The Constitution creates a system that was designed to fail AND the existence of a set of fundamental American values - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages It also guaranteed a stronger horizontal separation of power amongst the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, thus improves institutional checks and balances while at the same time granting some autonomy to various government organs (Ellis 49). It also established the Supreme Court that would be the final arbiter in matters of law, therefore improving access to justice and resolving interstate, state-federal as well as well as conflict between the said entities and individuals. To this extent, the constitution was designed to achieve success. Even though the constitution had such praiseworthy aspects, the US creates enormously stronger federal government, with highly nationalized values. Therefore, resources get to be majorly centralized; as such the states become extremely subservient to the federal government (Wood 28).Basically all the prime sectors and taxes are in control of the federal governments. This is a weakness, since it is the states that are closer to the people and therefore stand a better chance to respond faster to the need of the people, in comparison to the federal government (Ellis 49). The congress has on some occasions exercised its legislative power to pass laws that interfere with the processes already running in the states. For instance, in United States v. Morrison, pursuant to its powers under the Commerce Clause and the Fourth Amendment (Section 5), the Congress had enacted a statute, Violence against Women Act (VAWA) which provided civil remedies to gender –based violence victims against their assailants. This was based on argument that such injustices against women hindered their free participation in interstate commerce and thus a remedy was essential. The court struck down a part of this law since the law was not dealing with cases that were economic in nature. The congress had over stretched its powers under the constitution to interfere with state court, by offering a federal filing for such cases. VAWA dealt with a social issue (gender violence) and its economic impact on interstate Commerce was indirect and marginal. Similar scenario arose in United States v. Lopez, where the court pointed out that Commercial Clause could only be applied in cases that are directly economic in nature. United States v. Morrison defines the sensitive question of the relationship between the Congressional powers and the State powers, and in particular, the extent to which the congress may limit areas that are traditionally defined as being within the scope of the state. These decisions reveal judicial activisms in favor of state sovereignty at the expense of federalism and to strengthen the state power. The Existence of a Set of Fundamental American Values Values refer to the standards that have consciously or unconsciously set by members of a particular culture or society upon which the desirable and undesirable are distinguished behaviors (Dahrendorf 14). Values therefore form a basis for judging the people and their actions, from a cultural approach, in order to determine whether they are good or bad, valuable or worthless, beautiful or ugly or whether they are prized or shunned. The values have a great role in shaping our actions and behaviour. For quite long, Americans have been known for their set of values, mostly the value of freedom and independence. This is reflected in a number of Constitutional Amendments that puts ...Download file to see next pagesRead More