What was the difference between the Articles of Confederation and the new constitution?

Articles of Confederation and Constitution are two known documents that note the changes that American Revolution made. The regulations of the Articles of Confederation were accepted and signed by the 13 states of the United States of America. 

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the agreement that the 13 states of the United States agreed to follow. This was considered as their earliest constitution.

The constitution in India is the longest one containing 444 articles, making it the largest democracy. Constitutions can also be implemented by individual institutions to prescribe the rules for them.

Articles of Confederation vs Constitution

The difference between the Articles of Confederation and Constitution is that the Articles of Confederation are the rules that were agreed by the United States of America in the 18th century whereas the constitution is the rules that democratic countries and other legalized institutions develop to implement law and order in their body.

The Articles of Confederation and the Perpetual Union was a bond that was signed between 13 states in the United States of America. It consisted of the rules that were to be followed by these states in the 18th century.

The Articles of Confederation was a written document that embellished the idea of introducing a friendly bond between the states.  This process was a long one.

The committee included 13 people to finalize the draft. John Dickinson was the head of the committee and he presented the final draft of Articles of Confederation on 12th July 1776.

Virginia ratified the Articles of Confederation and was followed by the others in the early 1779’s. But these articles gave minimum power to the central government and hence there it was headed by an unstructured central government.

The Constitution of a country is the collection of all the rules and regulations that a citizen has to obey in the country. This is made by a group of people who are trusted by the government because of their social knowledge.

This is a written document where the principles are written by considering the behavior of the entity. If the constitution is written in a single comprehensive unit, then it is known as a codified constitution.

Anybody who intends for a systematic and organized working structure can create a constitution that they need. A constitution is the backbone of a democratic country and hence the power is divided among different departments.

The constitution considers the central government as the epitome of powers. The central government can decide or nullify the laws that the state government implied.

1. The individual citizens were not allowed to claim the Bill of Rights according to the Articles of Confederation. Anyone can claim their rights according to the constitution.
2. If 9 out of 13 states accepted a law, then it was brought to act by the Articles of Confederation. The constitution demands that both the houses have to pass the law for enforcing it on the public.

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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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