The Fight Against Tyranny
How Our Constitution Prevents Another Nasty Tyrant!
Separation Of Powers!
One way the genius writers of our constitution ensure that tyranny will not be an issue in our country is by separating the power into three different branches of government. There is the executive branch who's main responsibility is to enforce the law of the country. They created a legislative branch that creates the laws. And last but not least, they made a judicial branch to ensure that the laws made are constitutional.
U.S. Capitol Building
Home of the United States legislative branch (the House of Representatives and the Senate).
White House
The home of the United States's executive branch, also known as the president.
Supreme Court Building
The building that houses the Supreme Court. This building is where the Chief Justice and his eight other associate judges do all of their hard work.
Checks & Balances!
Another way our brilliant constitution protects our country from tyranny is through checks and balances. Checks and balances is a system where each of the three branches of government can check the other. This keeps the power of each branch balanced. The executive branch has the power to check the legislative branch by vetoing the laws the legislative branch proposes and the executive branch checks the judicial branch by electing the Chief Justice and the associate judges. The legislature branch has the power to impeach both the president and the judges. The judicial branch can declare the legislative branch's laws unconstitutional and the judicial branch can declare the acts of the president unconstitutional.
Above is a chart that displays how each branch of government is capable of checking the other.
Federalism!
Our Founding Fathers did't stop there! They added federalism to give us an even bigger shield against tyranny. Since our government uses federalism, the power is divided amongst the national government and the state governments. The state governments have more power over and control of local and personal issues, education, marriage, regulate in-state businesses, state elections because they are more in touch with the local culture and the state government knows what their state needs. The federal government, or national government, has the power to regulate trade, provide a military, print and coin money, make immigration laws, declare war, and conduct foreign relations.
This chart shows the powers the federal government and the state governments have and which powers they share.
Large States VS Small States!
The great constitution of the United States prevents the larger states with a greater population from overpowering the smaller states. The amount of representatives a state has in the House of Representatives is based on population. Our constitution protects the large states from having a greater say in our government than the smaller states by having two houses, the House of Representatives (population based) and the Senate (two representatives from each state).This protects all the smaller states from being dominated by the larger states because of their population
As you can see, the larger states like South Carolina and Virginia would have a much greater say in government if their was only one house and it was based on population.