Question

Identify and discuss at least 3 weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation. Discuss the event that took place in 1786 that showed the nation that the Articles were too weak to be the National Constitution.

Answer 1

There are various limitations of the Article of Confederation. The Article of Confederation has various problem .The first problem was that the congress was given the power to pass the law but not enforce or implement these laws. The implementation of laws was at the disposal of state .

There was lack of economic unity as well as disorganisation. There were various reasons for that which included :There was economic disintegration due to lack of strong national government. The Article has given congress only limited powers to control the trade. Congress had no power to negotiate trade agreements with foreign nations. Another factor was the power of imposing taxes was not with the congress but only with the state governments.

Another major weakness of the Article of Confederation was that it places the sovereign powers in the hands of the states and had no provision to provide a strong central of federal leadership or government. The Article of Confederation leads made peace and war the responsibility of Congress but not allowed it to develop armies on its own. This created a problem to handle internal and external aggression. The another major reason that made it quite ineffective was the lack of judiciary. Under Article  it was made that udiciary to be completely dependent on the state not to the federal government. There was no grievances redressal mechanisms with the national government.

The another limitation of the Article of Confederation was the inefficiencies related with legislatures and legislative functions. As in case of the ammendmets the consent of all the states and congress was important that made it quite difficult and impractical.

In 1786 a rebellion took place against the harsh policies that government implemented to deal with economic dowturns. As the Article of confederation put immense amount of power in the hand of the states and thus creating a weak federal government. The rebellion tool place in 1786 was named as Shay's rebellion . This rebellion proved how weak the federal government is. It showed that lack of power in the hands of federal government as it took a year to control it. This rebellion made the people to think that it is necessary to have a federal government that should have some more power. That is why the constitution avoida the weakness and correct the mistakes which were present in Articles of Confederation.