Pg. 50-59
Changing the Constitution
• The Constitution is a living document because it is always being checked again and revised whenever necessary by the current generations of adults.
• There are many ways the Constitution can changed but there is a formal process in doing so and there is an informal process of doing so.
• Formal Amending Process: o First, an amendment needs to be proposed which requires one of two things to occur:
Two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.
Two-thirds vote of state legislatures to call together a national convention. o Second, the proposed change then needs to be approved in one of two ways:
Three-fourths of the state legislatures
Three-fourths of the actual states at special state conventions.
• The President can only merely influence the …show more content…
o One record the United States hold is that it has the oldest functioning Constitution since other European nations have had several different constitutions in short periods of time.
Understanding the Constitution
• Even though America is considered a democracy to most of the world, this was not the intention of the founding fathers. o This was because they came from a government where the majority created a monopoly over many policymaking decisions, which a direct democracy supported. o The more correct term is that a republic was created, which is a specific form of democracy where government has limited power and people are represented.
• However, America has slowly turned to become favorable towards being a democracy compared to the founding fathers, making it a big political movement over last several hundred years. o A perfect example of this is the change of who could vote at all as time went on. o At first, only white adult men who owned good amounts of land were qualified to
Changing the Constitution
• The Constitution is a living document because it is always being checked again and revised whenever necessary by the current generations of adults.
• There are many ways the Constitution can changed but there is a formal process in doing so and there is an informal process of doing so.
• Formal Amending Process: o First, an amendment needs to be proposed which requires one of two things to occur:
Two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.
Two-thirds vote of state legislatures to call together a national convention. o Second, the proposed change then needs to be approved in one of two ways:
Three-fourths of the state legislatures
Three-fourths of the actual states at special state conventions.
• The President can only merely influence the …show more content…
o One record the United States hold is that it has the oldest functioning Constitution since other European nations have had several different constitutions in short periods of time.
Understanding the Constitution
• Even though America is considered a democracy to most of the world, this was not the intention of the founding fathers. o This was because they came from a government where the majority created a monopoly over many policymaking decisions, which a direct democracy supported. o The more correct term is that a republic was created, which is a specific form of democracy where government has limited power and people are represented.
• However, America has slowly turned to become favorable towards being a democracy compared to the founding fathers, making it a big political movement over last several hundred years. o A perfect example of this is the change of who could vote at all as time went on. o At first, only white adult men who owned good amounts of land were qualified to