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Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Constitution Essay

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DeVry University The road that lead to the Constitution was not an easy road. There were debates, compromise, and many hours spent establishing the Constitution that is still in place today. The Articles of Confederation is the beginning of that road. The Articles of Confederation had its strengths but the weaknesses outweighed the strengths. This lead to the writing of the constitution. The first weakness of the Articles of the confederation is that the federal government had very little power over the state government. This was true when it came to the federal government requesting med for war efforts, resources but was epically true when it came to the financial side. Although the federal government could request these things form the states they could not force them to do so. (U.S. History Pre-Columbian to the new Millennium, n.d.) This lead to the Federal government printing currency, which then led to inflation. One of the major events that led to the writing of the Constitution was during Shay’s Rebellion. The Federal government was powerless and fell to the state militia this is when the need for a stronger …show more content…

Some of the strengths of the Constitution include; The federal government had more power than before when under the Articles of Confederation. The Government was also divided up into branches. The constitution also introduced the electoral college; which was votes based on population instead of one state one vote. It made executive power stronger. According to (Keene, Cornell, O’Donnell, 2011, pg. 146) “Although executive power under the Articles of Confederation had been weak, the new president could veto legislation, negotiate treaties, and issue pardons.” The weaknesses of the constitution were mostly based on opinion. Depending on your political stance at that time. The Anti-Federalists who opposed the constitution the most disagreed with a strong central government. The compromise

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Shays Rebellion served as the final nail in the coffin for the Articles of Confederation. Although the Articles of Confederation was America's first national document, it came with many weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses was that the federal government was too weak and therefore could not enforce laws. The Continental Congress borrowed money to fight in both the Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War therefore were in debt.

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The confederation type of government set up by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was coming up short. The Government set up couldn't assemble a majority in the elected congress. The solidarity of the country had been distressfully tried under the Articles of Confederation. While the Constitution was not flawless, it made a more grounded focal government that incorporated a Congress with the power to tax, a President who would be as the country's central power. It would also have a national court framework.

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The problem was that the existing government, under the Articles of Confederation, just wasn't doing the job. It was too weak. The challenge was to create a strong central government without letting anyone, person, or group of people, get too much power. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in ways by having Federalism, Separation of Powers, and Checks and Balances treated

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These authorities that the national government should have, were all up to the states to decide under the Articles. With the taking away some of the states rights in the Constitution, Anti-federalists feared that this would leave the states too weak, resulting in more problems. Under the new Constitution, many powers that were now in the government 's hands are: the power to levy and collect taxes, the power to regulate interstate commerce, the government set up a national court system consisting of district, circuit, and a supreme court, the government could enforce laws, there was now a house based on population, and a senate based on equal representation (two votes per state), to amend the Constitution, a ⅔ vote of Congress was needed, and a ¾ vote of the states were needed, and a majority rule was needed to pass bills. These new powers and abilities of the national government helped to create a strong, new

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The Articles of Confederation was the first plan for governing the nation. It tried to help the union become a fair union. It tried to give the states as much power as possible, but with this came many weaknesses. The biggest weakness being that the national government could not force the states to obey their laws. The national government could not tax the people or enforce laws and congress did not have a strong leadership role.

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The Articles of the Confederation was written in the beginning, because the citizens of America feared the government. The people wanted a new system that was organized and protected its people from Wars, attacks, and most importantly a stronger and reliable economy. In my opinion, there were more weaknesses than strengthens: 1. Congress lacked the power to collect taxes. 2.

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Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.

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The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.

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The Articles of Confederation only had 1 representative per state. This was a problem because the ratio of population to the 1 representative was unfair. Another problematic example with the Articles of confederation were that the government could not tax people. This idea seems great when you are a person of the country, but in reality it soon backfires. The government then had no money to build roads, or schools, or do anything because it did have have any money.

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The Articles of Confederation was one of the first official documents of the United States. From the beginning of the American Revolution, Congress felt the need for a stronger union and a government powerful enough to defeat Great Britain. During the early years of the war this desire became a belief that the new nation must have a constitutional order appropriate to its republican character. However, after a few short years the Articles were replaced by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Articles were a stepping stone which led to the Constitution however the Articles contained more weaknesses than strengths which forced the colonists to get rid of them and create a new document.

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One of the major factors in which influenced the United States constitution was the failures of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were a written form of laws that the United States first used when they first separated from Britain. The Articles of Confederation could not impose taxes and because of this, they were weak. The United States Constitution writers used this to their advantage and learned from the Articles mistakes. Some of the mistakes in the Articles were that the government could not collect taxes, and because of this, they were unable to fund war and pay for many expenses due to the reason that they could not have people pay taxes, which made this government very weak and unstable.

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