Vonelle Robertson
Professor Currie
American National Government
April 15th, 2015
Essay: Should the 17thAmendment be repealed? While citizens of each state did not directly vote in the senators of their respective states legislatures chose the senators based on the law that was adopted in the constitution in 1788.The 17th amendment came about because of the state legislature being deadlocked over the election of United States Senators. This left numerous senate vacancies lasting as long as months or even years. But this was not the first attempt to amend the constitution to elect senators by popular vote. It was first introduced in the US House of Representatives in 1826 but the amendment did not have favorable support until the late 19th century
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One of the pros of doing this the Republicans claims is it gives the power back to the states now with more control in Washington. By doing this it gives the states the power to keep the federal government in check on certain issues. Here is one example of the republican support for this, “You'd have to educate people about what the 17th Amendment is all about and what the repercussions are," says Republican Jim McKelvey, who pushed the matter in his unsuccessful campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates last year. "State sovereignty has been trounced on. It's one of the big problems." The proponents’ main arguments for repealing the 17th amendment is the fact that the federal government can influence the election. Taking away the states’ right to pick their senators which worries …show more content…
But people who want to keep the 17th amendment in place claim that they would not be changes very often, senator would be able to serve out their six year terms. Another reason presented to keep the amendment include that the state legislature are incapable of making a viable decision on who their senators will be based on what has happened in the past. As previously mentioned in the introduction of the essay states had a hard time choosing senators for the US senate sometimes even being completely deadlocked sometimes. This left numerous senate vacancies lasting as long as months or even years. Because of this main fact many people are reluctant to divert from the current amendment back to the old way of doing things. So now we are left with questions rather solutions to fix this problem. But there has been numerous attempts to repeal the 17th amendment since it came into law in 1913 each time it went nowhere. In today’s society there is very little reason to believe that citizens would hate losing the right to have direct elections for their senators. In a YouGov poll in November 2013 it said, “It found that voters preferred direct elections over state legislative selection by a 60 percentage point margin.”(Greenblatt) In Addition this point was further backed up by University of Illinois political scientist William
There have been many controversies over the Tenth Amendment for quite some time. The amendment was designed to divide and limit the powers of the national and states’ government. It protects the states and its’ people from the national government becoming too powerful. However, the question that has been asked repeatedly and holds the most concern is, has the national government overstepped its power? The Tenth Amendment should be modified in favor of the states.
"How Democratic is the American Constitution ?", by political scientist Robert A. Dahl is a short book that questions the ethical and political issues in America 's Constitution and the structure of the United States government. The book consists of a series of abstract lectures composed by Dahl that reflects on how the American Constitution affects modern society. While this short book brings out plentiful knowledge on the American system , it does not go any deeper into those general ideas for it is only about 200 pages. However, it is still a knowledgeable book to introduce the fundamentals of American government and political science and why American citizens should uphold the Constitution. Dahl introduces the book of how the Founding
The founding father’s idea when they created the Constitution was to prevent a centralized government. As expressed by James Madison in Federalist No. 51, they believe that the power surrendered by people would be divided between the federal and state governments, creating balance of power that would enable both governments to control each other. Over time, the balance of power between the federal and state governments has shifted in favor of the federal government and this has taken place with the help of the Constitution and by enactments of Congress. The role that Chief Justice John Marshall played in defining the power of the federal and state governments during the early 19th century is important to mention because he shaped the nation.
It was May, 1787, when representatives from all over the country came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. George Washington was chosen to run these meetings, as they all believed he was trustworthy, he could have an unbiased opinion, and also that he could keep their secret. Their secret being the meetings and the discussions that took place here. They kept it unknown by the media and people so that they could say as they please without unwanted pressure. They created these meetings with the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, on account of much needed to be done.
For centuries the world was governed by unethical and overpowered rulers or tyrants. This was the way of life and nobody tried to defy it until a young nation decided to break from tyranny and build a country based on fair morals. For centuries, after we discovered the New World, Britain had a tyrannic dominion over it. As time went on, the people who lived in America kept on receiving unfair treatment by Britain with unethical taxes and rules. Eventually, the colonists were fed up with the cruel treatment and decided to break apart.
The Articles of Confederation was written when the United States was a fairly new country, and from the people wanting to create a different government from the king of England. Although this document respected individual rights, it was too loose of a document that could drive the country to success. After revising what they had created, the founding father of the us the created the us constitution. It was more strict, but still valued peoples rights.
The difference lies in the fact that the average non-political voter will typically vote for a candidate based on appearance and relatively scanty information as opposed to a knowledgeable assembly of politicians who would otherwise have a more thorough association and this can be viewed as a disadvantage. Authors Sean Gailmard and Jeffrey A. Jenkins in their article titled, “Agency Problems, the 17th Amendment, and Representation in the Senate”, found in the EBSCO database clarify this when stating, “While the 17th Amendment did create a direct agency relationship, it also eliminated both the informed selection and monitoring of U.S. Senators by relative political experts, state legislators. Therefore, U.S. Senators may have been held to a better post-amendment standard in democratic terms, but not as tightly as they were held to their pre-amendment
That quote explains how the national government have more power than the states. The federalist also supported business and banking, they were financially stable. The federalist also wanted to abolish slavery. “It
This system would limit state voting power and turn rely on an electoral college to make decisions regarding presidential elections, and a cabinet of representatives, as seen at the continental congress, to make come up with the verdict on national dilemmas, primarily decisions concerning taxation and the judicial system. Therein lies the problem. As an anti-federalist I would be largely concerned with local issues and supporting the people and economy of my respective state, as opposed to national trade and productivity. This issue will arise again on the topic of republicanism as a focus of anti-federalists. In opposition to any ratifications, I would have hoped to see power lie within state governments with an overarching national government that regulate trade and the national economy, but not so much state level affairs.
The United States Senate, established under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, must have two Senators appointed from every state regardless of the population of the state. Much like the House of Representatives,
The cause of most political dispute around 1820-1860 was mostly about slavery. There has been division between the North and the South, though compromise had usually sufficed in calming the controversy. However, nearing 1860, political compromise appeared useless. Comprises simply postponed addressing the issue, and led to even greater issues,compromise wasn’t working politically, socially,and economically for the nation.
This compromise helped give each state equal say in the government. As John Samples said to the Cato Institute in In Defense of the Electoral College, “ … the Electoral College makes sure that the states count in presidential elections… an important part of our federalist system - a system worth preserving… federalism is central to our grand constitutional effort to restrain power.” (Doc C). Since this nation is founded on federalism (the sharing of power between national and state governments), it only makes sense that each individual state would want equal say in the nation’s government. Samples knew that to keep the government running smoothly, each state needed equal representation in the government, thus the Electoral College.
How come no one could ever take over the government? Well, we have the writers of the constitution to thank for this. WIthout the constitution, there would be a tyranny. The constitution was written in 1787. Its main purpose is to give our government a solid direction, and to describe the roles of the three branches in our government: The judicial, legislative, and executive branches.
Popular sovereignty: Power that the people have to vote for their leaders or other issues. Constitution example Article l, Section 4, clause 1 - “The Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof:” This portion of the constitution is stating that the state will organize their own congressional elections. This is connected to popular sovereignty because voting polls and elections is how people vote for leaders of the country and issues of their state. Current event Votes in for Minnesota School Districts - 11/04/15 - wdaz8 News On election day, East Grand Forks polls have been crowded to decide the future of three close by school districts.
Background Americans don’t handle being told what to do very well. No we 're not a nation of anarchy however we 're not a nation of law abiding citizens either. Prohibition or the 18th amendment was meant to be a solution to the problem that was alcoholism in America however it can be argued that the passing of prohibition gave birth to a new era of problems for the United States like the rise of the mob, the start of illegal bootlegging of alcohol, and the commence of mass gang shootings/killings. After thinking about it all one could easy suggest that the passing of prohibition help give birth to the criminal underworld Many people wonder what lead the U.S. government to go as far as to abolish the 18th amendment. What lead the U.S.