1) What is the necessity of a new constitution? What are the major issues in the original?

Answer 1

Hi, Huda!

By "the original," I presume you mean the Articles of Confederation, approved by the Continental Congress in 1777. In The Federalist Papers, several of America's Founding Fathers outlined the numerous problems with the Articles that required a new Constitution. Here are a few:

1) The Articles of Confederation did not give Congress authority to tax, making its decisions entirely dependent on the states' willingness to provide money. As you might imagine, several states did not contribute what others' saw as their fair share, and Congress could not accomplish as much as it waited on the states to approve funding.

2) Every state had an equal vote, even though some states were much less populous than others and contributed less in economic support to Congress.

3) The Articles lacked a provision for a strong executive--a President--who could exercise decisive leadership in times of crisis.

Overall, the Articles of Confederation meant that the states were more independent from each other, which weakened the United States by opening up the possibility of foreign interference in American politics, where a European country might try to divide the states against each other. By creating a strong national government, the U.S. Constitution attempted to resolve these issues while preserving a a federalist system that guaranteed each state authority over matters of purely local interest.

Much more could be said about the relative merits of these political arrangements. I'd be more than happy to set up a tutoring meeting with you to discuss these and other questions about American politics!

Best,

Mr. Daniels