The Constitution was meant to be a middle ground between
the British monarchy and the Articles of Confederation. The British monarchy was a
government that was too centralized and powerful. Under the Articles of Confederation,
the US had a national government that was too weak and decentralized. The Constitution
attempted to find a balance between these two extremes.
To
do this, the Constitution created a federal system. This system had a national
government that was quite a bit stronger than it had been under the Articles. At the
same time, though, certain powers were reserved to the states. This reduced the risk of
the central government tyrannizing the states as had been done when the British monarchy
ruled the American colonies.
This federal system (in
addition to the checks and balances written into the design of the federal government)
was meant to reach a middle ground between two extremes that did not work very
well.
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