LEARNING ACTIVITY WORKSHEET - Week One
1. The Constitution:
A. One strength of the U.S. Constitution
The United States Constitution provides the nation with many protections that are outlined and should be considered strengths. One such strength is how the Constitution guarantees citizens individual rights and how those rights are protected by the separation of powers system. According to Zietlow (2006), The rights-protecting role of Congress was central to the constitutional vision of the principal architect of our constitution, James Madison, and is enshrined in the enforcement provisions of every constitutional amendment expanding individual rights since the Reconstruction Era. Many amendments, including the famous Bill of Rights, have …show more content…
One such weakness in the Constitution is the difficulty that some branches of government can face when trying to make a decision and it becomes gridlocked because of the current checks and balances system. According to Teter (2013), If gridlock prevents Congress from fulfilling this function, the concept of separation of powers collapses under the weight of a nation in need of laws and policy. A decision can be passed by Congress, vetoed by the President and then even overridden by a two-thirds vote by Congress again. This can sometimes create a situation where decisions go back and forth and nothing is decided when they are needed. According to Fine & Levin-Waldman (2016), As the 2013 shutdown illustrates, there are two ways to look at checks and balances: One is to say that the system is a prescription for endless gridlock—in essence, a political stalemate—and ineffective government and another is to view it as a prescription for government by consensus, because everybody needs to work together to get things done. When things become gridlocked in the government, nothing gets done as it should …show more content…
Constitution’s strength of guaranteeing and protecting individual rights would be to continuously ratify the Constitution. According to Fine & Levin-Waldman (2016), The U.S. Constitution is built on the central idea that if power is divided among three branches of government, and each branch has separate functions, no one branch will have sufficient power to encroach upon the rights and liberties of individuals. Thinking back to when the Constitution was first ratified and the Bill of Rights was added, individual rights started to be protected further and further. Amendments that have ratified the Constitution since have also worked to help protect more individual and even group rights. Due to these additional amendments that furthered guaranteed and provided protection individual rights, in order to maintain this strength, more amendments will be needed in the future. An option to help this would be to make the process of ratifying the Constitution and adding amendment would be a quicker process and allow public input.
D. One option to correct the weakness of the U.S.
1. The Constitution:
A. One strength of the U.S. Constitution
The United States Constitution provides the nation with many protections that are outlined and should be considered strengths. One such strength is how the Constitution guarantees citizens individual rights and how those rights are protected by the separation of powers system. According to Zietlow (2006), The rights-protecting role of Congress was central to the constitutional vision of the principal architect of our constitution, James Madison, and is enshrined in the enforcement provisions of every constitutional amendment expanding individual rights since the Reconstruction Era. Many amendments, including the famous Bill of Rights, have …show more content…
One such weakness in the Constitution is the difficulty that some branches of government can face when trying to make a decision and it becomes gridlocked because of the current checks and balances system. According to Teter (2013), If gridlock prevents Congress from fulfilling this function, the concept of separation of powers collapses under the weight of a nation in need of laws and policy. A decision can be passed by Congress, vetoed by the President and then even overridden by a two-thirds vote by Congress again. This can sometimes create a situation where decisions go back and forth and nothing is decided when they are needed. According to Fine & Levin-Waldman (2016), As the 2013 shutdown illustrates, there are two ways to look at checks and balances: One is to say that the system is a prescription for endless gridlock—in essence, a political stalemate—and ineffective government and another is to view it as a prescription for government by consensus, because everybody needs to work together to get things done. When things become gridlocked in the government, nothing gets done as it should …show more content…
Constitution’s strength of guaranteeing and protecting individual rights would be to continuously ratify the Constitution. According to Fine & Levin-Waldman (2016), The U.S. Constitution is built on the central idea that if power is divided among three branches of government, and each branch has separate functions, no one branch will have sufficient power to encroach upon the rights and liberties of individuals. Thinking back to when the Constitution was first ratified and the Bill of Rights was added, individual rights started to be protected further and further. Amendments that have ratified the Constitution since have also worked to help protect more individual and even group rights. Due to these additional amendments that furthered guaranteed and provided protection individual rights, in order to maintain this strength, more amendments will be needed in the future. An option to help this would be to make the process of ratifying the Constitution and adding amendment would be a quicker process and allow public input.
D. One option to correct the weakness of the U.S.