“What would life be like without the US Constitution?” Eventually, we would have tyranny. In 1787, a group of delegates for 12 of the 13 states got together to try to make the country better. Most of the US Constitution was written in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was made to make a plan for the building of a federal government so that there wouldn’t be tyranny, and to make sure that the government wouldn’t be too powerful. The Colonists were trying to avoid tyranny. Tyranny is when a person is given all the power to control a country of a government like a dictator. The Constitution could guard against tyranny by dividing powers between branches of government evenly, using Checks and Balances, and having an Equal Representation from all the states for the Legislative Branch. The first way that the Constitution guards against tyranny is by dividing the branches of government. The government is separated into separate branches so that they can …show more content…
Checks and Balances makes sure that one group in the government can do anything that would be “unconstitutional.” “The constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other…should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” This means that other branches check the other branches to make sure they are all the same in the amount of power. They use their equal power to approve, or disapprove something that the branches have done. If one branch has too much power, then obviously there will be a very high chance that tyranny would happen where one branch has total control over the whole government. Hopefully, the government can maintain order between groups so that tyranny won’t
How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? Tyranny is a cruel and oppressive government or rule. In the late 1780s in Philadelphia, 55 people met because the Articles of Confederation were not working. They decided to create the Constitution that would guard against tyranny. The three main decisions that I chose that they had to make that would guard against tyranny were making the three branches of government, how the branches of government could check each other, and also how they made the rule that you would have representation according to population.
It was for the people, so they weren't controlled by the government anymore. How did the writers of the constitution keep one person or a group of people from gaining too many people? Tyranny is nation under cruel and oppressive government. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways which were federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and large states and small states.
There are many checks and balances placed upon each of the three government branches. These checks and balances were created to insure that each branch would have nearly equal power. In this way, no branch will be able to rise above the others in power. This system has worked very effectively over the past years, however, there have been several situations over the past years in which this system has been challenged. Leaders of the Executive branch such as William Howard Taft, or Franklin D. Roosevelt have tried to expand the power of the executive branch.
In document C, there is a very useful chart that shows one way that each of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) holds a little bit of power over the others. This is good because it means that no one part of government is above or below the others in terms of power, and there is always a way for one of them to be “checked” if they are becoming too tyrannical. For example, the President (executive) can veto Congressional legislation, but Congress (legislative) can impeach the President if necessary. Being able to “check” each other is one of the ways that the Constitution kept one group from having too much power. Another benefit of having the checks and balances system is that none of the three branches is so far apart from each that they have no power over the others, but they are far enough apart to prevent the power from accumulating.
The Constitution guarded against tyranny due to the principles of government and the Great Compromise. This argument will be proven by Federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and the NJ and VA plans. Federalism guarded against tyranny by making sure the state and central governments can check each other to ensure neither government has total control. In Federalist Papers #51, Madison states, “the different government will each control each other, that at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” Our government, being split into three branches, controls each other and makes sure that one branch won’t be able to gain more power.
Previously, the colonists had problems with a faulty government and feared tyranny. When the colonists first had the opportunity to self-govern, The Articles of Confederation was formed and thus a poor example of government. The Articles of Confederation creating a weak, defenceless and powerless country. In the second attempt to create a more perfect government, the Constitution of the United States of America was formed. The colonists decided to place a guard against tyranny and thus, over 230 years after the writing of the Constitution of the United States, The Constitution in fact protects the states, the states rights and the citizens rights against tyranny.
But the legislative branch decides who goes into the judicial branch, can override the veto, and impeach the president. The judicial branch can say the presidents acts are unconstitutional, but the president (part of executive branch) nominates judges who are in the judicial branch. Lastly, the judicial branch can make laws unconstitutional. Checks and balances protects against tyranny because they gave each of the 3 branches of government several ways of having power over the other 2
An example of checks and balances is the executive branch is getting check by the legislative branch. If the legislative branch does not announce the nominate what the president selects they think that the president will gain much power
The branches of Government When the constitution was written it was written so that no one person could have all the power of the government. The constitution wanted to make sure that all people could have the benefits of the federal government but still live with separate state laws. Because no man is immune from enticements of evil, none can be trusted and invested with limitless power. (Lapeer, RUsseell W. issue 6 p. 2).
The Checks and Balances are the ways that the three branches of government check each other to make sure each one doesn’t go crazy with power. Legislative Branch checks the Judicial Branch, Judicial Branch checks the Executive Branch, and the Executive Branch checks the Legislative Branch. (Document C). This helps guard against tyranny because each of the branches can check the other one to make sure the branches don’t get too much power. The final way that the constitution helped guard against tyranny was the Big States and Small States Compromise.
Therefore, power has been justly distributed between each division of government. Checks and balances are yet another form of separation of powers in the government. As the Constitution was initially written, there were checks and balances preventing any one branch of becoming too powerful. Since we still follow the same Constitution (with a few amendments) those checks and balances are still used.
In document C there are the 3 branches of government and arrows pointing from one to the other telling us how each branch checks one another. Some of these are, the president can veto different laws if he does not like them, but Congress can override this veto and pass the law anyways if they have a majority vote to override it. The Courts can declare acts of either branch as unconstitutional. Congress can also impeach members of any other branch and can remove them from office. All of this means that whatever one branch does, it must go through the other two so no corrupt laws can be passed.
The United States Constitution consists of the essential principles and laws for the nation. It is the framework for the government of the United States, exemplifying the citizen’s rights and duties as well as the system of how it’s governed. The Constitution was established according to the fundamentals of federalism as well as the separation of powers. The United States Constitution was written during the Philadelphia Convention which is also known as the Constitutional Convention in the year 1787. It was written by a variety of people including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Paine and John Adams under the supervision of George Washington.
How come no one could ever take over the government? Well, we have the writers of the constitution to thank for this. WIthout the constitution, there would be a tyranny. The constitution was written in 1787. Its main purpose is to give our government a solid direction, and to describe the roles of the three branches in our government: The judicial, legislative, and executive branches.
The idea of the Constitution was brought up after the failures of Articles of Confederation. The founding fathers had a meeting on what improvements should be made to the Articles of Confederation. But the meeting eventually ended up in creating the United States Constitution. This took place at Constitutional