Articles Of Confederation Failure

In 1776 the Second Continental Congress began to draft the plans for the government of the new nation that would be formed after the colonies gained their independance. The plan that the congress created is called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation created a confederal form of government, consisting of a loose union of 13 states, each with their own governments. However, despite the founder’s good intentions the government formed under the Articles of confederation is considered a failure, because it had minimal powers, did not have a chief executive or national court, and could not effectively raise funds for the national treasury. The biggest fear of the delegates at the Second Continental Congress was government overreach, and tyranny. Therefore, they felt that the national government’s powers needed to be severely limited with the congress not having the power to enforce any of its rulings. However, the government’s lack of power led to its incredible ineffectiveness. The congress under the articles of confederation found that the government was essentially powerless when …show more content…
When writing the Articles of Confederation the founders were fearful that if one delegate had too much power the entire democratic system would fall apart, therefore they did not include a chief executive. While this fear was well grounded in history, after all the Roman Republic fell after Julius Caesar took advantage of his powers as Consul and Dictator, without a chief executive the congress was often deadlocked. Because the national government only consisted of a congress and this congress could not agree on major decisions, government barely functioned. In addition, the lack of a national court meant that disagreements between states had to be resolved without an impartial court