I made these notes and they helped me to achieve an A* in edexcel a level politics in 2023. they have comparisons between US and UK which is essential for the essays in the exams, as well as links to hundreds of modern day examples to bulk up your essays. These are a NEED if you want to succeed in ...
The US constitution examines the core institutions of the United States
The presidency
Congress
The supreme court
Federalism
The election process
The origins of the constitution
The confederacy
- A confederacy is a league or loose collection of independent states in which the national
government lacks significant powers.
- The 13 original colonies had an initial vision of government called a confederacy.
- This was agreed in the articles of confederation
o This was a contract between the 13 original states that formed the new nation in 1781. It
was replaced by the US constitution in 1789.
The Philadelphia convention
- Many leaders such as Washington and Hamilton believed that a strong central government was
essential
- In 1787, 55 delegates representing 12/13 states met for the Philadelphia convention.
- The delegates concluded that the Confederacy was structurally flawed and weak.
- They came up with the idea of a ‘federal constitution, a bill of rights and an intricate set of checks
and balances between the different levels and branches of government’
- There were 2 forms of this plan, the New Jersey plan, and the Virginia plan.
- This impasse was broken with the Connecticut compromise and a new constitution was formed.
New Jersey Plan
- Proposed a congress with one chamber based on equal representation of states
Virginia plan
- Proposed a congress of 2 chambers where states would be represented in proportion to their
population
The Connecticut Compromise
- Proposed a congress of two chambers with one based on state population (the house of
representatives) and one based on equal representation (the Senate)
- Federal and state power are now of equal importance
The nature of the US constitution
The constitutional framework
- The constitution set out the machinery of government and created three branches of the federal
government, to ensure a separation of powers. These three branches are:
o The legislature (to make laws)
o The executive (to carry out the laws)
o The judiciary (to enforce and interpret the laws)
,The division of powers (articles 1-3)
Article 1
Established Congress as the national legislature, defining its membership, the qualifications and
method of election of its members, as well as its powers.
Under article 1 section 8, congress was given specific powers
Article 2
Decided on a singular executive (president)
President would be chosen indirectly by an Electoral College
Article 3
Established the US supreme court (though congress quickly added trial and appeal courts)
The role was not explicitly granted, the Court was to be the umpire of the Constitution, implied in
the supremacy clause of Article VI.
The provision in article III states that the Court’s judicial power applies to ‘all Cases…arising under
this Constitution.
The court made this more explicit in the case of Marbury v Madison in 1803
These articles contain enumerated (delegated) powers granted to the federal government. This means
that the federal government does not possess unlimited power, but only the power it is given in the
constitution.
Vagueness of the Constitution
- Allowed delegates to compromise at the Philadelphia Convention
- Allowed the constitution to evolve without formal amendment
- Has led to significant conflict and disputes over what should be classed as constitutional
- There are also implied powers that can be disputed over due to the vagueness
The absence of comment on slavery in the original document sowed the seeds of division
for the American Civil War in the 1860s
, Implied powers
- Many of the implied powers are deduced from the ‘elastic clause’, the final clause of Article 1
section 8, which empowers Congress to make all laws ‘necessary and proper to carry out the
federal government’s duties.
- Therefore, the elastic clause has been a cause of controversy where it has been used to expand the
power of the federal government.
- An important early example of the elastic clause in action was when the Supreme court rules in
McCulloch v Maryland (1819) that congress had the power to create a national bank, despite the
power of creating a bank not being an enumerated power of congress.
- The power of judicial review is another implied power
o The power of the SC was not enumerated, but rather ‘found’ in the case of Marbury v
Madison, the first time that the SC had declared a state law unconstitutional
o This is where the SC can declare the following unconstitutional:
Acts of congress
Actions of the executive
Acts or actions of state governments
ENUMERATED AND IMPLIED POWERS
Enumerated powers Implied powers
Congress Legislation Economic
Exclusive powers to legislate for the Interstate Commerce clause
country
Specific powers held by the house of Economic/Defence
representatives and the Senate Congress was also given the power to ‘provide
for the common defence and general welfare
Economic of the US’
Tax and Duty collection This implied that congress had the power to
Borrowing money on behalf of US levy and collect taxes to provide for the
government defence of the USA
Establishing currency and coin
Setting weights and measures Defence
Establishing post offices Power to draft citizens into the armed forces
Regulation of commerce: nationally and may be implied from Congress’s enumerated
internationally powers to raise an army and navy.
Defence
Declaration of war
Maintenance of army and navy
Organisation and training of military
Judicial/Constitutional
Amendment of the constitution (shared
with states)
Establishing courts that are subordinate to
the Supreme court
President Executive Defence
Head of the executive branch Commander-in-chief of the USAF (as no air
Nominates cabinet members, force existed at the time, it was not included)
ambassadors and judges
Grants pardons
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