How do you go about
building a new government?
Analyze how constitutionalism preserves fundamental societal
values, protects individual freedoms and rights, promotes the
general welfare, and responds to changing circumstances and
beliefs by defining and limiting the powers of government.
Brainstorming:
What does a government
need?
What should we avoid?
For the U.S., look at the Declaration of Independence.
In your notebook:
List what you think the colonists
say are problems that the King
refuses to fix.
Problems between North American colonists and
Great Britain?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Taxes
Representation
Fair trials
Free speech
Redress grievances
Collapse of the social contract--or it never existed?
What else?
Creating an American
Republic
republic: a state in which the supreme power
rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote
and is exercised by representatives chosen
directly or indirectly by them.
federalism: the distribution of power in an
organization (such as a government) between
a central authority and the constituent units
Articles of Confederation
• Ratified 1781, but in use earlier
• States maintain autonomy
• Federal government
– wage war and peace
– Conduct foreign affairs
– Deal with Native Americans outside the states
– Coin and borrow money
– Post office
– Negotiate boundary disputes between states
BUT>>>>
So the
Continental
Congress
agreed to meet
for revisions…
Then they
decided revision
wasn’t enough.
They called for a
new convention.
Philadelphia Convention
● Met May 25, 1787
● Goal: revise Articles of Confederation
● All but RI represented; 55 total delegates
● New to government debate: Alexander Hamilton and
James Madison