Federal Constitution and Distribution of Power

Paper Summary:

This paper questions whether the original Constitution created a representative democracy based on elections, a pluralist democracy based on factions, some form of elite system based on rule by a handful, or hyper-pluralism with a weak central government dominated by factions (or state) interests. It discusses this issue then asks whether the system created was a just one.

From the Paper:

"The system created by the Constitution created a republican form of government in which existing propertied elites were the dominant influence in the late 1700s but which was structured in such a way as to permit the development of a much broader pluralist democracy over time. The truth of this statement can be seen in the experience of the late 1700s, the composition and philosophy of the framers and the specific institutions they created.

The experience of the American Revolution united most Americans in opposition to tyranny imposed from abroad which translated into a broadly shared distrust of a strong central government. Under the Articles of Confederation, power was concentrated in separate state legislatures leaving insufficient scope for the functioning of an effective national government. The leaders of the movement to correct the resulting imbalance which had manifested itself in inadequate state contributions to permit retirement of the Revolutionary war debt, inflation, interstate trade disputes and civil disorders such as Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786 came from the creditor class among which, according to Stewart et al, "a sense of nationalism began to emerge" (American 53)."

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