Governments and institutions continue to change depending on the economic, social and political requirements. The USA has operated under two different constitutions. The first constitution was called the Articles of Confederation was effective after Maryland ratified it on March 1, 1781. The second, which is referred to as The Constitution, came into effect on June 21, 1788, after the ratification by New Hampshire. These documents have numerous similarities and differences since it was established by the terms of contemporaries e.g. the ideologies from the same people. The differences are the most especially when analyzing the Articles of Confederations (Articles) in 1781 and the Constitution in 1788, which may mean that development and awareness …show more content…
Kingdon & Thurber (1984) states that the Articles had a unicameral system of governance while the Constitution introduced the bicameral system. The unicameral system was based on the ideology of Congress while the Constitution divided the United States Congress into two: House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) (Gillespie & Lienesch, 1989). Furthermore, the Articles proposed one vote for every state without considering the size of the state while the Constitution preferred a system that every senator or representative was given one vote (Dougherty, 2006). The aim of the Constitution was to ensure a better representation and better alternatives of representing the people (Cain & Dougherty, 1999). The Articles perspective may have address costs and other complications but the Constitution saw the importance of the people (voters) in leading and making decisions influencing the entire …show more content…
The two constitution employed different approaches when it comes to taxes, trade and commerce Bernstein & Rice (1987). The Articles of Confederation did not allow the national government to collect taxes from the people meaning that the national government would borrow or acquire the funds from the state (Cain & Dougherty, 1999). The Constitution changed the approach allowing both the state governments and the federal government to collect and levy taxes (Kingdon & Thurber, 1984). In addition, the Articles did not allow the national government to interfere with the commerce and trade, the Constitution took a different approach. The Constitution allowed the national government the duty to regulate trade and commerce in the inter-state level and the international level (Dougherty, 2006; Lutz, 1988). The strategy was to reduce potential conflicts and misunderstandings between the states and create effective foreign affairs and international business
Though the articles did account for a President, he did hardly more than preside over the Congress, there was no power in the Presidency. The Constitution on the other hand gave power to the executive branch headed by the President to choose the Cabinet and be another check to the judiciary and legislature. The Amending document was changed as well between the two, before 13 out of 13 colonies were needed to amend an article, while later 2/3 of both houses of Congress as well as ¾ of State legislature or National Convention were needed. The representation of the States was drastically changed, under the articles each State received one vote regardless of size, in the Constitution the upper house (Senate) has two votes from each state and the lower house would be based upon population.
The Articles of Confederation was a sort of rough draft for the Constitution of the United States. Written in 1781, it set the basis of our country’s government during the Revolutionary war and gave power to the states. The founding fathers of the Articles were fearful of losing the rights of the people as they had with Britain, and therefore did not grant the central government the power to tax. Nonetheless, the states were believed to hold too much sovereignty, for the Articles of Confederation was revised after a short period of only six years. This revision gave birth to the Constitution in 1887 and with it, a stronger central government. Even so, this change in power was not favorable for every citizen of the United States. A particular
The Articles and the Constitution share only a small number of similarities. Of the most importance, both of these papers were created with the intentions of establishing a government that was best for the people at that time. The Articles were written in such a way that oppression and despotism would be avoided because the people feared that a strong government would treat citizens as the British
The Articles provided no executive branch,so Congress had the complete authority to govern the U.S. The Constitution provided a president who would enforce the federal laws (Doc 5). The legislative branch was represented by one house, with each state having one vote. Also, no votes were needed to begin an important legislation. The Constitution created a bicameral legislature, and each state had equal representation in the Senate (Doc 5). Unlike the Articles where no votes were needed to enact a major legislation, the Constitution required a small amount of authority to proceed with a major legislation. The Articles of Confederation created no federal court system, so no states could sort out major affairs. The Constitution created national court system that could sort out the affairs between states and citizens. the different states had a changing population of Federalists and Antifederalists. One example of power regulation added into the Constitution is the checks and balances governmental system.This system of government in the branches made it so the three branches could regulate each other’s power. Another example of power regulation, is the addition of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments of the Constitution which protected the individual rights of people. Again, the most major difference between the two guidelines of government was the shift of power. This shift of power altered the political environment of the United States as a young
The idea was that the government would represent the people. The Constitution established a two house Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate would include two members from each state and the House of Representatives would have members appointed according to the population of the state. Senators would be chosen by state legislatures while the Representatives would be elected by the people. This was the first step toward the expansion of democracy. The Constitution did not set any rules for qualifications to vote; they left that up to the states. The Constitution strengthened national authority. It gave the president the job of enforcing the law and commanding the military. It gave Congress the right to levy taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, declare war, and foreign policy. The Constitution declared the national legislature as the "supreme Law of the Land." It did however leave the majority of day to day affairs up to the states such as education and law enforcement. It created a checks and balances system between the states and the national government. This was the idea to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two.
The articles were designed to allow a weak central government to grant the states all of the power. With no leader, the government had many limits. These included the
The simple difference between the Articles of Confederation and US Constitution is that the articles were not strong enough to hold our young nation together. The articles operated the US as separate states. Under the articles, it was very difficult to pass laws since the requirement of 9 out of the 13 states ' approval was needed for ratification. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The members of the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787 in
Another difference between the Articles and The Constitution that isn’t commonly held to be an important distinction, but one nonetheless, is the term lengths. Initially under the Articles of Confederation a Senator could be appointed to a maximum of a three year term within any given six years. With the newly drafted Constitution, some of that was retained. Senators still serve six year terms, and representatives from The House of Representatives would serve two. There are no limitations on how many times a representative can be reelected. Most people today would agree that term limits would be better off for Congress so that undue influence from lobbyist from big corporations could be eliminated.
Compare and contrast the Articles of confederation and the Constitution, especially in regard to the specific powers granted to the national government.The formation and ideals of the Articles of Confederation and its successor, the Unites States Constitution, varied from each other in terms of a stronger or weaker federal government in dealing with issues. The Constitution gave more power to the federal government, while the Articles of Confederation involved a very weak government with primary rights interests of the individual states as the focus. Both gave Congress legislative power and set up departments that would eventually be incorporated into the president’s cabinet. The formation of the Articles of Confederation was of the
For instance, they were both written with the same intentions of creating new country of freedom for many people. It also contains the same ideals of government that the Articles had, just in a different format. Also, both central governments had the right to raise an army and build up a navy. However, this seems to be where more differences start to appear. One glaring difference between the two is that the Articles made the states seem like a friendly cooperation while the Constitution firmly defined the unity of the states. Also, the Constitution resolved the problems that the central government had when referring to levying taxes and controlling trade. Another importance between the two is the number of Congress votes each state had. During the time of the Articles of Confederation, there was only one congressional vote per state. On the other hand, after the Constitution was put in place, each state had one vote per delegate elected into Congress. On a final note, while many of the ideals behind the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution were the same, the two documents were different in many ways and created two very distinct forms of
After reading the articles of Confederation and the constitution, I found the main difference between them is the change of federal government’s power. In the articles of Confederation, most power still in the state government’s hand, for example in the reading article 2 “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence” this means the state still retain nearly all the power, it is still a pretty much an individual country, but in the Constitution judges in every state must judge based on the supreme law.
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two different types of Government. There are many differences between the two, for example, the Articles of Confederation were made for the original 13 colonies. The constitution was made for the United States of America.
If you try to compare the Articles with the new Constitution, you realize that the former was full of drawbacks, while the latter had answers to all these drawbacks. The Articles was subjected to severe criticism for the very fact that it centralized all the powers in the hands of state government, and left the national government with no major powers at all. As opposed to the unicameral system which was facilitated by the Articles of Confederation, the US Constitution introduced the bicameral system of governance, which was divided into the upper house and lower house. Yet another difference between the two was pertaining to the number of votes each state had. While the Articles had a provision of one vote for every single state irrespective of its size, the US Constitution had the provision of one vote per representative or senator.
A constitution is a written document that sets forth the fundamental rules by which a society is governed. Throughout the course of history the United States has lived under two Constitutions since the British-American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. First in line was the Articles of Confederation (1789-1789) followed by the Constitution of United States of America (1789-present). The Articles of Confederation was the first formal written Constitution of America that specified how the national government was to operate. Unfortunately, the Articles did not last long. Under the words of the Article’s power was limited; Congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. Also the articles stated
The articles of confederation and the constitution have many things in common yet if one doesn't come to the agreement the other one can’t proceed to make a decision. There is where the conflict starts because if one of the decision is not what the other wants there is a cause of dilemma. As an example, voting in congress. In the articles of confederation there is only one vote per state vs in the constitution it is one vote per representative, or senator.