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Separation Of Powers Dbq Essay

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Almost 230 years ago in Philadelphia, 55 representatives from 12 out of the 13 colonies met up to revise the Articles of Confederation. They felt the Articles were too weak and went into this meeting with the intention of only changing a couple of things on the regarding America’s protection against a dictatorship. Instead, they ended up creating a completely new system; the Constitution. The Constitution protects Americans from tyranny through federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and protection of small states. Federalism was created to ensure neither the states nor central government hold too much power. Document A shows that federalism is achieved by using a compound government made up of the central and state powers. …show more content…

The idea about separation of powers is established through the three branches of government. These three branches are legislative, executive, and judicial. Document B shows that each branch has their own specific powers. The legislative branch holds power regarding the Senate and House of Representatives. The executive branch is home of the President and deals with the congress. The judicial branch has control over the supreme court and appointing judges. The three branches of government fight against tyranny by ensuring that no one branch has too much power over the other …show more content…

This two house system ensures that each state has fair representation in congress. Document D states that the House of Representatives is based off of the population, while the Senate has equal representation from each state. In the House of Representatives, larger states, such as virginia and Massachusetts have more representatives than a small state such as Rhode Island or Delaware. The Senate, however, is made up of 2 senators that are chosen by the people of each state. Although bigger states have more representatives in the house, smaller states don’t feel threatened because they have fair representation in the Senate. The bicameralism system keeps America protected from tyranny by keeping the representatives fair and not allowing different states to hold more

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