U.S. Government and Politics: Constitution - Essay Example

? ESSAY QUESTION; Do you consider the U.S. Constitution to be past its ‘sell-by no longer able to cope with the business of running a modern democratic state? The foundation of the United States of America as a Republic is strongly based on a democratic system of governance that is founded in the ideology of the country’s constitution and the Bill of Rights. The U.S. cannot be said to be a democracy without its Constitution otherwise there will be strong possibility of the country taking a turn towards fascism, communism or despotic rule. It cannot be denied that the rule of law is the foundation of freedom because it creates limits on the government in terms of violating the rights and freedoms of citizens. Essentially, the rule of law in the US is framed through the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. It is thus important to understand the Constitution thoroughly in terms of its origin and relevance after over 220 years of its establishment. Those that framed the US Constitution had considered the political and social philosophies of the Enlightenment and transformed the same into a system of governance that has lasted this long period. The Constitution was written by representatives and delegates from all states and contains provisions relative to the branches of the government, protection for states and the Bill of Rights that guaranteed freedom to all citizens in the country. In having created the constitution, the framers virtually created a new kind of government that has to this day inspired political change (Hoffman and Albert, 1998). By examining the significance, strengths and the present Status of the US Constitution, this paper holds that just as the US Constitution cannot be said to have passed its sell-by date, it continues to be strong and effective in meeting the challenges of a modern democratic state. The U. S. Constitution was written in 1787 during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and is a document that delineates the foundation of the national government. The 55 people that presided over the deliberations are referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Framers of the Constitution. Some of the well known personalities amongst them were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison. Nine states had ratified the US Constitution on 21 June, 1788 and the remaining states ratified it later. Essentially, the US constitution took the place of the Articles of Confederation that defined the country’s laws from 1781 to 1788 (Kelly, 1991). There was a strong need to have a more elaborate document as the Articles of Confederation had given rise to semi independent states that led to a weakened Congress without the Executive and Judicial Branch. The Constitution established the country’s federal government and state governments in addition to specifying that the US would be a republic characterized with an elected President and a Congress comprising of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which would serve as the two legislative branches in the country. In addition, the Supreme Court was established to head the system of courts. The U.S. Constitution is made up of a Preamble, the main body and amendments (Ashbee and Ashford, 1999). The Preamble of the U. S. Constitution is just a short one sentence foreword to the constitution in explaining the proposal to set up a more effective government equipped with clear definitions of justice, tranquility and freedom (Tribe, 1992). The exact wordings of the Preamble are, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" (Constitution of the United States, 1787). The Constitution’s first three articles provide for the establishment of the US government as a republic having three distinct branches; The Legislative Branch creates the country’s laws and comprises of the Senate and the House of Representatives that form the Congress. The Executive Branch is led by the US president. The Judicial Branch is responsible to administer justice by interpreting the laws and the Constitution and comprises of the Supreme Court and the court systems across the country. Such bifurcation of the government into different branches represents the concept of power separation, which relates to avoiding extreme power of governance at a single place. Accordingly, the authority of the government was divided into several independent entities to avoid power to wrest in the hands of a few. The system that continues in almost the same way to this day enables monitoring and checking the actions of one department by another, thus maintaining stable balance of power through checks and balances. The Legislative branch consists of two branches; the Senate and the House of Representatives. The numbers of seats for individual states in the House of Representatives are determined by the state’s population. Each state is represented by two Senators. This arrangement was agreed to during deliberations at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 (Kull, 1992). In essence, states with larger populations were in favor of the establishment of the House of Representatives because they would be able to have more representatives in the Constitutional body and thus have more power. States with lesser populations were in favor of bodies such as the Senate in which all states had equal representation. It was perhaps for this reason that the Founding Fathers framed the U.S. Constitution that provided for instituting a bicameral Congress. This aspect answers the question fairly well that the US Constitution has not crossed its sell by date because the Constitution created a power balance amongst the federal government and states by specifying the ways in which new states could be added and the methods through which the Constitution could be amended and ratified (Bowles, 1998). The most important role of any country’s constitution is to check the powers of the government whereby all citizens are informed of the legitimate powers in the hands of the government. This is corroborated by the fact that many monarchs did not provide for any Constitution in attempts to retain all power with themselves. For instance, Louis XIV of France did not provide any constitution and had declared that he was the Constitution, implying that whatever he said was the law. A constitution is written and adopted in order to check such concentration of power. The main strength of the American Constitution lies in the fact that it established a government that governs itself. The Constitution conveys to all citizens about the limits imposed upon the government while also providing for checks and balances in ensuring that such limits are complied with. The American Revolution occurred mainly because the colonists held that the British Parliament and Monarch had violated their rights, such as the right to remain free from taxes in the absence of appropriate representation. After winning independence, the colonists ensured that the newly established government respected their rights. It is true that currently there are several Constitutional laws and provisions that check the government from violating citizens’ rights. There are specific provisions in the initial seven articles of the US Constitution that protect citizens’ personal rights. For example, Sections 9 and 10 of Article I prohibit the state and federal governments from acting against people for actions that were not considered criminal at the time of committing them. Therefore, the Constitution continues to retain its original strength and meaning because the first ten Amendments of the Constitution that are referred to as the Bill of Rights continue to specifically provide for rights that cannot be violated by the government (Bernstein, 1993). The First Amendment safeguards freedom of religion, assembly, speech, press and petitioning. The Second Amendment provides for protecting the rights relative to possessing and bearing arms. The Third Amendment provides protection to defense personnel from being provided housing in private premises except during war time. The Fourth Amendment provides for the procedures to issue search warrants and forbids unreasonable search and seizure. The Fifth Amendment safeguards civil rights such as not being tried for the same crime twice, to have review of criminal cases by grand juries and to prevent property from being seized without being paid for. This is known as the due process of law. The Sixth Amendment relates to rights of criminal trial that includes the right to attorneys, to have impartial juries, to ensure that witnesses attend trials and to have speedy trials. The Seventh Amendment deals with the right to trial by jury in the case of civil matters. The Eighth Amendment forbids excessive fine, cruelty, bail and abnormal punishment. The Ninth Amendment provides for rights that are not specified and the Tenth Amendment provides for protection of the states’ powers. It is noteworthy that the Due Process Clause is further provided for in the Fourteenth Amendment and is applicable to most provisions of the Bill of Rights as relevant to states. All these amendments continue to hold good in providing the government with authority and enabling the Constitutional provisions to ensure that the systems continue to work as it was envisaged. Furthermore, in any democratic nation, voting is considered to be amongst the most important rights. A number of constitutional provisions have dealt with this right, such as the 15th Amendment that provided freed slaves with the right to vote. Similarly, the 19th Amendment provided women with the right to vote, the 23rd Amendment provided rights to the voters of the District of Colombia relative to Presidential elections and the 26th Amendment reduced the voting age to 18 years. However, despite the reduction in voting age, the country has experienced low voters registration turnout. After having increased significantly between 1948 and 1960, voter turnout has been declining in almost all elections and was only about 50 percent in 1988. Subsequently it has varied and reached a high of 61 percent in 2004, which has been the highest since 1988. Motivation to vote depends on a number of issues relative to voter perception about the significance of the available choices and the difference possible outcomes will make in impacting people’s lives. Voter turnout is low because perceptions do not match realities because of voter awareness. Another factor is the registration process and the ill timed election schedules during the working week that further enhances disparities in voter turnout amongst low and high income voters (Fairvote, 2005). However, given that more citizens have been given the right to vote since the establishment of the Constitution, it is clear evidence that The Constitution continues to dominate the modern democratic state. This is because the Constitution has given power to the federal government to establish laws that impact individuals and this power has been used by governments to introduce laws that prohibit individuals from violating one another’s rights. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids private organizations from adopting discriminatory practices against people because of religion, ethnic origin or race. Most people realize that the US Constitution is the supreme law of the country but very few understand the restrictions it imposes on the government in protecting citizens’ rights. Under these circumstances the basic question arises as to whether the Constitution still matters. It cannot be doubted that the Constitution is the most important document in America’s history (McKay, 2001). This is not only because it sets standards about the authority of the government but because of the economic and social impacts it continues to make in providing US citizens impartial economic opportunities through the gradual removal of disparities relative to race, gender and religion. After the War of Independence was won officially, the question arose as to what will happen next. It has to be understood that when the US declared its independence, the country’s social structure was entirely different in comparison to what it is now. Although the common man had revolted because of what was believed to be British autocracy, the Monarch did not directly control the colonies. They never had any law enforcement machinery as is seen today. During colonial times people respected the law out of respect to authority. The meager government machinery that was present was required to justify to citizens about being worthy of obedience. The only shared characteristic amongst common citizens and those in authority was their actions that were always under watch by one another because towns were not big and the word spread very fast (Cigler and Loomis, 1999). During the time when the U.S. Constitution was introduced, people had no qualms about being governed. There were minor revolts occasionally but they were put down without causing much damage to people. It was rare for real damages to occur because of public protest and such circumstances did not warrant the use of force. However, many believe that the self interests of some people in power would go very far. Authoritative figures were found to be not acting in the better interests of the citizens and because such behaviors continued, people started getting more unruly. According to DiClerico (1997), the impressments policies of the British, whereby people were forced to work for the military, made citizens to realize that they would have to do many things whether they liked it or not. People eventually fought back when the British started seizing local armories. They realized their means of protection was being taken away, which made them to fight back. Such were the circumstances that made the nation’s founders to consider a means to establish a new government. For example, people such as Jefferson were not prepared to have a system of self interested politicians, a debt ridden economy or a state characterized with a complete absence of rewards. People like Madison wanted colonies to remain united and to provide a common cause for defending each other and thus to have a united state (Cummings and Wise, 1997). It is true that the US Constitution became a controversial document and it was created through a very serious debate. Jefferson wanted to reduce the size and strength of the new government so that it does not become so powerful that people become uneasy. He wanted people to have freedom whereby they could use it to grow mentally and socially. But people such as Hamilton and Adams considered Jefferson an optimist in being inexperienced about the manners in which people behaved. Adams wanted to have a process through which people could be controlled and kept under discipline, which meant the provision of a powerful federal government (Hampsher-Monk, 1992). On the other hand, Hamilton wanted something more in terms of a system that was hierarchical and structured on aristocracy. Under these circumstances when people speak about what is constitutional and what is not, it is important to realize that these issues are not new, which can be interpreted through all that has been happening across history in terms of the Constitution’s interpretation. Still, most people tend to remain engrossed in what is going to happen next and they seldom think about reflecting on what all has already happened (Gerber, 1999). For example, Jefferson dreamt of a free society but that did not become possible during his life time. Hamilton and Madison too were not happy as the required systems could not be established. A strong state was not established and it was found that the government had the means to abuse power. A lesson is drawn from such perceptions today also that even the best worded document cannot succeed in providing complete freedom to citizens. It is thus required of people to realize their own responsibility. For example, most people in the US today believe that it is the duty of the judiciary to take care of the constitution and not much importance is given to the role of the Congress and Executive. True freedom of people is maintained when people stop holding elected officials responsible for the prevailing lapses. The strength of any form of governance becomes a weakness if citizens start allowing elected officials to become corrupt. The issue of whether the Constitution has crossed its sell-by date becomes clear from the fact that the same circumstances that were present during the time of introducing the Constitution are present today also, which means the Constitution is equally relevant currently in dealing with a modern democratic state. In considering these issues it may appear the constitution has lost its power, which can be regained only if the misinterpretation is thrown away. The objective should be to make the Constitution a tool that enhances freedom and does away with oppression (Devins, 1996). Having examined the varied aspects of the relevancy of the U.S. Constitution, it cannot be said that the U.S. Constitution is a failing document. The USA continues to be one of the best examples of a democratic nation, if not the best, that abides by all values laid down by the systems of democracy. Its democracy has been successful across history and is an example for rising democratic nations to adopt its policies and systems in improving the welfare of their people and in achieving greater economic prosperity. Ever since the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787, there have been many discussions whereby attempts have been made to declare it a failed document. However, all evidence indicates that the U.S. Constitution has not crossed ‘its sell-by date’ as the modern U.S. state continues to run successfully with the entire democratic set up intact and running smoothly. It is true that over time, the standards established by the founding Fathers have been allowed to be ignored, annulled or abrogated by governments. Nevertheless, the sovereignty of citizens remains intact and people are considered to be the ultimate enforcement of the limits prescribed for governments. The structure of the U.S. Constitution as established by the Founding Fathers was to strengthen internal and external balance of power and competitiveness with the intention of decreasing the threats of government excesses. It was recognized by the Founding Fathers that some works were best executed by the government although with the connected risks of power being accumulated with a single group. In reducing such risks, it was provided that a balance is created through appropriate authority being given to state and federal governments with provisions of checks and balances so that authority is not misused. The working of the federal government was made unbiased by way of balancing the Legislative and the judicial branches. Therefore, the bifurcation of groups of people, federal government and state governments on the one hand and the Judicial branches, executive and legislative on the other were made with the intention of diffusing the focus of political powers with a single group, thereby providing ground for efficient practices and systems. Under these circumstances it is correct to say that American citizens continue to be amongst the most privileged in enjoying freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to have good education, freedom of the press and the freedom to vote without interference from the government. In fact the U.S. Constitution has created such a strong framework from the beginning that it is impossible for any government to infringe on these basic rights of citizens. This makes it amply clear that the US Constitution continues to remain a strong force in coping with the business of running a modern democratic state. Bibliography ASHBEE, E. and N. ASHFORD., (1999). US politics today. Manchester: Manchester University Press, Ch.3. BERNSTEIN, R., (1993). Amending America. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. BOWLES, N., 1998. The government and politics of the United States. Basingstoke: Macmillan, Ch.1. CIGLER, A and B. LOOMIS., (1999). American politics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Ch.1. Constitution of the United States. (1787). The Charters of Freedom, Online available from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html, Accessed on 22 January, 2011. CUMMINGS, M. and D. WISE., (1997). Democracy under pressure. San Diego: Harcourt Brace. Ch.2. 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