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Created with Fabric.js 1.4.5 How the Constitution Guards Against Tyranny What is tyranny? tap and hold to change this title text! According to James Madison, tyranny is "The accumulation of all powers in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many." In other words, it's when one person or a group of people get complete power over something. Federalism One of the ways the constitution guards against tyranny is federalism. Federalism is a compound government. This means the government is made up of two or more pieces. The two pieces in our government are the state governments and the federal government. The national government gets some powers, the states get some others, and then both the national and state governments share a few powers. This protects against tyranny because the federal and state governments check each other. The federal government doesn't have all the powers, but either do the states. It prevents the national and state governments from gaining absolute power. tap and hold to changethis text! tap and hold to changethis text! Separation of Powers Another way the constitution guards against tyranny is by having separation of powers. Separation of powers is when the government is divided into three branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. This prevents one group of people, or one person, from getting all the power because each branch will get different powers and one won't get every power granted to the national government. The legislative branch's power is given to Congress, the executive branch's power is given to the president, and the judicial branch's power is given to the Supreme Court. Checks and Balances Checks and balances are a way the constitution guards against tyranny. Checks and balances is the idea that each branch of government shouldn't be completely separate from the others. One branch of government has a way to check the other two. For example, the executive branch can check the judicial branch because he nominates judges. Checks and balances allow a government to limit the powers of the 2 other branches, so they guard against tyranny by keeping one branch from getting more powerful than the others. Big States vs. Small States tap and hold to change this header text! The last way the constitution guards against tyranny is by making sure both big states' populations and small states' populations have say in the government. To do this, the Congress is separated into 2 houses: The Senate and The House of Representatives. For the Senate, each state sends the same number of senators-2. In the House of Representatives, the number of representatives a state has is based on its population. This makes sure that np both the big states have a say in the government because it makes sure the big states will not completely overrule the small states since in the Senate both big and small states have equal votes. This also helps the big states because for the House of Representatives, the number of representatives is based on population, so the big states get a good say. This compromise prevented the lags states from dominating the small states. The last way the constitution guarded against tyranny was by giving both the big and small states power. The Congress is divided into 2 houses- the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House of Representatives each states' number of representatives depends on its population. In the Senate each state has the same number of representatives-2. This keeps the big states from dominating the small states because if in both houses the number of representatives was based on population, the states with a smaller population would get almost no say, and be overruled by the large states every time. This way, they at least get equal representation in the Senate.
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