Pros And Cons Of Tyranny

Throughout history, tyranny has troubled many societies and civilizations. After the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the founding fathers decided they needed a document to help lay out the fundamental rules of society. The primogenial Constitution that they put into place was titled the Articles of Confederation. However, this document was subpar and lacked simple necessities, such as a court system and a chief executive. This brought together fifty-five delegates from twelve states, to frame a new Constitution that protected against tyranny, but still possessed a strong central government. This document written all those years ago, in 1787, is currently our modern Constitution, and it uses four main methods to guard against tyranny, Federalism,

In Federalist Paper #47, James Madison said, “(L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”, by this he means that no branch should consist of the same person or ability. If any two branches had a shared member it would give that person more power, and an unfair advantage. This also means that the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, and Judicial Branch should all have a variety of separate, but equal, abilities and viewpoints. By separating these branches it makes it extremely laborous to take over all three government

In Document C it states the ways each branch can check the other, such as the Judicial Branch can declare presidential acts unconstitutional, but the president can nominate judges, or, the president can veto congressional legislation, but Congress can impeach the president and remove him or her from office. These set powers that each branch has over one another make it next to impossible for a tyrant to take over the entire government.

By giving each state equal power and representation the Constitution guards against one state taking over any other state. In Document D it states, “The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative… The Senate of the United States shall be composed by the legislatures thereof, for six years; and each senator shall have one vote.” This means the population of each state will be represented and the larger states will have a lot more representatives, but there will be an equal amount of senators for each state, thus benefiting both sizes of states and keeping a parity between their