How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny?

What would you do if one day you didn’t have your Miranda rights read to you when you were getting arrested? In 1787 a group of delegates for 12 of the 13 states go together to try to better the country. The constitution was mainly written in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was mad to make a guideline for the building of a federal government so that there wouldn’t be any tyranny. It was also made to make sure that the government doesn’t become too much powerful. How do you think our rights were protected against tyranny by the constitution? Tyranny is when one person is given all the power to control a country of a government in a dictator like manner. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in several ways, which were federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and big states vs. little states.

The first guard against tyranny was Federalism, which means a system of government in which power is divided between a federal government and state government. The guard of federalism is shown one way in the constitution when they set up the compound government to make sure that the federal government doesn’t get to much power. The second way is when some responsibilities are given to the state government so that they can share the power equally. Federalism protects against tyranny because it ensures that the federal government doesn’t have too much say in what happens in the country so that they don’t become too powerful and create tyranny.

The second guard against tyranny was separation of powers which means that the government is separated into separate branches so that they can spread out the power so that one branch of government can have more pull in what happen in the decisions made for the well-being of the country. One way that the documents show the way that the constitution uses the separation of powers to guard against tyranny is when it has the people in the government that make the largest decisions able to serve for a term of only a few years. The separation of powers protects against tyranny because it makes sure that one branch of government can be more powerful and have more say than another so that there cant be any tyranny to corrupt the government guarding the peoples rights.

The third guard against tyranny was checks and balances, which means that all the different branches of government can disagree with something that another branch is doing in order to keep everything in the government fair. One way that the constitution shows this is when it is put that the other branches can veto something that another branch is doing because it may be unconstitutional. Checks and balances protects against tyranny because it make sure that one group in the government can do anything that would be unconstitutional.

The fourth guard against tyranny was big states vs. small states which means that the size of a state should have a input on whether it has more say in the government than one less of it size. One way that the documents show that this is in the constitution is when it says that the representatives should be put in service according to the amount of people in the state. It also shows another point when it says the senate should have two senators that are chosen to serve for a term of six years. Big states vs. little states protects against tyranny because it makes sure that the small states are not discriminated against because their size that they shouldn’t have the same amount of say as the larger states in what happens in the government around that serves them.

The Constitution guarded against tyranny in many ways, which were federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and big states vs. little states. It is significant because it is a reminder of what was done for us to have no tyranny in our country. It is important to know how the constitution guarded again tyranny so that we can appreciate what our founding fathers did so that we could live in a comfortable society that most take for granted. It is important today because many countries have used our constitution as a model for their country’s declaring their independence also to show us that we should be thankful that this was done so that we don’t have to live under a dictatorship like some countries.