Similarities and Differences between Articles of Confederation and Constitution – Compare and Contrast Essay
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Updated: Jun 19th, 2022
Introduction
Articles of Confederation and the US constitution have much in common though they also have some differences. To begin with, these two were made by the same people who had different views. They have been considered to be the official government of the United States for an extended period, as they served as the laws to be followed.
Similarities between Articles of Confederation and Constitution
In both articles, the nation has been recognized as the United States of America. In both, the laws are made by the legislature, whereby the articles of confederation have only one house which is referred to as Congress, and the constitution has got two houses. These two houses combined are referred to as Congress, but it’s subdivided into the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Articles of confederation congress are made up by members who range between two and seven per each state, while two senators per every state represent the constitution, but it depends on the population of each state. Voting in Congress is stated as one vote per state in the articles of confederation, while in the constitution is one vote per one representative.
The system of appointing members is in the manner that representatives are to be elected by the popular vote in the constitution. In the articles of confederation, members are appointed by state legislatures.
In the constitution, the legislative office is designed for representatives to serve for two years and six years for senators. In articles of confederation, the term is one year. The legislative office has got a term limit of not exceeding three years, out of six in the articles of confederation but there is no limit in the constitution.
Differences between Articles of Confederation and Constitution
The articles of confederation do not recognize any executive, but the constitution acknowledges the president as the executive. The amendments of laws will be changed through the agreement of all the states by the articles of confederation but by three-quarter of all states in the constitution.
An article of confederation was a starting point towards giving the nation a new constitution as it contained more weaknesses than strengths. One of its strengths was that it made extra efforts to unite the states and come up with a strong legislature.
Most people appreciated this as they had a chance to contribute to government actions. In the article, the colonists had also come up with an idea of the land ordinance to create new states and cover the national debt. Its main weakness was its failure to allocate powers to the federal government; hence it was considered to be insufficient.
The federal government in the articles of confederation had no ability to regulate commerce and taxes. The constitution came up with some strength whereby the government had powers to tax, provision of one army, acquiring of a common currency, and a common leader.
Conclusion
Above all its main strength is that it has remained successful and unchanged up to date serving as the source of rules and regulations for the United States. However strong the US constitution is, it has some critics. This constitution has been regarded by many as undemocratic. It’s considered to be undemocratic because of its idea of having indirect presidential elections and confusing senators’ elections.
Finally, the constitution replaced the articles of the federation as its strengths overdo its weaknesses, unlike the article which had more weaknesses than strengths.
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