Have you ever wondered how the founding father kept such a balanced government, blocking any tyranny trying to creep in? 55 delegates met in Philadelphia on September 17,1787 to create a brand new form of government that stopped tyranny, or “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” (James Madison Federalist Paper #47,1788). So how did the Constitution prevent tyranny from taking place in government? The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways: federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and balancing powers between large and small states. Federalism was the first guard of tyranny, which …show more content…
The legislative, executive, and judicial branches each have ways to check the power of another branch. Congress has the power to approve and confirm Presidential nominations, override a President’s veto, impeach the President and remove him or her from office, and impeach judges from office. The President can nominate judges and veto Congressional legislation. The Court has the rights to declare presidential acts and laws 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…[the three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788). This quote by James Madison shows that the Constitution basically separates powers of each branch, and gives each the right to stop the other if they feel that something isn’t fair or equal without creating a ruler or making one branch the strongest. With the concept of checks and balances, the founding fathers were able to stop soft tyranny, and keep government in a balanced and equal …show more content…
According to Document D, every state must have at least one but not exceeding one for every thirty thousand people. Until a census is taken within three years, New Hampshire sall have three, massachusetts eight, Rhode Island one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. The number of representatives for each state is based on the population, more representatives with increasing population (Article 1, Section 2, House of Representatives). The Senate is composed of two senators from each state, not based on population. The Senate is chosen by legislatures thereof for six years. 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
The separation of powers help by having the legislative, executive, and judicial branch separated. Separation of power guarded against tyranny by separating them so the don’t join forces and gain to much power and change america. A third protection against tyranny was checks and balances which means to stop one branch from becoming too powerful. Checks and balances helped guard against tyranny by having them check each other and help each other if something goes wrong like how the executive can veto the law that the legislative makes.
Under the Articles, each state only has one vote in Congress, regardless of its size. The larger states wanted presentation to be based on population. James Madison of Virginia crafted the Virginia Plan, which guaranteed equivalent representation and granted powers
According to James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788 (Document C), “[The three branches] should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.”. The diagram (Document C) shows ways the branches can check each other’s power, for example, “Congress can impeach the President and remove him or her from office”, “The President nominates judges”, and “The court can declare laws unconstitutional.”. Checks and balances protect against tyranny because the three branches can check each other’s power to prevent one branch from having too much power. Checks and balances also make sure that each branch relies on each other, as if one branch did not exist, then the system would not work at
For example, the legislature can approve or disapprove Presidential nominations if they needed to check the power of the chief executive. The President can check the power of the Supreme Court (Judicial) by nominating new judges if necessary. If needed, the Supreme Court can declare laws made by the Senate unconstitutional. Checks and Balances reduces the possibility of tyranny erupting in the United States. Now, there are constant ways to prevent the branches from having too much
“The accumulation of all powers..in the same hands, whether of one or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, 1788) ( Background Essay) This quote explains the reasoning for one of the framers, (B) Separation of Powers. The framers of the constitution were created to prevent tyranny and create a stronger government that would hold the nation together. Tyranny ultimately means harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual-- like a king or dictator. The constitution guarded against tyranny in 4 ways: (A)Federalism, (B)Separation of Powers, (C)Checks & Balances, and (D)Small State-Large State.
It also explains that one representative can only be appointed for thirty thousand people to ensure that one state didn’t have an overload of representatives. Another way they ensured the system was tyranny free and fair was that every state would be appointed at least one representative. As you can see the Cconstitution went through a very intricate process in
Needless to say, this system of one vote per state made some of the more populous states feel less influential. Of course the feeling works both ways, the smaller states held just as much say as a state with possibly double their population. Once the Articles were thrown out the Virginia Plan took its place for a brief time. With the Virginia plan representation was based off of population. The same issue arose, but now with the smaller state not being represented enough.
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.
The United States Senate, established under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, must have two Senators appointed from every state regardless of the population of the state. Much like the House of Representatives,
The framers of the Constitution did not wish to return to the totalitarian system of governance imposed on colonial America by the British government. To ensure that no single person or entity had a monopoly on power, the Founding Fathers designed and instituted a system of checks and balances. The president's power is checked by the Congress, which can refuse to confirm his appointees, for example, and has the power to impeach or remove, a president. Congress may pass laws, but the president has the power to veto them. And the Supreme Court can rule on the constitutionality of a law, but Congress, with approval from two-thirds of the states, may amend the Constitution
In Federalist 51 Madison talks about the need for elected government officials to be controlled by a system of checks and balances. He talks about how each part of the government must be made sure as to not get too powerful as they might overpower the others. To do this Madison states that power must be distributed equally between each part, and divided as much as possible. For example Madison says “In the republican form of government, the legislative branch tends to be the most powerful.”
The Constitution protects against tyranny by establishing federalism, separation powers, and having checks and balances. The first method the Constitution protects against tyranny is establishing federalism. Federalism is having the central and state governments powers divided or shared.
Checks and balances prevents any one branch from having too much power. [Doc C is an excerpt from Federalist Paper #51 written by James Madison in 1788. The Federalist Papers were papers written to convince people to ratify the Constitution.] According to Doc C, ”... the constant aim is to divide and arrange several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other…”
Constitution DBQ What is tyranny and how do you guard against it? Tyranny is most often defined as harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual - like a king or a dictator. The constitution was created May of 1787, in Philadelphia. “The accumulation of all powers … in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” It was made to replace the old constitution, the Articles of Confederation (Background Essay).
In Document D, it says, “The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand but each state shall have at least one representative… The Senate of the United States shall be composed by the legislatures thereof for six years, and each