Vasquez 1 Essays - Political Philosophy, Law, Politics,

Vasquez 1 Keydy Vasquez Cerrato Mrs.Pimental U.S History 06 November 2015 How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? Tyranny can come in the form of many people taking control of other people. Also as king inheriting the throne but not following the laws that were previously proposed. In 1787 the rich white and powerful men of America came together to write the Constitution, in order to protect the people. How did the Constitution guard against one taking too much power over others? The Constitution guarded against tyranny in the following 4 ways federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances and the compromise between the highly populated states and the lesser populated states. Federalism is the idea of some power given to the federal government and some power to the states. But the central government and states able to borrow money, set up courts, enforce laws and tax. The federal government has the power to regulate trade and declare war. While the states have the power to establish schools and pass marriage laws (Doc A). Federalism guards against tyranny by distributing power between both central government and the states to keep tyranny away. Vasquez 2 The purpose of separation of powers is to create three separate branches to distribute power . The people have the power to vote for their representatives. The 3 branches are legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch makes laws. The executive enforces those laws. And the judicial branch interprets those laws made by the other branches (Doc B). The separation of powers guards against tyranny by allowing us to vote for our representatives to help us make our country better. But checks and balances guards one from taking too much power over the others by making sure that not one branch has more power than the other 2 branches. They do it by checking each others work. The legislative branch checks the chief executive by approving his nominations. While the president checks the Supreme Court by nominating the judges. Then the Supreme Court checks the Senate by being able to declare laws constitutional (Doc C). By having checks and balances available not one branch has more than the rest meaning it guards against tyranny. The Great Compromise guards against tyranny by preventing large states from outvoting small states because at least now each state has an equal amount or represen tatives in one house. The House of Representatives all depends o n the population of each state. But the Senate House has no more than 2 senators no matter the size of the state population. This compromise guards against tyranny allowing the states to have a fair amount of representatives that will give them a voice in their problems. Preventing tyranny from happening in their country. Vasquez 3 These four reasons guard against tyranny from taking over their country because they already fought a long war to get away from that place. Th e rich white men helped make our government better by adding federalism separation of powers, checks and balances, and the Great Compromise and allowing them to recreate our government for the greater good.