Isabella Carter
The US Constitution was designed to guard against tyranny and protect citizens' rights through various foundational principles. The Founding Fathers wanted to prevent the possibility of overbearing power falling into the hands of one or a few people. The Constitution declared four ways to prevent tyranny: Federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and the Great Compromise.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Federalism | Division of powers between the state and federal government |
| Separation of Powers | Division of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches |
| Checks and Balances | Each branch can supervise and limit the powers of the other branches |
| Protection of Individual Rights | The Bill of Rights protects individual freedoms against potential government overreach |
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What You'll Learn
Federalism
The Constitution's federalist structure divides power between the state and federal governments, preventing either from gaining too much power. For example, in the US, states can set up schools, but only the federal government can set up post offices. Federalism, therefore, acts as a check on the powers of both the state and federal governments, ensuring that neither can become tyrannical.
James Madison, in Federalist Paper #47, emphasised the importance of dividing powers between distinct branches of government. He argued that liberty requires that the "three great departments of power should be separate and distinct". This separation of powers, along with checks and balances, further ensures that tyranny is avoided.
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Separation of Powers
The US Constitution guards against tyranny through the separation of powers, dividing the government into three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial. This separation ensures that the powers are distributed and not concentrated in the hands of a single person or group. Each branch serves as a check on the others, preventing any one branch from becoming too powerful.
The legislative branch, or Congress, is responsible for creating laws. It is further divided into two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, each with distinct roles and powers. The executive branch, led by the President, is tasked with enforcing the laws created by the legislative branch. The President also serves as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and has the power to appoint federal judges. The judicial branch, made up of the federal courts, is responsible for interpreting the laws and ensuring they align with the Constitution.
The separation of powers allows for a system of checks and balances, where each branch has the ability to limit the power of the others. For example, the legislative branch can pass laws, but the executive branch can veto them, and it takes a two-thirds majority in Congress to override a presidential veto. Similarly, the President nominates federal judges, but these nominations must be approved by the Senate. The judicial branch can also declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional, further checking the power of the other branches.
The Founding Fathers, influenced by their experiences under British rule, crafted the Constitution to prevent the concentration of power and the potential for tyranny. The separation of powers, along with checks and balances, ensures a balanced government where power is shared and distributed, protecting against the abuse of power by any one individual or group.
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Checks and Balances
The US Constitution guards against tyranny through checks and balances, which are underpinned by the principles of federalism and the separation of powers. Checks and balances allow each branch of the legislative, executive, and judicial to limit the powers of the other branches, thereby preventing tyranny. This system ensures that no single branch of the government becomes too powerful.
The Founding Fathers, influenced by their experiences under British rule, crafted the Constitution to be a framework that prevents the concentration of power in the hands of a few. James Madison, in Federalist No. 51, argued for the necessity of checks and balances to prevent tyranny and protect individual rights. The Constitution's checks and balances are designed to ensure that legislation must have broad consensus to become law.
The President's veto power is an example of checks and balances in action. This power allows the President to supervise and limit the power of the other two branches, ensuring that laws require a broad consensus to pass. The checks and balances system also allows Congress to override presidential decisions with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses.
The Constitution's system of checks and balances is a key mechanism to guard against tyranny, ensuring that power is distributed and that individual liberties are protected.
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Large vs. Small States
When the framers of the US Constitution drafted Article 1, they intended for an elected legislature to decide the laws of the land. However, there was resistance to the proposal to assign each state seats in proportion to their populations, with leaders of less populated states fearing that larger states would dominate them. This tension between small and large states was a significant issue during the drafting of the Constitution.
The small states wanted an equal number of representatives for each state, while the Virginia Plan, proposed by Edmund Randolph, favoured the large states. To address this conflict, Roger Sherman proposed The Great Compromise, which created a bicameral (two-house) Congress composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
Each state was given equal representation in the Senate, with two senators each, regardless of their population size. On the other hand, the House of Representatives was apportioned by state population, with the number of seats determined by a regular census. This allowed smaller states to gain leverage in the Senate over the larger states in the House.
To pass legislation, the agreement of both the House, the Senate, and the President was required, ensuring that no single group could dominate the law-making process. This compromise was essential in gaining support for the new Constitution from leaders of small states, as it provided them with a level of protection against the potential dominance of larger states.
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Bill of Rights
The US Constitution was written in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by delegates from 12 states, to replace the Articles of Confederation with a new form of government. The Founders believed that the government's authority needed to come from the people, and that the people had been deprived of this right under the reign of King George III.
The Founders trusted the people and their representatives in the new government, but they also created tools to prevent the government from amassing too much power. James Madison, in Federalist No. 48, wrote that the people cannot rely on "parchment barriers", or limits written on paper, to control the government. Instead, Madison advocated for constitutional principles of separation of powers, checks and balances, bicameralism, and federalism, which would limit government and protect individual liberties.
The Constitution contains many examples of the separation of powers. Each division of government exercises distinct powers to carry out its functions and to prevent the accumulation of power. The national government is divided into three branches with different powers and functions to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.
Madison also discusses how a republican government can serve as a check on the power of factions, and the tyranny of the majority. He argued that the large size of the country and the great number of factions and diversity would actually make it more difficult for factions to gain control over others. Groups would be forced to negotiate and compromise among themselves, arriving at solutions that would respect the rights of minorities.
Despite Madison's influence, he lost one central feature of his plan of government – a national veto over state laws, meant to prevent majority tyranny in the states. On September 12, 1787, during the last days of the Constitutional Convention, fellow Virginia delegate George Mason proposed a bill of rights, a list of rights belonging to the people that the government could not violate. Madison himself waffled on the issue, and Thomas Jefferson, who was in Paris at the time, lamented the absence of a bill of rights in the Constitution. Several Federalists, or those who supported the new Constitution, disagreed with the need for a bill of rights, arguing that the new national government had limited powers and no power to violate liberties.
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Frequently asked questions
Tyranny is when all powers belong to only one person or group, often a dictator, king, or small group.
The Constitution guarded against tyranny through federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the protection of individual rights.
Federalism involves dividing power between the state and federal government so that neither can gain absolute power.
The separation of powers divides the government into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This ensures that no single branch becomes too powerful.
Checks and balances allow each branch of government to supervise and limit the power of the other branches, further preventing tyranny.
