Essential Questions
• What is the purpose of government?
In my opinion the main purpose of government is to protect american citizens by adjustments through the law in which it could more effectively give each person a better standard of living. The main purpose of government is to govern, manage and protect the individual rights of all the citizens of the united States of America. The government must enforce laws that better suit the country as a whole and get rid of laws that do not benefit the country and instead cause problems. It must make sure there is an equal balance in the states and correct any instability going on in the country. A stable government leads to a stable nation and it not only has to protect the rights of citizens, but it must also make sure the economy is stable and safe.
• What is the purpose of government?
In my opinion the main purpose of government is to protect american citizens by adjustments through the law in which it could more effectively give each person a better standard of living. The main purpose of government is to govern, manage and protect the individual rights of all the citizens of the united States of America. The government must enforce laws that better suit the country as a whole and get rid of laws that do not benefit the country and instead cause problems. It must make sure there is an equal balance in the states and correct any instability going on in the country. A stable government leads to a stable nation and it not only has to protect the rights of citizens, but it must also make sure the economy is stable and safe.
- What kind of government was established by the constitution? The founding fathers of america worked together to revise the articles of confederation and further create the United States Constitution in which it established a new form of government called a Republic. As the constitution replaced the loose confederacy with a much stronger central form of government it allowed the supreme power to rest in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.
- Explain federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances. Federalism is a principle of government that defines a relationship between the central government at the national level and its constituent units at the regional, state, or local levels. Under this principle of government authority and power is brought between the national and local governmental units. The separation of powers is the principle or system of vesting in separate branches called the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of government. Each of these branches of government has different duties in which they must maintain for the government. Checks and balances is an important part of the Constitution in which each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of others. This is so one branch of government isn't too powerful and is just as equally powerful as the others. Each branch can check the power of teh other branches to make sure that the power is balanced between them.
- What was the historical situation at the time of the Constitutional Convention? The historical situation at the time of the Constitutional Convention was that there was a lot of political tension amongst the states that was caused by the governments actions in which they were deeming an oppressive like quality towards the people. The confederacy couldn't control the people because it was so weak and unreliable. Some rebellions happened because of this including Shays rebellion in which farmers rebelled due to the farm foreclosures. With this weak central government at the time and the problems following from it, the founding fathers gathered to revise the Articles of Confederation and improve the document, but instead created a new one from scratch called the Constitution in which it was much stronger based and got rid of the weak confederacy and adopted a new central form of government called a Republic.
- Why did Madison fear Factions? James Madison was famous for being the author of the Federalist 10 in which he gave his view on Factions and what they can cause. He explains how factions form and how they can effect other citizens and also the government itself. Madison feared Factions because they separate the country into specific groups of people who have a common interest in some proposal or idea that would either disturb other citizens or harm the country as a whole. In a way he knew that the United States was not ready for something as horrible as Factions because there is no stopping their cause and once they have started they will influence the minds of others and eventually a majority(group of people in a Faction) will overpower the minority.
- What were the reasons for the swift adoption of the Bill of Rights? During the creation of the Constitution the Anti-federalists were promised a Bill of Rights because they believed that the Constitution would give the central government too much power and that it would suppress their rights. In order for the acceptance of the document the congress added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution which guaranteed the protection of all the citizens rights in the United States. As the Anti-federalists knew that the government wouldn't suppress their rights and cross their boundaries because of the proof of the Bill of Rights, they ratified the constitution and it became their new law .
- Know the court cases associated with federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances. The famous court case that established the concept of judicial review was named Marbury v. Madison. It gave the judicial branch a special type of checks and balances against the other branches of government. The McCulloch v. Maryland case expanded the national governments role. According the the elastic clause congress can make all laws in which they are necessary and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated powers of congress. This gives them the ability to then stretch or expand their powers. Another court case is Dred Scott v. Stanford which was about people in the united states that were of african american descent could not become citizens of the united states and were not protected by the constitution. The government did not have the authority to outlaw slavery due the the Dred scott decision.
- Explain democratic theory, theories of representative government, pluralism, and elitism. Democratic theory is the political practice of democracy. It sets fourth principles that describe how government should make decisions and what decisions they should make. This is called procedural view or procedural democratic theory, and on what decisions government should make is based upon substitute democratic theory or substantive democracy. Theories of representative government is the idea of citizens participating in government actions by electing public officials to make decisions on their behalf. This is called representative democracy. Participatory democracy in which all citizens are part of a decision making process. Those are the two theories of representative government. Pluralism is the theory that a multitude of groups not people govern the United States. America is most likely a pluralist democracy because the power comes from the people in the forms of interest groups. Elitism is the theory that a small group of people make all of the important government decisions.