Because- You get the liberty of a democracy, while hopefully avoiding the problems of mob rule

In other words

• People get to vote on leaders

• Leaders, who are theoretically smarter than ‘the mob’ make actual decisions

Why Created?- To bind the colonies together during the American Revolution.

What is a Confederation? A union of political groups in which more power is held in the individual parts than in the central government.

PLAN:

• Alliance among 13 states

• Each state had one vote in the legislature

• Federal government had limited powers

(cont.)PROBLEMS: What problems emerged?

• States functioned independently

• State representatives were not fairly distributed

• The Articles were very hard to amend

• Government did not have power to raise taxes or regulate trade

Hard to negotiate with foreign powers if the voice of each state drowns out the central government

Inefficient economically to have different rules in each state (ex.- tariffs)

A rebellion of farmers scared the government of Massachusetts – no powerful central government to call on for help—the decision was made to strengthen the Central Government at a meeting in Philadelphia in 1787

• Constitution written in 1787 at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Penn.

• The delegates had to solve a number of problems at the Convention

Fair Representation in the Federal

LegislatureVirginia Plan

• two house legislature (bi-cameral)

• number of representatives based upon population

• lower house would elect upper house

• checks and balances

• supported by large states

New Jersey Plan

• one house legislature (unicameral)

• equal number of representatives from all states

• each state would have one vote

• the house would appoint executive and courts

• supported by small states

The Great Compromise

Two House Legislature

Senate:

• state legislature chooses senators (has been modified)

• equal representation for each state

House of Representatives:

• based upon the population of the state

• voters choose representatives

Counting the Population

Southern States

• Wanted slaves counted in the population when figuring out the number of representatives each state should have

• Did not want slaves counted for taxes

Northern States

• Did not want slaves to be counted to determine representatives

• Wanted slaves counted for taxes

The 3/5ths Compromise

Slaves were counted

as 3/5 of a person

How do you make sure the Federal Government does not have too much

power?

Constitution• three branches of government

•checks & balances limiting three branches powers

EXECUTIVE BRANCH (Article 2)

The President carries out the laws and can veto a law. He is commander and chief of the military and can be impeached if he

breaks the law.LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

(Article 1)

The Congress is made up of a two-house

legislature (Senate and House of

Representatives). Congress is responsible

for making the laws. Congress can impeach and fire the president for high crimes and

misdemeanors.

JUDICIAL BRANCH

(Article 3)

The Supreme Court and other federal courts

interpret the law of the land and decide if it is

constitutional.

• 9 out of 13 states had to ratify (approve) the Constitution

• Debate ensued between the Federalists and Anti-Federalist

• The Federalist side was outlined in the Federalist Papers

Who should have the power?

Convincing 9 states to ratify the Constitution

• form of government where power is divided between a national government and state governments

1. In a federal government who should have more power – the national or state government? Why would this concern citizens?

2. What about individual powers? How do the rights of individuals fit into the division of powers? Why would this concern citizens?

FEDERALISTS ANTI-FEDERALISTS

To address these questions our Constitution:

A. Authorizes the Congress to make laws only in areas granted to it.

B. Some lawmaking authority was left to the states.

C. A Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to guarantee that the laws passed by the states and Congress do not violate Civil Rights

Even with distribution of power being included within the Constitution, conflict still arises between states, national government, and individual rights.

Example #1: Medical Marijuana

Example #2: Gay Marriage

• Electoral College

each state is assigned a number of electors (number of senators and representatives combined)

political parties in each state choose who will serve as an elector and electors promise to vote for the party’s candidate

when an individual is in a voting booth and marks ‘Obama’ or ‘McCain’, they are actually voting for an elector who has promised to vote for these people

A small number of electors in history have been ‘unfaithful’ (voting against what they promised to vote for), but never enough to change an election

Electoral College (cont.)

Because most states have a ‘winner-takes-all’ electoral college system, it is possible for a candidate who wins the popular vote to lose a presidential election

Candidate A- 11,000,000 votes

Candidate B- 11,000,001 votes

Candidate B gets 55 electoral votes

Candidate A- 50,000 votes

Candidate B- 0 votes

Candidate A gets 3 electoral votes

This has happened four times in history

John Adams

Rutherford B. Hayes

Benjamin Harrison

George Bush

• Amending the Constitution

there are two ways to amend the Constitution – only one way has ever been used

#1 - a bill can be proposed to amend the Constitution, it must be passed by a 2/3 vote in both the Senate and House of Representatives

#2 – 2/3rds of state legislatures can demand an amendment (never happened!)

Either way- 3/4 of the states must approve the bill for the Constitution to be amended

there are currently 27 amendments

• Impeachment

House of Representatives must determine if there is evidence that a crime has been committed, if so, they submit the articles of impeachment to the Senate

The Senate has the job of overseeing the trial of the accused government official

2/3 of the Senate must vote that the official is guilty in order for him/her to be removed from office

If found guilty, the official may NEVER hold a public office again

Crimes considered “impeachable” – treason, bribery, other high crimes and misdemeanors

• Two presidents have been impeached, but both were acquitted (NOT kicked out of office)

• Richard Nixon resigned because it was widely believed that he would be impeached and found guilty

Andrew Johnson

Bill Clinton

Richard Nixon