Limited but Dynamic
Four words describe the new government
- Delegates from the states participated in the Constitutional Convention that created a limited but dynamic central government embodying federalism and providing for a separation of powers between its three branches.
- Limited but dynamic is a deliberate pairing: bounded in what it may do, capable in what it does.
- Federalism and separation of powers are the two structural devices that make that pairing possible.
Select both structural devices the CED names.
One divides power vertically, the other horizontally.
Federalism divides power vertically
- Federalism assigns some powers to the national government and leaves others with the states.
- That answers 3.7's difficulty — interstate commerce and foreign relations need a centre — without abolishing the states.
- So it is a solution to a specific problem, not an abstract principle chosen for elegance.
'Limited but dynamic' means the government is...
Both halves are load-bearing.
Separation of powers divides it horizontally
- A separation of powers between its three branches means no single body holds the whole authority of the centre.
- That answers the Anti-Federalist objection of 3.8: a strong government need not be an unchecked one.
- Together the two devices explain how a government can be stronger than the Articles' and still be limited.
A structural device, a change, or a continuity?
Sort each element of the new constitutional order.
Federalism answers 3.7's difficulty by...
A solution to a specific problem.
"Limited but dynamic" is a deliberate pairing, and both halves are load-bearing. Federalism divides power vertically and the separation of powers divides it horizontally — together they explain how a government stronger than the Articles' could still be limited.
Select all the continuities this lesson names.
The Articles were replaced.
Continuity as well as change
- The objective asks for continuities and changes in the structure and functions of government.
- Change: a central government with real powers, three branches, and a written supreme law.
- Continuity: the states persist with their own constitutions, property qualifications remain, and legislative primacy carries over from 3.7.
The Constitution changed who could act nationally without changing who could ____.
Accurate, in the CED, and it sets up unit 4.
Writing continuity and change
- Pair each change with the continuity beside it, and the answer stops sounding like a founding myth.
- The strongest single sentence: the Constitution changed who could act nationally without changing who could vote.
- That is accurate, it is in the CED, and it sets up unit 4's arguments about democracy.
A government can be given a long list of things it may do and a short list of bodies that may do any of them alone. The first list makes it capable; the second makes it safe. Removing either one changes the design completely.
Delegates from the states participated in the Constitutional Convention that created a limited but dynamic central government embodying federalism and providing for a separation of powers between its three branches. Federalism divides power vertically (nation and states), separation of powers divides it horizontally (three branches) — and the strongest continuity-and-change sentence is that the Constitution changed who could act nationally without changing who could vote.