US constitution - Essay Example

Lecturer: Analytical Essay The constitution of the United s was written with an aim of protecting U.S citizens from its own government. The constitution also aims to keep the government from having total power over its citizens. Many historical documents and historical papers such as the Federalist papers, the Declaration of Independent and the Article of Confederation among others were influential to the development of the constitution of the United States (Mill 24). The Article of Confederation was an agreement made by the thirteen founding states, which established the U.S as confederation of the sovereignty states (Ginsberg, Theodore, Margaret, Caroline and Robert 47). The Article of Confederation and the Constitution reflected diverse visions for supremacy or control in the new United States. It offered domestic and international supremacy powers for the congress to direct the states in varied aspects including the American Revolutionary War, dealing with territorial problems and conducting diplomacy with European nations. However, the flawless of the state government, which was established by the Article of Confederations, became a subject of concern for main autonomists. The Article of Confederation, which was the first constitution of the U.S, is an article that reflected varied visions and functions for the control of the new United States. Under this article, the states retained autonomy over all administration functions not particularly surrendering to the central government but maintaining its power in the state. The article also served as a printed document, which established varied functions for the state and national governments after the Declaration of Independence. The first draft of the Declaration of Independence was established in June 1776 after the day when the committees were appointed. The second draft of the articles was printed during the congress, which resolved to assign a committee for preparing a constitution for an associate type of union (Miller 23). The last draft was ratified in November 1777 in Pennsylvania and this was after a year of debate; thus the articles served as the function system of government used by the congress until it became the final ratification and at this point (Mill 36). Moreover, the articles established the rules for functions of the U.S confederation, which was proficient of resolving problems concerning the western territories, negotiating for political agreements and making the Revolutionary War. It also established a weak national government and provided too much power to the state government, which prevented the individual states from performing their own foreign diplomacy (Ginsberg et-al 51). Although the Articles of Confederations served significant roles during the Revolutionary War, when the state won victory, the federalists felt that the articles lacked significant necessities for a successful government; thus a federation was required in order to restore the coalition. It was criticized by a group of reforms that the articles favored the powerful central state in which the government lacked taxing power. The federalists wanted the state government to enforce the same tariffs, offer land grants and assume roles for unpaid state war debts (Ginsberg et-al 62). However, the anti-federalists opposed the articles by arguing that the limits on the government power were imperative. The Articles of Confederation reveals a system of government whereby the state was given more power than the nation which had very weak power. However, these powers were totally different from the government, which was under the control of emperor. The founding fathers of the articles saw that this government system made the nation too weak; thus they decided to implement or establish a new reformed government system. Therefore, they came up with a new constitution document which was meant to replace the articles of confederation (Miller 35). It is through the constitution document that a stronger national government was formed. This document required power division between the state governments and the national governments; thus this system was named the federalism. However, the division of power in the U.S had been based on the aspect of power sharing between the state and national governments since the ratification and signing of the constitution was under the federalism system (Ginsberg et-al 56). For instance, the national government may oversee foreign and interstate trade, whereas the state government may oversee trade within the state. Therefore, both the state governments and national governments can share powers of enforcing laws, taxes and borrowing money (Miler, 37). Under the Article of Confederation, the national leaders perceived varied problems with governance and this spurred the drafting of a new constitution. One of the main problems with the Articles of Confederation was the incapacity to create unity and successful government for the states (Ginsberg et-al 96). The most critical flaw was the failure of the document to equip the national government with power and resources necessary for making the national government to achieve success or accomplish their missions effectively. Another problem with the articles is difficult in decision making process, which required nine out of thirteen founding states to make an agreement before the congress could take action, as well as, amend the article. The national government also lacked significant control for regulating interstate business deal and this forced the states to create a beggar-thy neighbor economic policies (Ginsberg et-al 91). These policies enabled the individual states to seek for economic gains at the expense of other states through heavy imposing of tariffs; thus these policies contributed to further economic depression in the national economy. The national government lacked power to collect or impose taxes; thus they run short of cash and eventually they were forced to beg funds from the state governments. Therefore, they could not raise enough money to pay off the accumulated debts and the power to coin money became meaningless to the national government as the state government started creating their currencies. The last problem with the articles of confederation was also the lack for strong executive contributing to ineffectiveness in creating a fake national foreign policy. Therefore, the national government failed to offer even the significant basic functions of the government such as insuring the domestic security issues. The Articles of Confederation spurred the drafting of a new constitution; thus they structured the relative powers of the national government and the state government through power sharing. The constitution documents demanded for an efficient confederate way of government, which was a federal form of regime. The sovereign powers were granted to the state and the ultimate powers existed in both the local governments and regional government (Ginsberg et-al 81). In the federalism government, sovereignty power was shared among the local and regional governments; thus there was a need for clear constitution in which power was clearly shared or divided. For instance, the idea of division in government became popular in the constitution of U.S and these aspects are exercised in the contemporary politics in states such as Spain, Canada among other nations. Moreover, the unitary government is another form of government but this government system was not documented in both articles; thus there is a need for a unitary government. This is because a unitary government places all authority in the central government but this form of government system is exercised in some states such as Britain, Italy among others. In conclusion, the Articles of Confederation influenced the development of state power control but it had diverse flawlessness including lack of executive and national court system. The most critical flaw was the failure of the document to equip the national government with power and resources necessary for making the national government to accomplish their missions. Other problems included lack of proper trade regulation for the national government, currency issues, and interstate business issues among others. Therefore the Articles spurred the drafting of a new constitution; thus they structured the relative powers of the national government and the state government through power sharing, and this resulted under the federalism government system. Work Cited Ginsberg, Benjamin, Theodore J. Lowi, Margaret Weir, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Robert J. Spitzer. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Mill, John S. American State Papers: declaration of Independence; Articles of Confederation; the Constitution. The Federalist. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952. Print. Read More