U.S. Constitution and Its System of Government
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One of the strengths of the U.S. Constitution and the system of government it created and supports is flexibility, and both the document and the governmental structure have evolved. This evolution has been positive in nature, and in effect the American system has tended toward increased equality, increased fairness, and increased opportunity for all. Another way of stating this is that the American system has become more like the ideal that the Constitution has held out for it. In the beginning, the governmental structure created was not the equitable system of equality of opportunity and treatment before the law that has often been claimed. The Constitution as ratified in 1787 did not apply equally to all the people in the new United States. Many provisions did not apply to women, for instance, and slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of and representation. Property owners were given greater power and more rights than those who did not own property. Yet, the document also reflected a desire for balance and sought a number of means to accomplish this, from the checks and balances between branches to the larger balance between federal prerogatives and states' rights. Different groups benefited more from the Constitution in 1787, but as noted, the power of the document has been that over time inequities have been addressed. Perhaps not all have been eliminated, but the inherent imbalances of 1787 have been largely removed.
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st terms is a form of government in which the people exercise their power through elected representatives. The issue was the form of republic and the degree of centralization it would embody. In America, John Adams was the premier theorist of conservatism, and he saw the republic as the best of governments. This Federalist considered a single assembly to be inherently faulty and subject to all manner of vices and frailties, so he suggested the creation of two bodies, with the smaller elected as a council from the larger. Adams also recommended the creation of a balance of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The essential form of the new government as argued at the Constitutional Convention would be a republic, as supported by the Federalist position. However, this did not mean a truly democratic form of government as many believe:
The right to vote initially was limited to white property-owning males. Moreover, even today representatives do not always vote on issues in accordance with their constituencies, but instead may pursue their own personal agendas (Schmidt, Shelley, and Bardes 47).
The liberal point of view infused the writings and thinking of the Antifederalists. They feared that t
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Approximate Word count = 1732
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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