Weakness Of Articles Of Confederation: Separation Of Powers

Articles of Confederation has many weaknesses such as the lack of power between congress and federal government, congress has the power to pass a law but cannot enforce the law. These are some of the weaknesses of Article of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was written by john Dickson, but it was a draft of the article. They are six draft of the Article of Confederation and the final draft was written by Benjamin Franklin in 1777. One of major failures of the Article of confederation was imbalance of power between congress and federal government and there was no executive or judiciary branch. The solution was to create a concerted government that can equally divide the powers. As a result, the Constitution of the United States was formed.

The Articles of confederation had many weaknesses and strengths. “Under the Articles, each state retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence. The old weakness of the First and Second Continental Congresses remained: the new Congress could not levy taxes, nor could it regulate commerce” (History). This quote explains problems of the Articles of confederation because if congress cannot tax it would result in no revenue. Another weakness of the Article of Confederation was state government had too much power. “some states began to make separate agreements with foreign governments. Almost every state had its own military, called a militia. Each state printed its own money. This, along with issues with trade, meant that there was no stable national economy” (History). The Article of Confederation gave too much power to states, so states decided to make their own decision. The states started to make their own money, trades, and different foreign agreement. This created an unstable economy. Due to the inefficiency of Articles of Confederation taxes were collected unequally, and this created a rebellion against the government called Shay’s Rebellion. Daniel Shay was farmer and ex solider who fought in bunker hills and other revolutionary battles. One of the major causes of shay’s rebellion are farmers who fought in revolutionary war got little compensation and Massachusetts residents have to higher taxes, so farmers decides to rebel against the government. Shay’s Rebellion proved that the Articles of Confederation was a weak government system and it must change. This led to the foundation of new U.S Constitution in 1789.

The constitution is known as living document because people can change it rules but cannot go against the principles of the constitution. The constitution consists of three sections, the first section the preamble that helps to know the purpose of the constitution and the federal government. The second section talks about seven articles, shows how the government is structed and how the constitution can be changed. The third section are the Amendments and lists the changes of the constitution and the first ten 10 Amendments are the Bill of Rights. These three sections make up the whole constitution of united states. The constitution has its strengths and weaknesses. “The Constitution is a timeless document due to the adaptability of its nature. It was designed so that it could be amended as the needs of Americans changed over time. However, the founding fathers were well aware that amending the constitution should require significant complexity to avoid the approval and ratification of ill-conceived amendments” (ukessays). This quote shows how flexible the constitution and how the founding fathers designed the structure of it.

They are many strengths in constitution than in Articles of confederation. One of major strengths of constitution are checks and balance system. In constitution there are three branches that are legislative branch, executive branch and judicial branch. The main idea of checks balance is that each branch makes sure that nobody has too much power. This creates separation of powers. If the legislative makes a law, the executive branch can veto the law by presidential veto and the president can veto a law, but the legislative branch can override the veto. This how the checks and balance system work in all three branches. Another strength of constitution is the Bill of Rights. The Bill of rights was added to the constitution in December 15, 1791. There are 27 amendments in constitution but only 10 amendments are called the Bill of Rights, because these 10 amendments help the citizens to protect their basic rights. For example, Amendment 1 says “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Ben’s Guide). This quote shows that freedom of speech, religion and press was given by this amendment. The founding fathers designed the amendment so that citizens of united states live in life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’s.

The are some weaknesses to constitution such as inequality issues and provisions. For example, if we compare 18 century provisions to modern society things such as right bear arms are hard to change, because many things changed over past decades. People’s perspective has changed over years, because things that were not moral are accepted by the new modern society. Another important weakness of the constitution is the inequality issue. The constitution was written only for men at that time. People who are slaves, women and Native Americans were not included in the constitution when it was published. Compared to Articles of Confederation the constitution has solved many issues that was facing by Articles of Confederation.

The constitution fixed the weaknesses of the Articles of the confederation. The constitution has structed better than the Article of Confederation. In Articles of Confederation consists of preambles and thirteen Articles. On the other hand, the preambles, seven Articles, Amendments and Bill of Rights. The constitution is much more effective government system than Articles of Confederation, because it mostly focuses on the citizens rather than the government. The important feature of the constitution is the Bill of Rights, because it guarantees the basic rights of the people of the United States. The Constitution was written in a perspective of common people in United States, but the Articles of Confederation was created to serve the governments issues rather than focusing on common people. Another key feature of constitution is the separation of powers. The separation of powers is divided into branches such as legislative branch, executive branch and judicial branch. This helps them to check each branch, so they can know if any branches have too much powers. This process is described as checks and balance in constitution. The articles of confederation did not have any features that constitution acquire. This led to the failure of the articles of confederation, because it never tried to fix the struggles of the common people instead it focused the government problems. Overall the constitution had a better chance of fixing the problem that the government and the people had.

The Articles of confederation and constitution had different impact on the society. This research above shows that constitution had better impact on the people and government. The constitution was planned according to the people point of view. For example, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”(Constitution). The document starts with we the people, which refers to the common people of the United States. This shows that this document was created mainly for the people of the United States. This was the reason why the constitution had an impact on the people and government than the Articles of confederation acquired. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses, but the constitution fixed the problem of the Articles of the Confederation.

Work Cited

1. Davis, Katy. “Articles of Confederation: 1777-1789.” Ben’s Guide, bensguide.gpo.gov/j-articles-of-confederation. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.
2. History.com Editors. “Articles of Confederation.” HISTORY, 27 Sept. 2019, www.history.com/topics/early-us/articles-of-confederation.
3. Spitz, Joseph. “Constitution Vs Articles of Confederation.” Essay Writing Tips, Samples and Guidelines, 9 Oct. 2018, www.essaycrackers.com/blog/constitution-vs-articles-confederation.
4. “Strengths and Weaknesses of the US Constitution.” Politics | Tutor2u, www.tutor2u.net/politics/reference/strengths-and-weaknesses-of-the-us-constitution. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.
5. “The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription.” National Archives, 19 Nov. 2019, www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript.