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Tyranny Essay

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Recommended: Discuss the doctrine of separation of powers

A Tyranny-Free Constitution

Throughout history, power has been wrongly used in the form of tyranny. As James Madison describes in the forty-seventh Federalist Paper, tyranny is “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective” (Madison 47). By reducing the power of one person, such as a ruler or dictator, the Constitution of the United States of America limits the amount of power a single leader or office can exercise. The founding fathers chose to use proportional representation, separation of powers, and a system of checks and balances to prevent tyranny. To further evidence this claim with facts, primary sources …show more content…

The separation of powers in Congress ensures that no one person has too much authority. The Constitution separates the power of government by dividing government into three sections, the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch. While the Legislative Branch makes the laws, the Judicial Branch interprets the laws, and finally, the Executive Branch is tasked with carrying out the laws. In turn, this diminishes the possibility of tyranny. According to the United States Constitution, “To prevent any single group or institution in government from gaining too much authority, the Framers divided the federal government into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial” (Appleby et. al 219). This quote demonstrates how the Constitution divides Congress into two houses, the US Senate and a House of Representatives, which share power. The separation of power prevents …show more content…

As the United States Constitution describes, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote” (US Const. Art. I, Sec. 3). Here, the constitution expresses how each state has two senators. However, the power is proportional to the population of the state, which influences how many houses of representatives and electoral college votes each state receives. For example, Vermont has three electoral college votes and one representative, whereas California has fifty five electoral college votes and fifty two representatives. Tyranny is diminished because a small state, such as Vermont, is kept from overpowering a big state with a higher population, such as California. This way, tyranny is prevented because each state has representation, but power is more accurately represented because a higher population means more power through houses of representatives and electoral college

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“The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ”-James Madison. Fifty-five delegates, from the thirteen states, met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The chief executive and the representatives worked to create a frame for what is now our Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; Federalism that creates a State and Federal government, Separation of Powers that gives equal power to the three branches, Checks and Balances that create balance in the three branches by checking each other and being checked and the Small States vs the Big States ensures an equal voice for all states no matter what their size.

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