American Government and the Federal System of Government

American Government and the Federal System of Government The United States was formed under the confederation articles in an attempt by the states to gain their independence from the British and cease to exist as British colonies. The articles of the confederation granted the states more power than the national government since they were trying to avoid a situation whereby the national government would oppress its citizens. This, however, was not successful since the national government was extremely weak and thus brought the need to create the constitution. The constitution gave more powers to the national government, but these powers were limited with the introduction of; separation of powers among the three arms governments and the checks and balances for them to control how each branch exercised its authority (Krutz 52). The constitution however still recognized the existence of state and local governments and each of their legislative abilities. However, the judiciary was given powers of judicial review in order to ensure and maintain the constitutional threshold of all forms of government (Krutz 488). These are topics that I have learnt between the beginning of the semester and in the last three weeks. They will be compared to identify the relationship that links the two forms of governance and the role of the judiciary in ensuring respect to the constitution in this separation of powers.