Research Assignemnt About Federalism And The Constitution (Essay Sample)

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Federalism and the Constitution
Every country is known to be having a constitution, and each differs from the other in some ways. The process followed in coming up with a constitution differs from one country to another, and this is so because of the different customs under which the governments of various countries operate. The constitution in any given country provides a guideline to be followed by the people of that country ion their daily operations. It is one an element that is very vital in the governance f any given country. It is known to be subject to changes and thus making it accommodative to the citizens depending on the current situations. This paper seeks to have a review of the federalism video and come up with answers to certain questions. They include the reason and process for the creation of the constitution, main features of the government under the constitution and the conflicts that emerged during the initial writing of the constitution as well as during the debate meant to ratify the first constitution.
It is evident that video or rather the clip supposed to be used in these studies has its main agenda being federalism (Kiraly). It presupposes that it is the states that came up with the federal government rather than what most people think; the states are as a result of the federal government. This implies that even the federal laws that are in existence were at first discussed at the state levels. The United States Constitution is responsible for the national government and fundamental laws as well as basic rights which all citizens are guaranteed. The American constitution was first written in a secret convention held in Philadelphia during the summer. Twelve states out of the then thirteen states were represented, and immediately it was signed, they began to seek for the ratification process (Bardes et al chapter 2). From the clip, it is evident that the constitution had several elements and they include the separation of powers, checks, and balances and final federalism. The clip in the subject has had its main view on the federalism. Having looked at the manner in which the constitution was written, it is important that we get to understand the reason behind its formation. Most of the delegates associated with the drafting of the new constitution were insecure and in doubt and fear of being perceived as traitors by the British (Bardes et al chapter 2). The fear came about as a result of the abandoning of the articles of confederation to come up with the new document to be used in governance, and that was the Constitution. They were not confident about the reaction they would receive from the states. It was deemed to be a better and more efficient method of governing the United States though getting to convince the states to accept the idea took a period of two years. After this time, they ratified the whole document and came up with a blueprint that was based on the element mentioned earlier, and they are the separation of powers, checks and balances and federalism.
Just as it was stated earlier and as seen from the clip, the main elements of the government in the constitution that was first created are federalism, separation of powers and the checks and balances. The provision for the power separation was in the first article. There was created a bicameral legislation, and this came along with set qualifications which the members had to meet to hold the various positions in office (Bardes et al chapter 2). Article ii, on the other hand, had it that the president had the power to execute laws and that his/her term would be four years. Also, the constitutional powers of the president have been stipulated clearly in this part of the constitution. Article iii has the Supreme Court established and its jurisdiction well explained. Having considered the disadvantages tagged along with the tyrannical government, a system that provided each of the branches of the government a check over the other two was built (Spring 1). The two houses of the legislation would check on each other. The federalism bit as provided for in Article IV has the distinctions that separate the relation between the federal government and the states. Ideally, it divided the power between the national and states government and was meant to come up with a corrective measure to the chaos witnessed during the articles of confederation.
Arguably, the transition from the articles of confederation to the constitut...