Question

Explain 2 reasons our founding fathers established a federal system.

Answer 1

They were deeply influenced by enlightenment writers like John Locke. They saw that the power of government could easily be used to create tyranny, and the one way of reducing that risk is to build a government which is perpetually turned against itself. The Federal Republic to which you refer is just that sort of government. The Founding Fathers figured that it was the form which would be least dangerous, most deliberate, provide people with a voice in government, and protect the rights of the minority from abuse by the majority. By creating the different branches (Judicial, Executive and Legilsative) independent of each other, and responsible for different phases of governing, they created a system whereby each branch was checked by the others, and could also check the others. In a way, it's really brilliant, although it does make our form of government rather less responsive than a dictatorship or monarchy. It protects the rights of individuals from the abuse of power, and that is really what it was supposed to do.