was that they made the three branches of government. These three branches were the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. This helped guard against cruel and oppressive government or rule because “they were separate and distinct powers.” (Doc B) This would help to guard against cruel and oppressive government or rule because all of these powers were separated so there wasn’t one overpowering government.

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

They wanted a new form of government that gave power to the people, states, and the federal government. But most importantly, they wanted a government that would prevent tyranny. After 3½ months, they came up with the Constitution. It was meant to establish a Federalist government, spread out power between 3 different branches of government, put in place a system of checks and balances, and give states equal and proportionate

Read More
454 Words | 2 Pages

In Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, he said it’s absurd for an island to rule over a continent. This is especially true when Great Britain imposed tyrannic and restrictive laws on the colonies, so the founding fathers of the new independent country created the new constitution in a way the would prevent tyranny in the newly independent United States. The Articles of Confederation was the first plan of government for the newly formed U.S. The Articles were to weak to support a nation properly, so the new constitution began to form. How does the Constitution , a plan of government, guard against the government abusing its power.

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

The reason that the Articles of Confederation established such a weak government was because the colonists were afraid that a strong central government would become tyrannical and oppressive like the British were towards the colonists. However, instead of leading to the downfall of America, the deficiencies that were evident in the Articles of Confederation furthered the definition of the principles of America because the insufficient government of that time voiced a need for a stronger government. To answer this need, the colonists passed the Constitution of the United States. The founding fathers ratified the Constitution in 1787, and it established a much stronger government than the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution founded the laws that would govern America for centuries; it was a crucial factor in the development of the identity of America.

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” (Document B) The Madison quote shows that no person or persons should acquire all powers of the government otherwise it will become a tyranny. Hence our government is split into three branches, all with different powers, so that we may have a separation of powers to protect against tyranny. This separation of powers helps prevent one group from taking over the other two so that our country shall not be ruled by a tyrant

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers..in the same hands, whether of one or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, 1788) ( Background Essay) This quote explains the reasoning for one of the framers, (B) Separation of Powers. The framers of the constitution were created to prevent tyranny and create a stronger government that would hold the nation together. Tyranny ultimately means harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual-- like a king or dictator. The constitution guarded against tyranny in 4 ways: (A)Federalism, (B)Separation of Powers, (C)Checks & Balances, and (D)Small State-Large State.

Read More
1018 Words | 5 Pages

The Constitution united the states in a more structured and governed body, while allowing the states to have some individually, and protected all rights of people specified in the Bill of Rights. The main fear in the constitution was that the central governing power in federal government would create a tyrant, something the colonists feared from their experience as being part of the British empire. Because of this, the founding fathers divided all the powers in the federal government into branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. Each branch is in check with the others, and makes it extremely hard for the country to fall into

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

At a time many thought that the effects of a revolution would cause another one. The Articles of Confederation was the center of attention for this problem. After the fight for Independence the new America had to have a type of government. The Congress of this newly established nation created the Articles of Confederation. Of course problems would arise due to the ability of them knowing what they didn’t want when they should’ve known what the should have.

Read More
677 Words | 3 Pages

When the United States of America began to fight the Revolutionary War in 1775, they would need a governing body to run the new country. However, seeing as they had just escaped from a tyrannical government under England, the Articles of Confederation gave the states a very large amount of power so that they would not have the same problem again. However, although this government gave many states what they wanted, it was not strong enough to run a country. So, when writing a new Constitution the founding fathers gave more power to the federal government than the states because of the former government.

Read More
323 Words | 2 Pages

Separation of Powers is the division of powers into three branches. In Document B it explains that the legislative branch makes laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the judicial branch passes them. This evidence explains how the Constitution guards against tyranny because it separates the powers of the government and it makes sure that no branch has more power than the other.

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

The Constitution shaped America into who we are today. It started with the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was “the nation’s first constitution and was written to create a firm league of friendship between the thirteen states”(Crouse, Slide 5). Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the United States Constitution was created(Weatherman). After the United States finally won their independence from Great Britain, they spent their early years governed by the Articles of Confederation.

Read More
1561 Words | 7 Pages

The Constitution of the United States was formed 223 years ago. Since 1787, a lot has changed. We grew as a country, technology advanced, and we elected 43 different presidents. One of witch, being the first African-American President in history. Due to its age, some may argue that the Constitution is irrelevant to today’s problems.

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

Therefore, power has been justly distributed between each division of government. Checks and balances are yet another form of separation of powers in the government. As the Constitution was initially written, there were checks and balances preventing any one branch of becoming too powerful. Since we still follow the same Constitution (with a few amendments) those checks and balances are still used.

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

(The Three Branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” In conclusion, the constitution protected us from tyranny using the three methods,Equal Representation from all the States, Federalism, and the system of checks and balances. The framers succeeded in creating a well built constitution because all three methods have created security that no tyrant, or tyranny would

Read More
1584 Words | 7 Pages

Separation of powers refers to the idea that the major body of a state should be functioned independently and that no individual of a state should have power separately. Therefore, separation of powers means that splitting up of responsibilities into different divisions to limit any one branch from expurgating the functions of another. The intention of the doctrine is to prevent the application of powers and provide for checks and balances of governing a state. It is a doctrine of constitutional law under which the three branches of government, executive power, legislative power, and judicial power are been kept separately to prevent abuse of power.

Read More

More about How Did The Constitution Shape The Structure Of Government

Related Topics

Open Document