The Constitution
How it Gaurds Against Tyrany
Federalism
With federalism the government has three braches and two levels of each making it a compound government with state government and the central government. This allows the central government to address large nationwide problems like war and laws. This also helps when the state needs to attend to the more local problems like when it comes to education and marriage when they can have a better say on what is best for people as they are more in touch with them due to the fact that they live their and that the residents are their primary reponsibility. This format works well due to the fact that people ca have local help with their problems and have more general leaders that make decisions for their country
Separation of Powers
Our government (central and state) is divided into three seperate branches. These are executive, the president, legistative, Congress, and judicial, supreme court. The way these powers are distributed was to make sure that the United States would not become a tyranny or more specifically so it will not become like the monarchy in England. The power is separated so that if one person were to make bad decisions about how to rule the country the other too braches would not only limmit the power of one person but also make sure that they do not continue rulng unfairly. With this system all of the braches have power and can make sure that power is balanced.
Checks and Balances
While each of the three branches has power, in order to keep it balanced each of the branches can check or compromise eachother's power. The executive branch (president) checks the judicial branch because it gets to nominate all of the judges on the supreme court, however the judicial branch (supreme court) can declare a president's acts unconstitutional for which they may recieve punishment or even impeachment. The legislative branch can check the power of the executive brach by impeachment or removal from office, overide a veto of a legistation and approve the presidential nominations which is required to run, the president can check the legislative branch's power by vetoing congressional legistation. The judicial branch can check the power of the legislative branch by declaring laws that are proposed unconstitutional, and the legislative branch can check the power of the judicial branch by confirming the president's nomination for a judge and impeaching a judge if necessary. This is helpful for the government because no single person has complete power and each brach can check eachother so that the government stays balanced
Big States vs. Small States (The Great Comprimise)
The amount of representatives given to each state is measured based on the population. For every thirty thousand people for each state on representative is given, but each state must have at least one and no more than thirty. This was a debate when writing the constitution because small states were concerned that they would not have fair representation because of their small population and that larger sttes with larger populations and more representatives would take over and control the whole country. There is an argument that equal representation would unfair to citizens as well. If a country has a higher population and therefore more representatives they need more because they are representing more people and would need to have of a say in what the country would do because there were more citizens they were representing. This helps our government because the amount of representatives is based on and matches the population.