Articles Of Confederation Flaws Essay

The Article of Confederation had several flaws that were addressed during the Annapolis Convention of 1776. The main issues were mostly economic, and military based but there were other issues like not being able to enact laws that motivated a change of The Articles of Confederation. Under the Articles of Confederation, the individual states had entirely too much power and it was extremely difficult for the national government to even raise money mainly because congress could not compel the states to give money because they couldn't legally collect taxes and the states weren't exactly willingly giving money to the government. Another issue the national government had with the Article of Confederation is that it was also highly difficult to

The Articles of Confederation experienced problems from the very beginning. The main problem was the articles of confederation didn't establish that all 13 states be a sovereign nation, it allowed all 13 states to be their own sovereign nations, in truth all the states were a confederation. Which allowed them to do whatever they wanted outside of the states with foreign affairs, which the federal government now handles. The solution to the sovereignty of the states was creating a national government to help the laws not being enforced be enforced in different states. This itself was another underlying issue. The solution to the states not following each others laws was fixed by The Full Faith and Credit Clause. The Full Faith and Credit Clause

While the Articles of Confederation unified the American colonies for the first time, the individual states had a hard time allowing a central government to solely control their territory. Due to fear of an all powerful monarchy like the one they had experienced in England the colonies were wary of allowing a central government certain powers. These certain powers included control of commerce, ability to tax, and even the ability to act directly upon individual citizens of a state. While the Articles provided a loose confederation to unify the new country, they were only a temporary solution due to their obvious weaknesses in several areas. The Articles of Confederation were essentially

The Articles of Confederations first weakness was that it did not give the federal government enough power to enforce laws. No matter the size of a state they were allowed one government a vote. There was no power to regulate trade and commerce between states, meaning that each state was allowed to regulate and determine taxes on their own trade. The national government had to rely on the states money because it had no power to tax. Each state had their own money and regulated it themselves. The Articles did not establish a strong and solid leader, which meant no president. There was also a fault in which it could take a long time to change the Articles themselves. In order to make any changes to them it required a unanimous vote.

The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.

The Articles of Confederation are the bound that united the original states in a “firm league of friendship”(Encyclopedia Britannica,inc britannica.com). The articles were not ratified until 1781. It was regarded as a reliable constitution. Many people looked at them as a failure which then brought about the US Constitution. “Although the Articles of Confederation was a failure some of the clauses were put into the Constitution, so this helped with the beginning of the Constitution”(Encyclopedia Britannica,inc britannica.com) .

Finally, in November of 1777, Congress accepted a very different version of the Articles of Confederation than Dickinson had originally intended upon. The Articles that were finally agreed upon overly protected the independence of states and did not supply Congress with the necessary power to run a unified country. In its existence under the Articles of Confederation, the United States were anything but “united.” Each state basically acted as an independent country with it’s own government and own set of rules. The Articles were faulty and unclearly thought out in many ways, which left the United States unorganized and on the verge of chaos for several years to come.

Unfortunately for the National Government, Congress did not have any power to collect taxes from people in each individual state. The Congress could ask for money, but could not by any mean force states to pay them. The National Government greatly needed money to cover expenses and debts. Congress could not pay the Nation’s debt, which meant they could not provide much needed

The biggest fault in the Articles of Confederation was that it called for a confederacy, “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled” (Articles of Confederation, 1777, p.1). This state sovereignty went against republicanism, which is more closely associated with popular sovereignty. The American people want the government’s authority to come from the representatives that they elect. This is easily seen as a crucial idea of the Constitution in its preamble, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of

The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.

The Articles of Confederation, a written agreement that ensured each state’s sovereignty, freedom and independence, led America to victory over the British centralized government. During the late eighteenth century, the empowered government terrified the Americans, hence the thirteen colonies decided to spread governance powers equally to all functional states. The states had absolute dominance over the Congress due to the Articles of Confederation. While the localized power of states seemed to be promising, the system posed great threat to the major components of a democratic government, which are coercion, revenue, and legitimacy (Lecture 1 - The Roots of Government). The system of localized power did not ensure legitimacy, which referred to people’s recognition of national government. Congress’s lack of power to control each state’s actions caused great chaos. Eventually, national government’s lack of power and inability to unify the states exposed multiple flaws in the Articles of Confederation; consequently, a new supreme law, the Constitution was established by the founding fathers. The new supreme law successfully altered the imbalanced system into a novel democratic government.

Another disadvantage of the Articles of Confederation was that it created a flawed financial system. The Congress could not pass taxes; it had to request funding from the states. “The taxes for paying that proportion [government funding and debt],” read the Articles of Confederation, “shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several States…” (Article VIII) The states could

The failure of the Articles of Confederation help the founders to create a more stable government system with the Constitution. The flaws in the Articles helped them make changes that made the new system very effective. Under the Constitution, Congress had a right to levy taxes (Feldmeth). This fixed the problem of the government always running short on funds because they could only request taxes from the government. They were also able to raise an army to deal with threats, something they were not able to do under the Articles. States are more evenly represented under the Constitution instead of being

Another huge problem with the Articles of Confederation is that they didn’t invent a federal currency. Continental money wasn’t profitable much, and some states started to coin their own currency, which made this worse, which made making trade among the states almost not happen able. The Articles also did not work to create Congress to let

The Articles of Confederation which was ratified in 1781 should not be replaced. The articles kept the states together in a “league of friendship” (O’Connor, Sabato, and Yanus 32). In a government like this, the states would be kept intact and