Is the Constitution a Centralizing or Decentralizing Document?
Two years before the end of the Revolutionary War on March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation were officially put into effect. While the articles still established a small national government, there were a decentralizing document that put more power in the hands of individual states. There was no national currency, Congress could not collect taxes from the states, Congress could not draft soldiers, and Congress could not control commerce between the states.
For the Federalist faction, this was a weak constitution and a stronger one was needed. A constitutional convention convened in 1787 and drafted a new governing document. In 1788, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay published The Federalist Papers, which outlined the need for a stronger constitution for a stronger national government. The Federalists would get their wish on June 21, 1788, when the Constitution was ratified after long debate and votes by the states. What changes were made and were they centralizing or decentralizing? This is the question that must be answered.
The Decentralizing Aspect
The Constitution was nowhere near as decentralist as the Articles of Confederation. Both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists had to make a slew of compromises to make the other faction happy. One of these compromises was the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution). This was a set of rights that certain founders believed were inherent and shouldn’t be violated by the federal government.
The Tenth Amendment stated:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the peopl
Article from Mises Wire
