Devin Pace

Period 2
9/28/14
The American government can be very complex to understand in this essay I will try to make it
more simplistic. To help understand a government you must first know how to define a government and
why people need to be governed. The reason government exist is because people need some order and
a sense of control or else there would be chaos and anarchy. Governments set rules and regulations to
help keep the masses in check. The basic principles the almost every government follows is limit the
power of the people but, not too much so people can control some of the laws and problems in the
country and the government will handle the much more complicated problems. Most governments have
some sort of documentation that gives them a founding principle to govern the country around. For the
United States its the constitution. Some of basic rules in the document are called amendments and the
bill of rights. Which contain rules such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, and
freedom of assembly. This document was created by a group we call the founding fathers which was a
group of great leaders and philosophers who came up with a document to leave a legacy on how
government should be utilized. They created a way to make the people and the government co-exist in a
semi balanced way, by giving the people the power to elect the leaders and officials of the country. The
government can never be too powerful in one branch. The branches are executive, legislative, and
judicial. The executive or the president can veto laws passed by the legislative and/or judicial branches
and vice versa. Thats just one example of many of the checks and balances found in the U.S.
government. So lets say the president passes a law that makes the drinking age 18 instead of 21. The
judicial branch can veto the law because its written in the constitution that the drinking age is 21 years
of age. The legislative branch say veto the same law as well because of the same reason as well. The U.S.
government is setup with a president with two 4 year terms as the head of the executive branch, the
legislative branch is split into two houses the senate and the House of Representatives, and the judicial
branch is run by many court systems but the head of the court systems in the Supreme Court. The
American government is like the government of England but also has many differences like the English
government has a parliament very much like our legislative branch. They also have a king but unlike our
president the king has much more power. Many people believe the government is very weak, they
believe the government isnt controlling enough of what comes in and out of the country and the laws
are very weak and can be easily avoided. But, many other people believe the government should let the
people have more control and be more free with fewer regulations. This debate doesnt quite have a
clear answer so government can be quite a challenge. When creating the government the debate was a
lot easier a mistake had not been made yet until the articles of confederation. The articles gave the
states all the power to basically act like a bunch of countries who like each other and now and then. The
central government had no power and couldnt control the states. A reform had to happen or the newly
founded country would not last thats when the idea started to have a meeting to save the country
which would spark the idea of the constitution. The constitution would allow people to elect their
leader who would revise and pass laws to control the people that the people could elect representatives
to express their opinion and try to make the country work and try to keep as many people happy as
possible. Some of the problems when forming the countrys governing body was we dont want to give
the states too much power to where they can just forget about our laws. But, we dont want to have too
much power to where the states want to rebel against the central government. Also, we want to have
one national army that protects the country as one instead of the many armies that were all around the
country. Also we want a more fair way of electing the officials. We dont want to take away the bigger
states power because then they become upset. The small states feel the big states have too much
power thus the senate was created that gives everybody equal representation and the house which
gives representation through population. These are some of the simple problems that were faced in the
creation of this countrys governing body remember this took 3 days of disputes and debates to finally
create something to save the country. Another problem includes the people that make up the states the
citizens; they wanted to give the people enough power to where they have some say in what the
government does and doesnt do. But, if they give the people too much power then the government
wouldnt be able to function properly and correctly with some sense of order. Compromise made the
meetings at Philadelphia much more complex but, it made the future of the country more promising.
Compromise made up the basic building blocks of the constitution which made up the basic principles
found in our modern day government. If no compromise was made the country would be in constant
chaos, anarchy, maybe even war. Who knows the country could not exist if some of the principles that
give us power and balance it among the nation where not debated intensely upon during these
meetings. As you can see, the American government can be very complex and challenging to understand
there is still more to the governing a mass body of people then we may understand right now, but for
now this is the best I can do at helping explain and understand the American government further.