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The Pros And Cons Of A Republican Government

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The founding fathers having a bad experience with monarchy wanted to give the people of the United States a say. The founders wanted a balance between complete freedom and extreme monarchy. The concept of a republican government was still fairly new at the time. By implementing a republican structure into the constitution, the founders were able to promote their republican ideals. Although Monarchy was out of the question, there was still the decision between direct democracy and republican. The idea of "majority rules" was flawed in the sense that it could easily become unbalanced. If one party was able to bring together enough votes to make it 51% to 49%, they would win. James Madison stated that if Rhode Island were to become its own confederacy that, "...the insecurity of rights under the popular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed by such reiterated oppressions of factious majorities..." The government would be unjust and the majorities could be come factious. Instead of having majority rule, the 2/3 rule is stated in Article V. This allows …show more content…

There was a large idea of having the government separated with as little contact as possible between them. This largely translated into the constitution. Each of the different branches of government have their own section of the constitution. Within the different articles, the different guidelines of the government are stated. For example, in Article II, Section I, the ideas of allowing the people to vote on representatives and the president are stated. That is just one of many ways that the constitution promotes the republican ideals. With the constitution, the Founders were able to give the proper base for a thriving government. The republic ideals present within the Constitution promoted the government. The republican attitude set by the Founders created a republic that would be looked upon by

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Perhaps the most famous Federalist paper, Federalist 10, starts off by saying that one of the biggest arguments that favors the Constitution is that it creates a government suited to minimize the harm caused by factions. Faction, in this case, is defined as a group of people whether a minority or majority based on class, race, and profession that all share a common interest. It was inevitable that factions would occur and perhaps the defining characteristic was the unequal distribution of property. This would ultimately lead the poor without property to become the majority in a “tyranny of the masses.” Madison believed that there were two solutions in preventing majority factions, 1) Remover the causes, and 2) Control the effects.

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DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal

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375 Words | 2 Pages

The United States Constitution was created to define the powers and limitations of the government. It replaced the Articles of the Confederation, and was ratified by all 13 states in 1787 (American Government, n.d.). The ratification of the Constitution was not without opposition, and the government was split into two groups: federalists, and anti-federalists. The federalist group believed that a national governing body, ruled by the elite class was necessary. Antifederalists, on the other hand, believed that state governments should have more say, and that the government should be run by ordinary people (American Government, n.d.).

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After the Declaration of Independence in 1787, the Federal Government turned to the creation of the Constitution in which delegates from 13 states convened to make compromises on their beliefs for the betterment of a nation. Although the Bill of Rights was initially not a part of the Constitution, the Federalists thought that it was crucial to ensure ratification of the Constitution. This ratification was one of the main reasons why the Bill of Rights needed to be added. Federalists feared a strong, central government, and created a Bill of Rights in order to prevent government abuse. Others believed that a dominating Government could prohibit rights in the future, which would not necessarily be expressed in the Bill of Rights.

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Hence Federalists came up with the Bill of Rights as a way to get the Constitution ratified and for people to really see a needed change. The Bill Of Rights which lists specific prohibitions on governmental power, lead the Anti-Federalists to be less fearful of the new Constitution . This guaranteed that the people would still remain to have rights, but the strong central government that the country needed would have to be approved. The 1804 Map of the nation shows that even after the ratification of the United States Constitution there still continued to be “commotion” and dispute in the country.(Document 8) George Washington stated that the people should have a say in the nation and government and everything should not be left to the government to decide.(Document 3) Although George Washington was a Federalist many believed he showed a point of view that seemed to be Anti-Federalists. Many believed that The Bill of Rights needed to be changed and modified and a new document’s time to come into place.

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However, the legislative branch of the new government proposed in the Constitution is able to control the malignant effects of factions because the representatives are able to pass legislation that affects large portions of the nation instead of individuals. Madison then states that a pure democracy, in which ordinary citizens govern themselves, are not able to control the effects of factions, but a republic, in which citizens elect representatives to govern, is able to. The reason that republics can control the effects of political parties is because the representatives have to consider the good of the whole nation; Madison hopes that their patriotism will override their temporary interests. Furthermore, representatives, given that they are elected into office, should be men of good morals and intelligence; Madison believes these men of this caliber are more fit to govern a country than average citizens. In conclusion, Madison discusses in Federalist 10 what factions are and how they work, and why a republic is the best government to combat the negative effects of

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James Madison’s Federalist 10 was written amid criticisms that a republican form of government had never been successful on a large scale. Madison’s argument was that a well-constructed union could control factions. He argued that in order to control factions from their causes, we would need to either give up liberty or free thought. Since we cannot infringe upon these two natural rights, we must move on to controlling the effects. A republic, Madison argues, would be able to do this because the people choose the representatives, and they choose representatives who they feel best represent their opinions.

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The Framers of the Constitution had doubts about government operations and how governments worked. They were inclined to think the governments (kings) take away power from the people. However, they understood that some type of system was necessary for a nation to function. The Framers needed to make sure the government did not have complete control of the people. Creating Federalism in the United States allowed the government to set rules and standards for citizens while keeping checks and balances on their own powers.

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However this idea was eventually scrapped and they wrote a whole new constitution. This constitution would protect America from tyranny, so they could keep a civilized and united country. The Constitution that was made helped defend America from almost all types of tyranny and is still helping us hundreds of years later. One way the Constitution prevented tyranny is by supporting Federalism.

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The Republican’s philosophy was as if they were staring through a looking-glass perceiving the Federalists polices as their attempt to lay the foundation of a monarchical government. From my point of view, when taking into consideration on how our government is structured, provided by a system of checks and balances as well as two political parties all assist in having an alliance alternatively to division. Additionally this suppresses the loyalty on extreme stances which help to accommodate in the compromise on any conflicting points of view. During George Washington’s presidency, some of the national leaders began to have conflicting philosophical principles about how the government needed to conduct its business. It caused some members

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295 Words | 2 Pages

The original constitution of the United States was drafted for multiple reasons. Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government was extremely weak. The individual states had more power than the federal government, and each of the states acted more like independent countries. Additionally, the Articles of Confederation did not distribute power well. The revised Constitution allowed for 3 branches of government, which divided federal power so that one branch could not become more powerful than another.

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647 Words | 3 Pages

The US Constitution is a document based on the US Federal government’s law and it presents legal checks and balance for the branches of government. The reasoning behind this system was to give an in depth set of values and guidelines for the American people. It is separated into three parts: The Articles, the Bill of Rights, and the changes and additions. The initial three articles are written to establish the responsibilities, powers, and balance each branch the federal government has.

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Each senator shall have one vote (Article 1, Section 3, Senate). The large states would have been happier with their representation in the House, because they had more representatives and more voice in the decisions made. The smaller states would have been happier with their representation in Senate though, because all states no matter population, area, or wealth had two representatives. The balancing of small and large states guarded against tyranny, because they compromised so that all states had a balanced amount of power, and tyranny would not occur amongst the people when having a voice in

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885 Words | 4 Pages

They believed that because people are instinctively selfish, that people would have a hard time coexisting in a land where all people were supposed to be treated equal. Though the government was created to aid the people, it was also established to teach the people how to “live properly”. The fact that the constitution was written in the mindset that people needed to be, in a sense, controlled is was and remains a controversial topic. Many view the constitution’s favor for the rich, white, and male property owners was not so much of an “easier way to unify a nation” but more of a list of who it was going to be more desireable to govern. These facts aside, in order to instill equality to a newlywed nation, the people were given some basic human rights and the power to choose who was going to represent them in order to still make sure that the people were still the basis of the new government while still having control over them.

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517 Words | 3 Pages

The American Constitution represents the values and principles of republicanism by having its principles guaranteed liberty, with opposing, limited powers offsetting one another just as the Founding Fathers believe we as a newly established country needed in order to have a blueprint of how we as the people are to interact with government officials and how they are to act towards us. It is here to remind us that we each have a role to play within our government and we must do our part in order for this country to function to its greatest

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