Essay On How Did The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny

Tyranny is means ‘as harsh absolute power in the hands of one individual’; it has happened everywhere. Whatever the size or shape, tyranny is a problem because it means too much power in the hands of one person or group. In 1787, Representatives from almost all the states in the U.S, met in Philadelphia to fix the issue of tyranny. The House presents us to “The Articles of Confederation” to help guard against tyranny. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in ways such as having the federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the large and small states both treated equally.

Federalism is the division of power between national and state government. Federalism was supported by Doc A, an excerpt of The Federalist Papers; A series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of the Constitution. The following quote is an excerpt from Federalist Paper #51, written in 1778 by James Madison. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among districts and separate departments.” In the aforementioned quote, James Madison is referring to the national state governments. Due to federalism, power is split between local and federal governments, preventing all power being controlled by one group. As a result, the two governments each have their own powers, which prevents total rule from a national or state government. Additionally, the power in these branches are split into three more branches. This prevents any one branch of government from having total power, which guards against

Federalism is a compound way of governing, with a central government, also known as a federal government, and a local government. Each government had their own powers, but to accomplish the bigger goals the key was to have cooperation and teamwork to solve the issue. The federal government’s powers were solely focused on war, money and relations with other countries and states outside of the United States. In accordance, the local government took care of the more specific things going on in that certain state. For example, they took care of things such as elections, constructing schools, and passing laws for marriage and divorce. This helps to guard against having a government ruled over by a tyrant by having the more sizable powers given to the higher-up individuals in the government, and the locals governments dealt with the laws that pertained to their specific state. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments” (Document A). The governments are ruled this way because if one government had all the power, they would surely use it unfairly, as all that power would get to their head. “Hence a double security rises to the rights of the people” (Document A). This would in fact raise the rights that the people had because they would have a

Federalism is a system of government where state and federal governments share power. Doc A is an excerpt from Federalist Paper #51, written by James Madison in 1788. The Federalist Papers are a series of newspaper articles used to persuade the states to ratify the constitution. According to Doc A,”... the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments.”

Separation of powers means that in the United States government powers are split among the three branches of government which are: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch, which you learned in document B. The separation of powers helps guard against tyranny by making sure that one specific branch doesn’t gain too much power. If one branch were to gain an excessive power, then that branch would have more say than the other two branches which could result in tyranny. The third way in which the constitution guarded against tyranny is checks and balances.

Separation of powers is dividing the power between the legislative, executive, and judicial power. In Doc B it states “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, may be justly pronounced the very tyranny”. This means that if one branch had all the powers it would be tyranny. Doc B also states “Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct”. The quote means that in order to not be a tyranny all branches should be equal, distinct, and separate. The constitution prevents tyranny with the use of checks and balances. Checks and balances is ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups. James Madison stated in Doc C “The constant aim is to divide and arrange the

“Give me liberty, or give me death.” We must diminish tyranny among our government. How did the United States accomplish this? After the Revolutionary War, the Founding Fathers decided to construct a government that was of the people, by the people, and for the people. By doing so, they needed to prevent the more than likely possibility of overbearing power falling into the hands of one or a few people, in other words a prevention of tyranny was needed (1769). This structure was stated in the Constitution, a written document that framed our American government, and so the Constitution declared four ways to prevent tyranny: Federalism, Separation of Power, Checks and Balances, and the Great compromise.

The concept of federalism centers around the state and federal government dividing and sharing powers. James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper #51 that under the Constitution, “The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself”(Doc A). The reason the framers of the Constitution put Federalism into practice was to prevent the Central Government from having all of the power, thus preventing a tyranny. Most of the central government’s sole powers have to do with foreign affairs, such as trade, war, immigration, and the military(Doc A). The states have the power to decide local laws and set up local governments and schools(Doc A).

Federalism helped to protect against tyranny by dividing the power between two governments: states and federal. According to James Madison, Founding Father, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” This quote, from the text Federalist Paper #51 refers to how the state and federal have individual responsibilities, but are also connected enough to keep other’s powers in check. This quote reminds the readers that the Constitution formed the separate state and federal governments to provide a double security against tyranny by splitting the power between two governments, making sure that the decisions made were the best for the citizens. Ultimately, federalism prevented tyranny by separating the power between two governments, which guarded against a possible tyranny in the

After the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the United States Government was reorganized under the Constitution. This gave the federal government far more power than did the Articles of Confederation, which invested power within the states. Basically, the Constitution created three branches of government (Executive, Judicial, and Legislative) which would work together to run the government. To make sure that there was an equal balance of power among the branches, a system of checks and balances was devised so that each branch could limit the power of the others. It is important to note that "the doctrine of separation of powers is not established by any constitutional provision [but] rather it emerges from he framers'

One of the most important principles incorporated in the U.S. Constitution is separation of powers. The U.S. Constitution divided the central government into three branches and created a system of checks and balances as a way to prevent the concentration of power. “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, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” In order to be sure that the main

“(L)iberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” (Document B) For our government to be successful we much create three main levels of government where powers are distributed. This guards from tyranny because it makes sure that no branch has more power than one another because they check each other. Document B states that in the Constitution article 1 section 1, article 2 section 1 clause 1, and article 3 section are about the three separate branches in our government and what responsibilities that each one holds. With our government having three different branches each one has its own limited powers that make a democracy possible. This guards against tyranny because no branch overpowers each other, nobody gets too much power, and the powers are evenly distributed. Separation of powers is one of the main things framers used to protect against tyranny.

In the Unites States of America Federalism is the basic structure of the American government; it is the distribution and balance of powers between the National government and the States government. In order to obtain a compromise between those who wanted stronger state government and those who preferred a stronger national government the founding fathers arranged and settled for a federal system rather than the alternatives of a unitary or confederal system. While both National and State governments each have specific powers and authority, they also share certain powers and must be able to cooperate effectively with each other.

When the Constitution was written, the ultimate goal of the Founding Fathers was to prevent tyranny and oppressive government. In order to achieve this remarkable goal, the Founders made the decision to adopt the concept of Separation of Powers. In the Constitution, Separation of Powers is essentially the distribution of power among the three government branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Despite how is has changed and grown, the concept of Separation of Powers continues to be just as important as it was when the Founders wrote the Constitution because of its raised relevance due to current issues.

Federalism is a system of government that divides power between a national government and a regional government with the use of a constitution. Throughout the United States history, federalism has played a significant role in the constitution and the system of government adopted by the United States of America. Federalism has also changed throughout the course of America's history to fit the constitution and the government.