Guard Against Tyranny

The outline for our government all started with the Articles of Confederation, which failed because of a weak federal government, no court system, and no way to enforce laws. However, from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution sprouted. The final product of the Consitituion was perfect; a bill of rights to ensure people's rights and numerous ways to guard against everyone's nightmare- tyranny. Tyranny is rule by a dictator, king, or strong group, and it results when rulers have too much power. Federalism, seperation of powers, and checks and balances were several ways the Constituion guarded against tyranny. To begin with, the first guard against tyranny was federalism, which is the division of power between the central and state government. According to James Madison, a few poers shared by the state and federal government is the power to tax, make and enforce laws, borrow money, and set up courts (Document A). However, to keep the states and federal government from gaining too much control, they were both given some individual powers. Some powers states have is the power to set up local governments, hold elections, pass marriage and
divorce laws, and establish schools. Powers reserved for the federal government are things like the power to declare war, print and coin money, regulate trade, conduct foreign relations, and make immigration laws. To sum it all up, federalism federalism helps prevent tyranny because it keeps the state and central government from getting too powerful. In addition, seperation of powers, which is the divison of state and federal government into three independent branches, is another guard against tyranny.
Legislative, executive, and judicial are the three branches. The legislative branch, which consists of a senate and house of representatives, makes laws. The president and vice-president make up the executive branch, which is the branch mainly responsible for enforcing laws. Finally, there is the judicial branch. In the judicial branch, there is the Supreme Court and many smaller courts. The judicial branch is responsible for interpretting laws; this is all according to Document B, also written by James Madison. In a nutshell, seperation of powers guards against tyranny because it divides the powers into three branches so no branch can overpower
another. Furthermore, checks and balances is another guard against tyranny. Checks and balances is the system that allows each branch of government to amend or veto acts of another branch. Document C, written by James Madison, talks about how each branch checks the other. The executive branch checks the legislative branch by the president vetoing laws, and the legislature can override a veto and they have the ability to impeach the president, as well. The president can also nominate judges in the Supreme Court, and the judicial branch has the power to declare presidential acts unconstitutional, as well as laws made by Congress. The legislative branch can confirm judge nominations made by the president and can impeach judges, like how they impeach the president. To sum it up, checks and balances protects againsts tyranny because each branch is able to check the other branch, so it prevents one branch from overpowering the others. In conclusion, tyranny is the result of someone or a group of people gaining too much clout, but, fortunately, there are copious amounts of ways we are protected from it. Federalism, seperation of powers, and checks and balances were several ways the Constitution guarded against tyranny.