Williams 1 Rukiya Williams Pol 200-001 Professor Adeleke February 23rd, 2012 Chapter 1: Constitutional Democracy To have an understanding

of how the government works and what it is build up on you must first investigate and research how it started. Chapter 1: Constitutional Democracy clearly discusses the constitutional roots of America. It begins on the topic of the Constitution Bill of Rights and how it has survived over time. There was a stress factor on the government being a force for good or evil, whether democracy really arrived in what it was trying to entail. What is democracy? Democracy is a form of government in which policymaking reflects the will of the people. Instead of having a dictator we have a president in which we vote for every four or perhaps eight years if the last president made two terms. Were not based on direct democracy although it survives to a little extent in America by way of RECALL. Direct democracy is government in which citizens vote on laws and select official directly. It was Direct practiced by Athens and other Greek cities. There are historical events that created the constitutional democracy of the United States. Democracy today means representative democracy. Representative democracy is what practical most in America is. Representative democracy is a government in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws; also called a republic. American Democracy has a system of five interacting values. There is personal liberty (which includes the declaration of independence, constitution, and bill of rights), individualism (4th amendment), equality of opportunity, popular sovereignty, conflicted

values. Constitutionalism refers to how power is granted, dispersed, and limited. Constitutionalism is a set of arrangements, including checks and balances, federalism, separation of powers, rule of law, due process, and a bill of rights, that requires our leaders to listen, think, bargain, and explain before they act or make laws. The Constitution holds laws in which politicians must act upon to accomplish different agendas. It is said that a gap exists between expectations about the actual and ideal politician. Democracy is noted to be as a system of four interrelated political processes. They are free and fair election, majority and plurality rule, freedom of expression and the right to assemble and protest. Democracy as a system of interacting values would be popular consent 247, governmental power from people, and a willingness to lose if majority removes support. As a system of interacting independent political structures it consisted of federalism, division of powers and separation of powers. The separation of powers was the legislative, executive and the judicial. Bicameralism Art I of the U.S. Constitution provided a legislative body whose main task is to make laws. The body is divided into two the House of Representatives consisting of 435 members and the U.S. senate 100 members equal where two senators per a state. As a system of interdependent political structures, democracy consisted of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which created a structure that both granted and checked government power. Four elements of the constitutional system are federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, bill of rights. It judicially enforced the bill of rights. This ensured individual liberty and due process of the law. Williams 3

Toward unity and order the Articles of Confederation were approved in 1781, it limited and inadequate central government. It was written during the Revolutionary War. T he articles were written to give the colonies some sense of a unified government. Once the thirteen colonies became the thirteen states, however, each one began to act alone in its own best interest. In 1787, there was the Constitutional Convention. Seventy-four (delegates) were invited. Fifty-five showed up and forty participated actively. Thirty-nine signed the constitution. Delegates were well educated many were congressmen in the confederation; a number of them signed the Declaration of Independence, etc. Prime movers at the convention were Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and James Madison. All delegates supported republican government. They agreed on national government consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judicial branch. It started in May 1787 and was concluded in September 1787. Out of thirteen states, Delaware was the first to sign the U.S. Constitution which consisted of seven articles. New York was the last state to sign. It became necessary to educate the country about the significance, benefit and nuances of the constitution. Eightyfive federalist papers were written by the federalists who articulated the significance of the Constitution. The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. The Connecticut Compromise, or Great Compromise, established a bicameral legislature. The

Senate would include two representatives from each state as per the New Jersey Plan, and representation in the House would be determined by the population of each state. There later was an argument of federalists versus anti-federalists where the Federalist essays helped the ratification process, but the anti-federalists objected to lack of a bill of rights. Anti-federalists feared that the Constitution favored an elite minority while the federalists asserted that the Constitution would benefit the growing middle class of tradesmen as well as the wealthy plantation owners. The Constitution was ratified in 1787, largely because the authors promised to add a bill of rights. Amending the Constitution according to article V. Over the years congressional elaboration, presidential practice, judicial interpretations and expressly has changed the U.S. Constitution. It was stated that the amendment can take place by a vote of two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate followed by a ratification of threefourths of the various state legislatures.