Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Articles of Confederation Fail Essay Sample

Articles of Confederation Fail Essay Sample Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail? The Key Reasons To this day, a lot of historians try to investigate and confirm the identity of all the witnesses and the participants to the formation of the original agreement between 13 colonies to establish the United States of America. This original document was the Articles of Confederation which was an attempt to replace the British governmental system and form a unifying governmental structure by 13 American colonies that fought for their independence in the American Revolution. In this short essay, I am going to discuss the key reasons what made the Articles of Confederation fail, but let’s start with the Articles of Confederation definition. The Articles of Confederation was the first US constitution which was ratified in 1781 but replaced eight years later in 1789 with the present Constitution of the United States. The Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation Why did the Articles of Confederation fail? The researchers think that the essential weakness of the Articles of Confederation was caused by the fact that this document established a confederacy, a form of government which gave sovereign power in the hands of the independent states. This approach was accepted by the Founding Fathers due to the fact that the American colonists did not like the idea of a strong national government. American colonists identified themselves together with the colony where they lived so the idea to create American government which was based on strong state governments seemed quite natural. The Articles of Confederation were written in such a way that every individual state was as independent as possible and the national government of the United States was as weak as possible. According to the Articles of Confederation, the US central government was only responsible for such issues as the security of liberties, the general welfare, and the common defense. This led to many problems and the Articles of Confederation turned out to be ineffective at governing the permanently increasing American states. The major cause of this ineffectiveness was the absence of a strong national government which led to multiple limitations that made the Articles of Confederation ineffective. The Limitations Caused by the Absence of a Strong Central Government Researchers identify three key limitations that were caused by the absence of a strong national government. They include economic disorganization, legislative inefficiencies, and absence of national leadership. Economic limitations that were present in the Articles of Confederation resulted in financial hardships for the new American nation which was struggling to be competitive economically. These limitations caused economic disorganization and competition between different states because Congress could not control the foreign and interstate trade. Besides, there was no uniform system of currency which made the interstate trade and foreign commerce less efficient and more difficult. Congress was not given the power to raise revenues and impose taxes but had to request for money from the states. As a result, it was incapable of paying off America’s foreign debts, manage foreign affairs, and establish a national budget. Congress lacked effective means to regulate the economy or enforce its laws. The Articles of Confederation led to the lack of national leadership which took various forms. As there was no national court system, the judiciary branch was dependent on the states which could simply ignore national laws which they considered objectionable. There was a lack of chief executive who could conduct foreign affairs which was a serious diplomatic disadvantage to America. The central government was unable to deal with external and internal threats because Congress did not have the power to raise the army and was dependent on state militia. As a result, Congress could not quickly and effectively respond to possible external and internal threats. Legislating under the framework of the Articles of Confederation was inefficient. Regardless of the size, every state had one vote in Congress, but there was a large discrepancy in state populations. The consent of nine of thirteen states was required to pass any law in Congress and blocking the bill was possible by only five of thirteen states. The Articles of Confederation detailed a very difficult and impractical amendment process. Amendments required a unanimous vote that made it impossible to fix the poorly structured Articles of Confederation under the current form of government. As the economic, military, and legislative weaknesses became more apparent, the Articles of Confederation had been scrapped altogether and an entirely new governing document was approved. It was the Constitution of the United States which outlined a federal form of governance.

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