Limited but Dynamic
IntroducedFour 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.
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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 ____.
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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.