Formal Amendment Approach

Many elements of the constitution remain unchanged. Due to the nature of the US constitution being codified, it has required a two thirds majority in Congress to change anything and this has meant that it hasn’t been greatly changed since the time it was made. The Bill of rights had remained pretty much the same since its creation. The right to bear arms, for example, is still a part of the conversation and despite many people wishing to amend it, this has not been able to happen. This proves the ridgity that the Founding Fathers wanted to give the Constitution.

Constitution DBQ After the revolutionary war, the Articles of Confederation were written and in effect for 6 years. Then they realized that they needed to be revised. During the constitutional convention, they were just supposed to revise the Articles of Confederation. Instead they went away with the Articles and started to write a new constitution. Many people didn’t think the new constitution would guard against tyranny, but it did.

In the book “A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution” by Carol Berkin she explains the constitution from start to finish from how it all began, to the debates inside the convention and finally the end product. Berkin takes the reader and puts him directly in the middle of the convention of 1786; throughout the book you can feel the excitement, the frustration, the tensions between delegates and the overall commitment to making a new government work for all.

At the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787, building of a stronger national government to strengthen the weak central government under the Articles of Confederation was the focus of some leaders. The solution to this issue brought about the framing of the constitution. The framers of the new plan crafted a startling new approach through a ratifying procedure that went directly to the people. By this method, the Constitution would become law if nine of the thirteen states approved it after holding special conventions to consider the issue (Ratifying the Constitution, 2016). This marks the beginning of what many known as the Great Debate.

After the Founding Fathers of America wrote our Constitution there was one more step they had to each achieve in order for it to go into effect: ratifying it. In order to ratify the Constitution nine out of the thirteen states had to agree to adopt it. The process of ratifying the Constitution turned into a debate between two groups: the Federalists and the Anti Federalist.

The ratification of Articles of Confederation was approved, The Constitution was created. The founding fathers decided to create the constitution because the Articles of Confederation limited the central government too much. The Constitution was built to change. The way the constitution was built, it can be interpreted differently by different people, over the passage of years. Some interpret based on the way the founding fathers thought and others trying thinking how The Constitution is viewed today. The Constitution is designed for debate because it is flexible. The U.S. government is part Hamilton’s vison for America and the government is also what Jefferson had envisioned for America moving forward. The Constitution can have debates about its agenda because it is flexible like the elastic clause; America has what Hamilton designed because we have national banks and what Jefferson designed because he disapproved in the Alien and Sedition acts recently history the Patriot act and Obama Care have pushed The Constitution in to debate.

The other method of approving an amendment requires a constitutional convention convened by two thirds of the legislatures of the states. The aforementioned agreement may propose all the amendments it deems necessary. These amendments must be approved by three quarters of the states. The current wording of Article V is: "The Congress, when two thirds of both Houses deem necessary, must propose

My artifact is exam one which shows competency in many areas of American government. The Constitution is a document that shares the rules and basic procedures of the land, as indicated by the answer to question four. This document was created because the first form of a constitution (The Articles of Confederation) failed. The goal was to have enough power to rule on a national level, but not so much power that it removed fundamental rights. One way this was accomplished was by dividing the power into three branches. The three branches of government are the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. If you reference question number eight of the artifact, you can see which article (section) of the Constitution refers

Amending the Constitution demonstrates the desire to make a "more perfect union" by U.S. citizens by giving them what they want basically. Making sure the people get exactly what we want in this union, It changed during the Progressive Era, especially with jobs for people like equal pay, min. wage, banned children to work at night, and had work safety regulations. However, there were also major changes during an election process, including where voters could repeal laws which was called Referendums. There was also a law which allowed voters to propose laws directly rather than wait for state legislatures to do it, called, Initiatives. Another, which gave voters the power to remove government officials if they were unpopular or corrupt which

Article Five of the Constitution gave the procedure for amending the Constitution, that little did the founders know would be used almost immediately. In order for an amendment to be proposed either two-thirds of Congress must deem the amendment necessary or two-thirds of the state legislatures must call for a convention to propose an amendment. Once the amendment was proposed it would take three-fourths of the states to ratify the amendment. This article also ensured that no amendment could be passed that deprived a state of its equal vote in the senate. The interesting part of this Article is

Two options available are respectively referred to as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment and a constitutional convention process. A legislatively referred constitutional amendment is a proposed change, or amendment that appears on the state’s ballot because at least 3/5 of the entire house Legislature decided it should be placed as a ballot measure before the constituencies. The latter option, a constitutional convention process, is a assembly set about to recommend amendments to the United States Constitution. A constitutional convention must be met with three terms: a majority, two thirds of both houses, who wish for state parliament to put a convention question on the ballot, the majority of the voters must also confirm that it is their intentions as well and they are indeed inclined to hold a convention, and lastly if there are proposed changes or revisions that are desired they must then be placed upon the statewide ballot; subject to a vote of the people for ratification. It should be furthermore noted that a revision or amendment by convention of the people of the state of North Carolina can be called to propose a new or revised constitution, or more simply to just propose changes to the existing

For an amendment to become official for the United States’ Constitution it would first need approval by the Senate and the House of Representatives with a superiority vote of

Many people believe that the process to amending the constitution is difficult and too complicated but, I believe that the process is perfect for amending the constitution. There are two steps for creating an amendment, proposal and ratification. For step one, the amendment is to be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both houses of congress or a constitutional convention is called by congress on petition of two-thirds of the fifty states. For step two, to ratify an amendment one would need three-fourths of the fifty state legislatures or three-fourths of special constitutional conventions are called by the fifty states. The final result makes an amendment. The proposal by a constitutional convention has never been used to create an amendment.

The Constitution has been operative since 1789 after the ratification of nine states (American Vision and Values, Page 52). Today many question the relevancy of a document 222 years old to our society. The Founders created a governmental framework, defining three branches and giving powers to the government and others to the states. It also guarantees the rights of the people. It took two and one-half years for the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution. This ratification period was one of great debate and produced a series of essays complied into The Federalist. Authored by John Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay during the ratification debate in New York, they tried to get public support for the Constitution. Thus began the first

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I liked your analysis of political efficacy and participation in the constitutional amendment process. If a citizen is really interested in the amendment, he or she will join the proponents of the amendment and together campaign to get more support for it. These actions are forms of political participation (voting, creating awareness, and campaigning). Therefore as the individual is participating in the affairs of the state, he or she is influencing the government (i.e. political efficacy).