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US Constitution - Coggle Diagram
US Constitution
Principles of the US Constitution
Federalism
Seperation of powers
Seperation of powers
-- this is where the three key bodies of the government (legislature, executive and judicary) each have their own powers, members and buildings.
No one can be a member of more then one branch of the US government.
Seperation of powers is used to prevent one branch or one person from becoming too powerful.
Checks and balances
Checks and balances
-- this is where each branch of governemnt is able to prevent the actions of another branch so as to stop them becoming to powerful.
Examples
Congress may amend and pass bills, but the president can veto them.
The president may propose bills, but only Congress may amend them.
The judicary can rule the actions of the executive or legislature are unlawful.
Bipartisanship
This is not mentioned in the Constitution
, but the design of the Constitution means that compromise is inevitable.
To amend the Constitution cross party support is needed.
A lot of the time the country suffers from devided government which means parties need to work together to govern sucessfully.
Bipartisanship
-- this is the attempt within the structure of Congress to make parties work together (however, may the system was constructed there were no parties and Washington opposed political parties).
Limitted government
Limitted government
-- this is the idea that the role of government should be controlled by checks and balances as well as seperation of powers. This is to prevent corruption and governemnt becoming to powerful.
Interpretations of the Constitution
To what exent can the US Constitution be seen as a democractic document?
Elections
The US Constitution ensures the process of elections which have become so common in the US that citizens can vote more then in any other country in the US.
The founding fathers created short two terms for House of Representive memebers (this two year term is outlined in the Constitution).
"The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature."
Checks and balances
Checks and balances prevent one party, person or instiution from gaining to much power.
Due to the seperated nature of government it is very hard for one group to hold all branches of the government under their control (ideological or party) and this means that policy is more likely to include the views of other groups.
However, partisanship shows that this may not be true. Nowadays instead of comprise, nothing gets done.
Checks and balances could be argued to damage US politics as Democrats vote for Democrat polcies and Republicans vote for Republican policies, but niether side gets what they want.
Rights protection
The Supreme Court is willing and
very
able to protect rights in the US.
The current Supreme Court is an activist court.
However, in some areas there is a lack of rights protection.
The Supreme Court ruled that States may set their own elecction laws, which could lead to the undermining of minority rights.
It can be argued that the power of the Supreme Court infringes on democractic rights, if a majority of people vote to reduce their rights is it not the will of the people.
Highly dependent on the type of Supreme Court, a more activist court is more likely to support rights, whilist a court run by judical restraint will defer to the elected politicans.