Restoring Power To The People

More than two-hundred years ago, thirteen young nations defeated a tyrant thousands of miles away. The prize for such a victory was self-government. For the first time in human history, a nation had handed over supreme executive power to the masses. Exercising this power has become a hallmark of being an American. Even today it is thought of as one of the most patriotic acts one can undertake. The thought of a nation run by popular vote is a comfortable enough idea, but in the case of the United States, a self-governed population threatens to destroy itself and possibly the world through wasteful spending, unregulated pursuit of profits, and a blotted military budget.

Fears of a strong federal government encompass many Americans’ minds because of concern that a monarchy will, once again, control them like it once did under British rule. The Constitution, although a

The democratization of American society that started in 1820s has led to a significant change of relations between government and people. These changes include growing equality of opportunities for white men and possibility for people to influence political processes taking place in the US. While people gained new rights and chances to start another life, government was, on the one hand, set under the growing pressure of society, and on the other hand, could be constructed by people.

Since the creation of the United States Constitution, the many leaders of our nation took different roles in trying to attain perfectionism for their country. From the federalist views of John Adams to the democratic views of Jefferson, America was experiencing the endeavor that was being a young nation in the midst of the 19th century. The emergence of John Quincy Adams in 1820 started an “Era of Good Feelings” with exceptional political advancements and economic achievements. While Jackson’s democratic views were not always what were expected, during his presidency, the country grew national and world attraction. Through periods of boom and bust, political and economic changes in America undeniably helped reshape society between the years 1820 and 1848 with the emergence of new and innovative advancements.

In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was just written on September 17th. During this time, the common man was still under the power of the Articles of Confederation, a weak document that loosely connected the 13 former colonies. Although the Articles didn’t give the United States of America the strong centralized power that it needed, opposers to the new Constitution would argue that the Constitution took away the rights of the common man and gave that power, that the individual once had, to the federal government. Although this statement is correct, the federal government’s newly given power was used to protect the fundamental rights and liberties of its citizens and create a powerful government in the hopes that it would benefit

The early years of the Constitution of the United States were full of political strife. The two prominent political ideals were complete opposites. The Jeffersonian Republicans were focused on giving power to the people and maintaining a pastoral economy, while the Federalists supported the control of the government by the elite class, and maintaining “positive” democracy. Both parties feared the influence and effect the other party would have on the public. In Linda K. Kerber's article, “The Fears of the Federalists”, the major concerns Federalists held in the early 19th century are described. Ever since the war with and separation from England, the citizens of America were seen to be continually drive to “patriotic rebellion” as a way to

The Constitution placed a great deal of power back into the hands of a strong, central government much like that of a monarchy. “The extraordinarily powerful national government that emerged from Philadelphia possessed far more than the additional congressional powers that were required to solve the United States’ difficulties” (Wood 151). The U.S. government was extremely revolutionary though, in the way that it viewed and handled sovereignty. “Unlike the British in relation to their House of Commons, the American people never surrendered to any political institution…their full and final sovereign power” (Wood 160). Throughout the entire American struggle to establish a suitable government, the citizens maintained their ability to influence policy in a way that the British never could.

The United States, in the nineteenth century, had established themselves as independent state, with gaining expansion of land, rights, and freedoms in the western part of the world after succeeding from the British tyrannical rule. However, the United States had been cogitating on whether a federalist view, a strong national government limiting state’s powers, or anti-federalist view, opposing the constitution and pushing for state’s rights, should rule the government of the new independent state. Given the conditions of the early nineteenth century in the United States, Thomas Jefferson, an anti-federalist, had a more valid philosophy of government, than federalist Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson believed that a weaker national government

Have Americans been given too much power? Has the bill of rights shifted the too much power to the people through this document? Well those are answers in which can be answered through opinion of the people. In the perspective of the people the government’s power should be limited even more. And in the perspective of the government the people should have less power as I would be easier to have control of the people. But in my opinion the power should be shared. It is important that both the people as well as the government feel in control. When there is an unbalance that is when issues of power become prevalent. The people cannot operate correctly without a form of government and retrospectively government could not exist without citizens to

This paper is about how The United States moved from it’s inept first attempt at self government progressing, to the Constitution, which took care of many issues prevalent in the Articles of Confederation. The revolutionary concepts exemplified in the constitution propelled The United States onto the world stage. To gain a deeper understanding of this topic, two essays and a book will be consulted concerning what people thought about the Constitution when it was first implemented and how it is perceived today. In addition, a brief history of early American government and how the Constitution came to be will be discussed. Furthermore the resulting Constitution and how it improved upon the Articles of Confederation will be discussed.

The American of a self-government is a 19th Century in the United States has been to a nation in the world without people is working was Gilded Age that happen to be a century. They are Independence and democratic will since late a long time ago in a happen is the 19th Century between change of the citizens. The person is Mark Twain that called is a failure was late because people have to labor unions in the Gilded Age of the Civil War will have to history. The United States in cities is a worker in farm over to people a country with Government without listening to changes in the law. It's one Amerian economy of the Gilded Age has real happening to your own believe was effect more than the United States is a country of the same time. The

The Articles of Confederation, a written agreement that ensured each state’s sovereignty, freedom and independence, led America to victory over the British centralized government. During the late eighteenth century, the empowered government terrified the Americans, hence the thirteen colonies decided to spread governance powers equally to all functional states. The states had absolute dominance over the Congress due to the Articles of Confederation. While the localized power of states seemed to be promising, the system posed great threat to the major components of a democratic government, which are coercion, revenue, and legitimacy (Lecture 1 - The Roots of Government). The system of localized power did not ensure legitimacy, which referred to people’s recognition of national government. Congress’s lack of power to control each state’s actions caused great chaos. Eventually, national government’s lack of power and inability to unify the states exposed multiple flaws in the Articles of Confederation; consequently, a new supreme law, the Constitution was established by the founding fathers. The new supreme law successfully altered the imbalanced system into a novel democratic government.

One of the main debates the framers had, among the many, was how much power the government would have. James Madison, the author of federalist paper number 51 and who stood against the anti-federalist, said that it was necessary to have a check and balance system implemented on the government in order to avoid the risk of giving too much power to one entity. He said that the people will “check” their government ultimately having the power (Chapter 2, Section 8 OTD). This statement is true, but it had other limitations on the people because Madison developed an insulated system which gave the masses power to pick their house of representatives, but its system then narrowed to give power to those who were educated to make choices based on State Legislators and the Electoral College. After this process, those chosen got to decide who got picked as senators and President. The votes underwent a system that was filtered, so in the end the social elitists were the only ones to have the choice of who was to be elected giving them the true position of power not the people. The masses had the potential to be rational and reasonable people, as John Locke indicated, but they are too uneducated in the field of politics (Chapter 1, Section 2 OTD). It’s evident that the elite understood what was needed in a macro scale, whereas a common individual was more concerned with daily issues that they were faced like doing chores. Not to say that the common person’s interests

We live in this country for the land, and the for the free as Americans we rely on many attributes in this world in order for us to live our lives. Our government has supplied us with many great things for us to be proud of. Our government is “the institutions and processes though which public policies are made for society.” (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, p. 7). With all these institutions which includes the President, Congress, the courts and all the federal administrative agencies. These are the institutions that make up public policies for us, and to shape the way we live as Americans. The way this system has been operating through all the years has been

Since the late 1700’s the United States of America has experience a multitude of leaders under a federal republic government. The system of