Madison Bucholz

per. 3
US Government
Unit 1 Summative

AG 05
The US Constitution consists of 6 basic principles such as popular sovereignty, limited
government, separation of powers, checks and balances, judicial review, and federalism.
Popular sovereignty is how the people wanted to be governed, citizens of the U.S. Use this
principle to vote on representatives to run the government. The separation of powers has three
different articles consisting of legislative, executive, and judicial powers. These powers are each
in charge of their own branch, but one cant have more power than the other which is why we
have checks and balances. Checks and Balances allows each branch of government to be
subjected to checks by the other branches. While the branches of government have limitations,
the constitution has them too. The government is only allowed to work within the parameters of
the constitution, this is known as judicial review. If the government is found to violate a provision
in the constitution they can be declared unconstitutional. The government has a division of
power that allows a division of power between a central and regional government, this is known
as federalism.

Federalism is a system of government where a written constitution divides the powers of
government. Federalism is used in our government through the legislative, executive, and
judicial branches. This stops over use of certain powers and from problems to arise because
each power has its own way to check each branch.

The role and responsibility of government in todays society is to keep everything running as
smoothly and peacefully as possible and to decrease the problems we already have, and to
keep problems from arising. The role of the government is shown through keeping a defense,
and peace with commerce and foreign relations. Its also shown by ensuring citizens freedom
and making sure slavery does not occur. Establishing federal courts and a universal use of
weights and measures. Taxation is also included in the role of the government.

The government in the U.S. has a distribution of power, relationship between branches, and a
number of who can participate. We have a centralized government, where the powers are
divided evenly, and where states are only allowed to interfere with matters assigned to them.
Governments around the world can be extremely different from us. Some governments are
dictatorships, where one person is in charge of everything and the people have no say on how
the government is run. Theres also a Direct Democracy where the people vote directly on every
issue. Opposite to that, theres a Representative Democracy where the people vote on the
people who vote for every issue.

AG 06
The framers felt a need to transition from the articles of confederation to the constitution
because they feared another uprising would happen like shays rebellion. Their fear in another
uprising was motivation to create a strong central government and to create a strong standing
federal army. A stronger federal government was necessary to make sure that the United States
would survive, especially when they would go up against Britain or France.

The creation of a stronger national government started the federalist papers. Some of the main
arguments in the federalists papers included whether or not the new constitution would create a
strong national government, whether it would protect the people from a too strong government,
and how each branch would function. The Anti-federalist papers argued that the constitution
gave the federal government too much power and the people werent represented by it. They
also argued that there wasnt a bill of rights and that the peoples rights werent in writing and
that they werent guaranteed. They were also worried about the government getting too much
power and then turning into a monarchy, in which they just fought to get out of. The constitution
allows for a strong and limited national government. Its strong because we have so many
different powers building it up and making it run in a way that wont create big problems. But its
limited because each power in the government is controlled by different people and places to
keep things equal.When developing the new constitution the biggest areas of conflict were
whether a strong national government would actually be formed, would the people get too much
power or would the government, and how each branch would function. But the biggest
compromises were how the government wouldnt become a monarchy, how much power the
people and the government would get together.

AG 08

People were hesitant to change to a new form of government because they didnt want to return
to a monarchy. The only form of government they were familiar with was a monarchy and they
didnt want to return to one after working so hard on getting out of it. Also people were afraid of
not having much power in the new government, they wanted to have a say in how things were
going to be run. Some arguments against listing guaranteed rights of the people would be
whether theyre receiving equal rights before the law, whether theyll be protected and treated
fairly, or whether theyll have a say in how they are being treated in the government.
Compromise used throughout the creation of the new constitution and the ratification process
allowed citizens to make public decisions, and allowed the public to reach a common goal.