The American Constitution

Hip Hip Hooray! Finally a class I can really get into. For the next 9 weeks I get to focus my academic studies on history, and I can't help but share the joy. When I finish the Constitution, I will be moving on to the education system...both of which impact our lives as students greatly, and have served their purposes but are in drastic need of reconstruction. So, if nothing else,these next weeks should be interesting.I'm eager to read what my classmates have to say on each of our topics of discussion. I hope you all will follow through with us as well...who knows, maybe you'll learn something too:)

So, this week my classmates and I are discussing different government systems; unitary, federal, and confederal. Do you know the difference?

Unitary government: a strong national government holds all the power, then delegates responsibilities, rights, and privileges to its states and local governments.

Federal government: a constitution specifies the powers to either state or federal governments, the federal and state departments share some powers, responsibilities, and privileges, but are given their power by the consent of the people they are governing.

Confederal government: a government made up of individual and independent states. The federal government is only granted power the states wish to allow.

These are my paraphrased definitions derived from the text, "American Government; Continuity and Change." But what does that mean? We have always been told that our nation is governed by a federal system, but have the people ever felt like they granted anyone any powers at all. Or has it actually been the contrary; that people have strived to reign in the powers of the federal government, and get them out of our backyards, schools, and churches?

Perhaps our government doesn't quite fit into any of these categories??? Maybe, in an effort to avoid one and create another, our nation has gradually slipped down a slope; merging one with another over time.

View with me this progression...

When colonies were planted on this continent, some 400 years ago, each one began under the rule of another government. The Dutch, French, British, and Spanish were the largest contributors to the growth of a new nation. All of which fashioned their governments on a unitary system model. One monarch, Parliament, or other governing body had supreme power. Even though subordinate states, colonies, or territories had some form of local government, the supreme authority could step in at any time, change laws without notice, tax with no explanation or benefit to the people, and do as they please (even outside of the law they mandated).

As colonies grew away from their mother countries and in unison with each other, they formed a compact. Through this compact, they fought back to earn their freedom, and recognition, as an independent nation of the world. However, they had no clue what they were doing, and no desirable model to emulate. Therefore, they were left to flounder in their own philosophies and ideals. Through this floundering, they created for themselves a confederate system of government.

Remember, each state grew from a colony, and each colony was planted by a different nation and for a different purpose. Therefore, there was no real union to begin with. Only a bunch of teenage boys who thought they knew more than their parents and grandparents, and were smart enough to call on some friends when the bullies came to push them around. ...Ok, so some of them weren't teenagers, but they were all amateurs at governing themselves. Loosely, these boys created a compact of independent states, which they called the Articles of Confederation.

This was the formation of a confederal system of government. One of which all the powers of the nation were allotted to the states, and only those powers deemed necessary were granted to the federal government. When this plan backfired, they did what any teenage boy would do. They fell back on their parents models. They intended to form a democracy, a republic, a representative government, in which the people had the power, the states had authority, and the federal government had what was leftover. Instead, they formed a warped copy of the unitary system, the federal system.

In the federal system, the constitution has supreme power and authority, only congress can change it(therefore they have ultimate power in the nation). The people elect their representatives who then make laws, enforce them, and interpret them as times change. The states, then, are left with what ever the feds don't want to be bothered with. The menial tasks, dirty laundry, policing, and the like. The states, then, are more or less the hands of the federal government, where the federal government is the mind, and the people are its blood.

**Disclaimer**
I am not a licensed or certified history teacher, I have no authority in the field. I am but a student of life, and these ramblings are my own workings through the topic. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong or mistaken, or join in with your own thoughts on the matter.

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