Articles of Confederation
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The articles of confederation had a national legislature
- It created a unified army for the nation
- The state constitutions instituted a checks and balances system
Cons
- The national government wasn't able to tax
- The nation needed all thirteen states in order to amend a law
- The national government did not have an executive of judicial branch
- There was no way the government could enforce laws that were passed
- Didn't balance power between national and state governments
- Each state had its own currency
- Each state acted as its own country
As you can see, the Articles of Confederation created more problems than fixing ones. I believe the designers made it have such a weak central government because they were afraid that it would become a tyranny. They didn't want another Britain situations, so if each state had their own power, it wouldn't be able to happen again. It didn't really work well though.