Tyranny Dbq

What is it about tyranny that almost tore our country apart? Tyranny has been a major cause in America leading up to the Constitutional Constitution. The problem with tyranny was that the three branches of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, took no effort to check each other, which led any one branch to having too much power, and the large states “bullying” small states, trying to control the small states. The question that Americans should be asking is: “How does the U.S. Constitution, the nation’s new plan of power, protect against tyranny, the abuse of power?” The Constitution protects against tyranny by separating the powers of government (separation of powers), the three branches having some control over one another (checks and
balances), and organizing Congress into two separate houses: one based on population, and the other on equality of states (The Great Compromise). The first method the Constitution protects against tyranny is the separation of powers.
Separation of powers is defined as a system of government in which powers are divided/shared between federal and state governments. Some evidence that described more about the separation of powers came from document B, titled Separation of Powers, was basically about having all power in the same hands, which James Madison defined as tyranny, plus liberty required all powers in the government to be separate. One of the arguments involving the separation of powers was that each branch of government had a different job, which divided the powers. Another method the Constitution protects against tyranny is The Great Compromise, which was organizing Congress into two houses: one based on population, and the other on equality of states. The evidence used for The Great Compromise came from document D, titled The Great Compromise, explained that Congress is divided into two houses, with one based on equal representation in the Senate, the other based on states’ population. The argument associated with The Great Compromise is that the compromise prevents the large states from over-controlling the small population of small
states. A third way the Constitution protects against tyranny is checks and balances, which is the ability of each branch of government to exercise checks, or controls, over the other balances. Two pieces of evidence that clearly explain checks and balances comes from document C, which says: Branches can check each other and give examples such as the president vetoing unfair laws, and Congress having the ability to impeach the president or federal judges. This evidence further explains why checks and balances protects against tyranny because no branch gets too much power, and the other two have to have some control. The Great Compromise, checks and balances, and separation of powers were all three major important causes that the Constitution protected against tyranny. These three protections, out of four, all contributed to what made our Constitution what it is today, which is the reason why these protections were important to the Constitution.