Ritchey Karaba
4/14/2010
How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny?
What would you do if one day you didn’t have your Miranda rights read to you
when you were getting arrested? In 1787 a group of delegates for 12 of the 13 states go
together to try to better the country. The constitution was mainly written in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. It was mad to make a guideline for the building of a federal government so
that there wouldn’t be any tyranny. It was also made to make sure that the government
doesn’t become too much powerful. How do you think our rights were protected against
tyranny by the constitution? Tyranny is when one person is given all the power to control
a country of a government in a dictator like manner. The Constitution guarded against
tyranny in several ways, which were federalism, separation of powers, checks and
balances, and big states vs. little states.
The first guard against tyranny was Federalism, which means a system of
government in which power is divided between a federal government and state
government. The guard of federalism is shown one way in the constitution when they set
up the compound government to make sure that the federal government doesn’t get to
much power. The second way is when some responsibilities are given to the state
government so that they can share the power equally. Federalism protects against tyranny
because it ensures that the federal government doesn’t have too much say in what
happens in the country so that they don’t become too powerful and create tyranny.
The second guard against tyranny was separation of powers which means that the
government is separated into separate branches so that they can spread out the power so
that one branch of government can have more pull in what happen in the decisions made
for the well-being of the country. One way that the documents show the way that the
constitution uses the separation of powers to guard against tyranny is when it has the
people in the government that make the largest decisions able to serve for a term of only
a few years. The separation of powers protects against tyranny because it makes sure that
one branch of government can be more powerful and have more say than another so that
there cant be any tyranny to corrupt the government guarding the peoples rights.
The third guard against tyranny was checks and balances, which means that all the
different branches of government can disagree with something that another branch is
doing in order to keep everything in the government fair. One way that the constitution
shows this is when it is put that the other branches can veto something that another
branch is doing because it may be unconstitutional. Checks and balances protects against
tyranny because it make sure that one group in the government can do anything that
would be unconstitutional.
The fourth guard against tyranny was big states vs. small states which means that
the size of a state should have a input on whether it has more say in the government than
one less of it size. One way that the documents show that this is in the constitution is
when it says that the representatives should be put in service according to the amount of
people in the state. It also shows another point when it says the senate should have two
senators that are chosen to serve for a term of six years. Big states vs. little states protects
against tyranny because it makes sure that the small states are not discriminated against
because their size that they shouldn’t have the same amount of say as the larger states in
what happens in the government around that serves them.
The Constitution guarded against tyranny in many ways, which were federalism,
separation of powers, checks and balances, and big states vs. little states. It is significant
because it is a reminder of what was done for us to have no tyranny in our country. It is
important to know how the constitution guarded again tyranny so that we can appreciate
what our founding fathers did so that we could live in a comfortable society that most
take for granted. It is important today because many countries have used our constitution
as a model for their country’s declaring their independence also to show us that we
should be thankful that this was done so that we don’t have to live under a dictatorship
like some countries.