Had The Constitution not guarded against tyranny, society as we know it today would be very different. James Madison tried to create a better law system because the Articles of Confederation did not support their government. The cause of their weakness lies in the fact that they did not have a court system nor a Chief Justice. While writing The Constitution, Madison’s biggest concern was that one branch or person was going to have power over the other branches. If that would have happened it would have led way to tyranny. How exactly did The Constitution guard against tyranny? The Constitution guarded against tyranny through Federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances and big states versus small states.
Federalism was included in The Constitution to prevent tyranny. As stated by James Madison, “The power surrendered by the people …show more content…
The system prevents tyranny by allowing each of the three branches to not only have power over themselves but to have power over the other branches. In case of a branch becoming too powerful the other branches can check the power to ensure equal power between the three branches. For example, if the president (Executive Branch) were to veto a law that the Legislative Branch felt was needed they could override the president’s veto to ensure that the president doesn’t get to powerful and do away with a good law. As stated by James Madison the system of checks and balances main role is to “divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other” (James Madison Federalist Paper #51, 1788). In addition to this James Madison also quotes that the three branches “have no constitutional control over each other” (James Madison Federalist Paper #51, 1788). Checks and balances prevented tyranny from occurring because it allowed each branch to have equal