The Expansion Of The Federal Government

The U.S government although created in the late 18th century incorporates ideas about government originating back to the early 11th century. The American Founders were influenced immensely by preceding government philosophy and authoritative documents. The Age of Enlightenment, specifically, was a period of political novelty and innovation leading to vast governmental and societal advancements. The American FOunders were part of the ENlightenment and adapted an abundance of the innovated ideas to formulate our government. Similarly, the principles established in the Magna Carta and English Bill of RIghts are paramount to the formation of the Constitution. Collectively they formulated concepts such as limited governments and challenged many dubious institutions and notions.

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in 1787, the United States just had 13 states. The Founding Fathers believed that more states would want to join the Union in the future. They saw that it would be significant for new states to have the same form of government as the original states had. Since then there are now over 50 states that have similar characteristics which were developed centuries ago; although, resembling the creation of new ideas and inventions, current state government had many problems from being the way it is today, it also has many important features that benefit many people, as well as plays an important role in how American democracy and government works.

The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.

In 1789, the first official government of the United States of America was established. The power was divided into three branches, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches in order to maintain democracy. This system has remained relatively unchanged and is in use today. However, within each of these branches many changes have transpired to accommodate the expanding and fluctuating American society, such as the introduction of Cabinet Departments in the Executive Branch, the establishment of new laws and Amendments by the Legislative Branch, and rulings on issues by the Judicial Branch.

From 1775 to 1830, many African Americans gained freedom from slavery, yet during the same period the institution of slavery expanded. Explain why BOTH of those changes took place. Analyze the ways that BOTH free African Americans and enslaved African Americans responded to the challenges confronting them.2010

The first form of Government in America was the Articles of Confederation, the Articles of Confederation worked but had a few flaws which included no system of national courts and also Congress lacked strong and steady leadership. The weakness’ were quite significant so the Constitutional Convention was held to revise the Articles of Confederation but instead led to the creation of the United States Constitution. The Federalist wanted a strong central government but the Anti-Federalists were scared that would be like Britain again so they opted for a small weak central government; their roles in the Convention were to make The Articles of Confederation please both parties and make compromises. The Constitutional Convention kept the Government from being overpowered by creating Checks and Balances, The Executive branch was responsible for enforcing the laws, Legislative creates the laws, and the Judicial Branch interprets the law. The Checks were intended to keep one Branch of Government from being more powerful then another Branch. The smaller and larger states compromised when creating laws by having the Senate and also the House of Representatives, smaller states like the Senate because this means all states would have an equal amount of reps but larger states preferred the House of Reps because the amount of reps was based on population.

The founding fathers created the constitution, outlaying the branches of government and clarifying their roles and responsibilities, providing a checks and balances system. It is comprised of three branches, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. Each state, city and county has its own constitution that outlines the levels of local government. In the beginning, the idea was to create a government that could efficiently establish laws and enforce them, but also ensure that no one person or one group of people could not possess

The first form of U.S. Government was through the Articles of Confederation. The Articles joined the States into a collective group but allowed the states to retain their freedom and power (Lenz and Holman, 2013, p. 31). Unfortunately, soon after the articles establishment the republic realized the need for a stronger federal government. Thus the constitution was signed and ratified establishing a stronger federal government to remedy the major defects of the Articles; taxing, executive office, interstate and foreign commerce, amendment, and domestic order (Lenz and Holman, 2013, p. 32). Therefore, the first drastic power shift occurred between State Power and Federal Power. According to Lenz and Holman (2013), the constitution provided

Constitution created the principles by which the nation would be governed. Those principles state that the people of the United States are to be governed by two separate bodies, the State and Federal governments. The State governments hold powers that the Federal government does not reserve. The judicial, legislative, and executive branches are the three branches that the Federal government is divided into. The branch that explicates the laws that were made by Congress is the Judicial Branch.

The Constitution is designed to outline the scope of the government and the establishment of the basic contract and the powers of the federal government. Although it contains many restrictions on the powers of the national government,

The Constitution was established for America’s national government with fundamental laws and certain basic rights for the American citizens. It was signed Sept. 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philly, presided over by George Washington. The national government was very weak and states operated like independent countries, one couldn’t imagine how this could happen under Americas first govern document like the Articles of Confederation. In 1787, at the convention, delegates devised a plan for a stronger federal government using three branches, executive, legislative and judicial-along with a system of checks and balances to ensure no single branch would have too much power.

The United States federal government is composed of three institutions, the Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court. Based on the Constitution of the United States, the federal system, and the separation of power, the three branches exist and each represents the three institutions, the legislative branch is vested by the Congress, the judicial branch is vested by the Supreme Court, and the executive branch is vested by the President. The three distinct branches are respectively independent of each other, providing checks and balances, and preventing the abuse of power existed in the government. The federal government and state government divide the power of the Unites States government. In order to ensure citizens are close enough to the government, the drafters of the Constitution must not deprive the principle of freedom from its citizen and have to retain state’s autonomy. Meanwhile, each state has its own written constitution, and the state constitution contains provisions for the local government within the state.

The United States Constitution provides a system of check and balances while keeping the powers of the government separate, organized into three separate bodies. The three separate bodies in American government consist of the executive branch which hosts the President and his cabinet, the legislative branch which houses the two bodies of Congress, and the judicial branch which consists of the Supreme Court. This system is based off the concept of federalism; a system of government that’s power is shared by both federal and state governments.

During the beginning of the United States, many changes were brought upon the government, the most prominent one being the Constitution. When America had just been founded, the first government put into place was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation created a weak central government by providing more power to the states and their people. Quickly discovering the articles were unable to provide a strong government for the United States, the Constitutional Convention was created to compose a new government system. Together, the Constitutional Convention created the United States Constitution. The Constitution used checks and balances to ensure none of the three branches of government abused their power. Eventually, the

The role of the institution has grown tremendously over the centuries ever since the founders of the United States desired a Federal Government with limited powers whose aim was primarily concerned with promoting the civil liberty of the Americans. According to Savage (2008), during the reign of George Washington, the federal bureaucracy had only three cabinet departments; however, the federal government has since grown not only to more than eight cabinet departments, but also with other numerous bureaus, agencies, government authorities, administrations, and corporations. Between the periods of independence and the civil war, the federal government performed limited duties with regards to the daily lives of the American