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Democracy in the united states during the 19 th century
Separation of powers
Separation of powers
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Democracy in the united states during the 19 th century
Separation of powers
Separation of powers
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Since the creating of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the federal government has grown in its influence over states by several Supreme Court decisions. The Constitution was established to create a limited role of the federal government over the states. The Bill of Rights was included in the Constitution to protect individual rights from an overreaching federal government. It was designed to be a malleable document that has been amended twenty-seven times. At the time of its inception, the Constitution was designed for minimal interference by the federal government for private citizens.
Where is Tyranny? What is Tyranny? Who has Tyranny? But the main question is, how did the constitution guard against tyranny? The definition of tyranny is, ¨the accumulation of all powers in the hands of one, many, or a few is the very definition of tyranny.¨ said James Madison in the constitution.
It took the convincing of the Anti-Federalists to explain how the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and did not state the rights and freedoms of the people, therefore lacking a Bill of Rights. The Federalists agreed to a Bill of Rights, and later the Constitution was ratified with nine out of thirteen votes on June 21 of 1788. Soon after the Constitution was ratified, the separation of powers was understood in the United States government. The separation of powers separated each branch of government.
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
The Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase "and to the republic for which it stands" and according to This Nation.com the United States is, undeniably, a republic, not a democracy. A democracy, defined correctly “is a form of government in which the people decide policy matters directly--through town hall meetings or by voting on ballot initiatives and referendums”. A republic “is a system in which the people choose representatives who, in turn, make policy decisions on their behalf.
After all the challenges the United States faced in making the Constitution, our Founding Fathers had to revise the “rough draft” called, The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation weren’t sufficient to make this country succeed, therefore we created a new Constitution. The Constitution was written in May of 1887 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our new Constitution made it possible for us to become a country based on Federalism, or a compound government and not result in tyranny. What is tyranny?
The American Constitution was created by the founding fathers to protect the liberty, security and freedom of all American citizens. The Constitution states the powers of the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of government. The Constitutions genius is its ability to grant exemplary authority to the Executive, Judicial and Legislative sectors of the government, while not needing to worry about a specific branch of government abusing its power. An additional genius the constitution has is its ability to always change. Within the Constitution, is the policy of checks and balances, this implementation was created for the sake of defending the rights of the nation and its citizens.
John Adams said, “Liberty once lost, is lost forever.” This is the main reason the American Founders placed so many safeguards in our nation’s Constitution. Many ideas and theories the founders used when writing the Constitution were from philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. Specifically, the French writer, Baron de Montesquieu was perhaps the most influential with his political ideas (We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution 25). The founders created the three separate branches: Executive, Judicial and Legislative, to ensure that America is never again governed by a tyrant; however, an intricate system of checks and balances is necessary in order to ensure the equality of these branches.
The Men who created the constitution created a federal system of government in which affects the state and the national governments individually and together. The us constitution guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. It also established america's national Government and fundamental laws. When the constitution was made it was purposely made in a way that federal government didn't have much power over state governments. It was mainly made as the base for all laws and anything in America.
The Enlightenment was a movement focused on equality, freedom of speech, press, and religion. The movement helped shape the philosophical basis of the American Revolution and was crucial in determining the politics, religion, and government of colonial America. All aspects of life were affected by the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment popularized self- improvement and societal change. Many figureheads and philosophers such as Thomas Jefferson and John Locke helped shape these ideas.
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution is the outline our founding fathers created to describe the nature and functions of government. Its first three articles consist of a doctrine of the separation of powers, which divides the federal government into three branches: the legislative, consisting of Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The constitution is meant to govern the federal government while the bill of rights is meant to govern the
While Democracy was being practiced in Colonial America, it has had its dark side as well. Almost to balance out the good in what is happening, everything needs a balance in life. So, what makes the Democracy in Colonial America have undemocratic features are the voting and the treatment of African Americans and Women in the colonies. The voting which happened in America, "which is stated in document 2, shows us that only Christian white males were the only ones who could vote. " This is not a democracy, if only a certain group could vote and they leave out the women, African Americans, and other ethnic groups out.
Direct democracy is a system that allows citizens to make laws themselves rather than outsourcing the job to elected representatives. The advantages of having a direct democracy would allow the inhabitants to have the capability of direct authority and cast ballots that will influence how things are operated. Another advantage having this type of democracy would entail more transparency within government. Certain issues that would normally be considered classified, having a direct democracy all information related to government would be available for everyone to see. Although this may appear beneficial to citizens, a direct democracy can also cause tension within a government.
Democracy in colonial america was a work in progress with democratic/undemocratic features. Rule of law, Everyone was treated equally in the document The Fundamental Rights. Document #3 says “Public officials or many other people can be removed.” this was an example of rule of law. Human Rights, rights every human has.
The United States of America is not truly a democracy. America’s government is all over the place and pretty much a mixture of everything, it never has been just democracy. The characteristics of a democracy are where the majority wins but that never really happens. For example the president election majority does not elect the president. The United States of America is not a democracy for many reasons; Rule by law, we are more a republic than a democracy, and the founders of a nation didn 't want a democracy.