Pros And Cons Of Gaining Too Much Power

The framers of the Constitution developed a system of government designed to keep one person or group of people from gaining too much power. All of the principles that prevent the government from gaining too much power create a strong foundation to support the framework of the U.S. Constitution. They accomplished this by creating principles like popular sovereignty, federalism, separation of power, limited government, and checks and balances. They created these to give the government structure and prevent anyone from gaining complete control over the people. The United States has a limited government, which prevents anybody in the government from doing anything unconstitutional. The federal government is separated between 3 branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The power of the government was separated between 3 branches. This prevents one person or one group of
people from gaining too much power. The three branches are the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. The executive branch’s power is to carry out laws. They also have the power to veto, or reject a proposal for a law. The national government’s executive branch is also known as the president, while the state of Ohio’s is the governor. The legislative branch has the power to make laws. The national government’s legislative branch is known as congress, while the state of Ohio’s is general assembly. The judicial branch has the power to apply the laws to specific situations. The national government and the state of Ohio’s judicial branch are known as the Supreme Court.

Each branch has the power to check another branch for doing something unlawful or unconstitutional. The executive branch has the power over the legislative branch by being able to veto, call special sessions, recommend appointments, and negotiate foreign trades. The legislative branch also has powers over the executive branch. Those powers include, passing legislation, overriding a president's veto, confirm executive appointments, impeach and remove a president, ratify treaties, and appropriate money. The judicial branch has the power to declare executive and legislative actions unconstitutional. The legislative branch has the power over the judicial branch to create lower federal courts and judgeships, impeach judges, propose constitutional amendments to overrule judicial decisions, and approve appointments of federal judges. The executive branch also has powers over the judicial branch. Those powers include appointing federal judges and grant pardons and reprieves to federal offenders. These prevent any branch from gaining too much power and keeping our government balanced. Each branch has its own duty.

Popular sovereignty limits the government by not letting them do anything that the citizens don’t approve of.
Almost nothing can happen unless majority of the citizens agree to it. The citizens have the right to elect the people in power and the people running the government. Separation of power splits the power. Federalism is the separation of the government’s power between the national and state government. Each state has their own individual government. The national government’s power, or delegated powers are to declare war, regulate interstate commerce and foreign trade, and negotiate treaties issue money. The state government’s power, or also known as reserved powers, can regulate education, grant licenses, provide police protection, and regulate the sale of property within the state. The powers shared by both of the government's, or concurrent powers, are to levy taxes, define crimes and punishments, determine voting qualifications, and borrow money. The state law can not go against a federal law. If the state law does not work with the federal law, the state law must be
dropped.

Federalist are the group of people in favor of ratification of the U.S. Constitution. These are the people who agree with the principles in the Constitution. Their leaders were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. They were trying to convince everyone to approve of the Constitution. They believed that a strong national government was needed. They saw this necessary to protect against an attack by a foreign enemy. While the national government had more power, their powers were limited. They could only address the tasks that were affecting the entire nation, including trade and defense. They also agreed that the “necessary and proper clause” is needed for the national government to carry out its delegated powers. The leaders of the Federalists wrote 85 essays, known as The Federalist Papers, to argue that the nation would not last if the proposed U.S. Constitution were not adopted.

Anti-Federalists are exactly opposite from the Federalist. They are a group of people who oppose the Constitution and the principles of it. Their leaders were Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and James Monroe. They believed that the national government was too powerful. They also believed the new powers delegated to the national government could be used against the people to collect unpopular taxes. The anti-federalist thought that Article VI took too much power from the state government, giving it to the national government. They argued that the republic is too vast to be governed. The believed that the nation is too large of an area and that the state government should have control since the republic works best in small areas. They thought that the government should be as close to the people as possible and should be where the citizens hold similar values. Their leaders wrote articles opposing the ratification of the Constitution. These articles became known as The Anti-Federalist Papers. These papers were created to try to gain people and support of opposing the Constitution. These attempts were not successful, as our nation is ran off of the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution successfully centered the power of the government around the people and from one group of people or person from gaining complete control of the nation. They also kept the nation protected against a tyrannical government. The three branches keep our government balanced and controlled. The checks and balance system prevents any branch from doing unconstitutional things and protecting us and our rights. Our country is still ran off of the principles from the Constitution to this day. The document shaped this nation to what it is today.