American History
1
Despite the many changes that have occurred since independence was acquired in the United States of America, DEMOCRACY has been held true throughout the American history. This follows the need for power to be put in the hands of the majority of American people for better governance. This has been accomplished through CHECKS & BALANCES. This implies that power is separated through FEDERALISM between the USA central government and the federal governments. For instance, in the USA constitution, Article 1 Section I offers Congress the legislative powers and lists those prohibited powers in section 9.
Because DEMOCRACY, it makes it possible for the AMENDMENT of the country’s constitution whenever need arises. The MENDMENT of the law governing the people is therefore done for the sake of the people and by the people. This puts into consideration CIVIL LIBERTIES that are under the bill of rights of the United States Constitution. These are human rights that are held important to all Americans as opposed to the political rights that protect politician only. As a result of this, they are sometimes called CIVIL RIGHTS.
2
In my opinion, the judiciary is the branch of the government that is most powerful. This is because it controls virtually every aspect of human well being. It concerns itself with the law enforcement which ensures coexistence among the American people. It is through the JUDICIAL REVIEW that the American APPELLATE COURT can make changes to the country’s constitution after the failure of the TRIAL COURT to attend to CIVIL LIBERTIES of Americans. The JUDICIAL REVIEW allowed for the First AMENDMENT of the U.S. Constitution was supposed to defend freedom of the press, for most of the United States history. However, the Supreme Court ignored to use it to rule on LIBEL crimes.
In 1791, we had the TENTH AMENDMENT of the United States Constitution which mainly involved the bill of rights. During this AMENDMENT, the constitution clearly stipulated the principle of FEDERALISM which shares out power both to the federal government and the state. It was during this period that the United States of America also had CEREMONIAL counties that were headed by mayors. In the 1930, the legislature of the State of Nebraska through judicial review was changed from BICAMEL to unicameral with the view of eliminating the evils that were then being committed by the senate.
3
The constitution is a living document as it has been used all along to govern the United States of America. This can be traced from the fact that the country has a tradition of GERRYMANDERING which follows the 1789 elections of the first United States Congress. Boundaries were drawn for political gain during this period and they were drafted into the constitution. The same are still under use up to now as individual states. This was done mainly to increase the number of delegates in the congress house of the United States of America. The constitution has however evolved through a number of amendments since the founding of the country. Twenty seven amendments have been experienced in the history of the United States of America. On the other hand, GERRYMANDERING was done for the purpose of PORK barrel. This implies that the government appropriated spending of localized projects entirely for the benefit of the senators’ states.
4
The modern American culture has been particularly influenced by two strong forces that inspired them. They encompass the European ideals and local originality like Jeffersonian DEMOCRACY which Europeans were against in fear of turning their immigrants into American savages. Initially, they lacked an official language which the FEDERAL government has settled upon English as the official language. Presently, the country has transformed into a VETO kind of state in which a president has the powers to refuse the passing of the bill and taking it back to the parliament. This has been borrowed from the British kind of legislation. BUREAUCRACY has to some extent taken over some practices of the country in which they are not policy makers but enact the laws given to them.
Work Cited:
Duran, E., Gusman, J & Shefelbine, J. American History: Building Literacy Through Learning. New York: Great Source Education Group, 2005
