Federalism A federal system divides power between a central government and smaller, local governments. This sharing of power is intended to ensure that the central governments is powerful enough to be effective, yet not so powerful as to threaten States or citizens. It also allows individual States to deal with local problems at the local level - so long as their actions are constitutional. |
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How did our Founding Fathers decide to use Federalism as a Constitutional Principle?
Rome (500 B.C.)
The Romans established a republic. a republic is a type of government in which rule is shared by consuls (ran roman government and lead battles) and the senate (MADE THE LAWS ARISTOCRATIC BRANCH). They created standards of Laws that are still applied today.examples of these ideals are the Twelve Tables. These were written laws of coded applied evenly to all citizens throughout the empire a significant rule I the roman empire is that a person should be regarded innocent until proven guilty, also individuals accused of wrongdoing should have the right to a trial before a judge. the idea of separate branches of government (executive, legislative) was introduced. A set of laws introduced for all citizens , it was the idea of just laws.
THE MAGNA CARTA (1215)
One of the principles of the magna carta is common law, it was already established in which nationwide common laws replaced local laws. The nobles forced the king to sign the maga carta, a document in which gave more rights to the nobles and limited the king's powers. This main principle of English common law and the magna carta were later adopted by our american colonies and founding fathers to do this with the 13 colonies.
JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)
A strange difficult man. coming from a poor family, he never felt comfortable in the glittering social world of enlightenment thinkers. he believed that people in their natural state were basically good. this natural innocence, he felt, was corrupted by the evils of society, especially the unequal distribution of property. many reformers and revolutionaries later adopted this view. in 1762, Rousseau set forth his ideas about government and society in the social contract. he felt that society placed too many limitations on people’s behavior. he believed that some controls were necessary, but that they were minimal. he put his faith in the “general will,” or the best conscience of the people. the good of the community as a whole, he said, should be placed above individual interests. he has influenced political and social thinkers for more than 200 years.
Tyranny
Tyranny
Tyranny is usually thought of as cruel and oppressive, and it often is, but the original definition of the term was rule by persons who lack legitimacy.
~Tyranny also states that people in power generally desire more power, it also shows the "abuse of power".
-An example of this would be how the Romans the idea of Federalism in regards to preventing tyranny. when the Romans had a vast empire that's broken into many different areas, they realized it was important to have a strong central government to make rules for the entire empire yet gave the autonomy to rule to the locals. They "stuck" with this throughout their 1000 year reign and this helped to prevent tyranny.
- Another example would be how they broke their government into two branches of Government: The Consul and the Senate. By breaking the power into two branches this is another way the romans tried to help prevent tyranny by either branch.
Tyranny is an important phenomenon that operates by principles by which it can be recognized in its early emerging stages, and, if the people are vigilant, prepared, and committed to liberty, countered before it becomes entrenched.
This means that when people who appreciate their liberty and the government tries to it taking it away, the people who believe in their liberty will recognize this and stop it before they lose it.
Tyranny is usually thought of as cruel and oppressive, and it often is, but the original definition of the term was rule by persons who lack legitimacy.
~Tyranny also states that people in power generally desire more power, it also shows the "abuse of power".
-An example of this would be how the Romans the idea of Federalism in regards to preventing tyranny. when the Romans had a vast empire that's broken into many different areas, they realized it was important to have a strong central government to make rules for the entire empire yet gave the autonomy to rule to the locals. They "stuck" with this throughout their 1000 year reign and this helped to prevent tyranny.
- Another example would be how they broke their government into two branches of Government: The Consul and the Senate. By breaking the power into two branches this is another way the romans tried to help prevent tyranny by either branch.
Tyranny is an important phenomenon that operates by principles by which it can be recognized in its early emerging stages, and, if the people are vigilant, prepared, and committed to liberty, countered before it becomes entrenched.
This means that when people who appreciate their liberty and the government tries to it taking it away, the people who believe in their liberty will recognize this and stop it before they lose it.
Part 2: What are two examples of how this Constitutional Principle has been applied in U.S. History?
The European Union
Many people in Europe hesitate to call the European Union a federalist government, it does fit the basic requirements and most federalism authorities do classify it as such. Each of the European Union countries has their own system of governments, much like the states in the United States and the Canadian provinces. They then have the European Council which is made up of the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission and the head of state or government for each of the member nations.
Some other examples of Federalism throughout the world are include in Australia, Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation, and Belgium. --------------->
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The Watergate Scandal
The privatization of the State Water Project began with theinfamous Monterey Amendments which began in 1955. The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee(DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis.[1] The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such "dirty tricks" as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The scandal led to the discovery of multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration, articles of impeachment, and the resignation of Richard Nixon, the President of the United States, on August 9, 1974—the only resignation of a U.S. President to date. The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty and incarcerated, many of whom were Nixon's top administration officials.