Explain Advantages and Disadvantages of the Process of Amending the Constitution
“Explain advantages and disadvantages of the process of amending the constitution” {15 marks}
There process of amending the US constitution is a long process with lots of checks and balances created by the founding fathers; this was to limit radical and frequent amendments. The first part of the process is proposing an amendment this can be done in two ways, firstly by having two-thirds of both houses of the United States Congress agree to the proposal, or by a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the states agreeing to the proposal. To have a proposed amendment become part of the US constitution the proposed amendment needs to ratified, by having either ¾ of the states (38 states) agree to ratify the proposal or by holding state ratifying conventions in ¾ of the states, however this method has only been used once.
One advantage of the process of amending the constitution is that it protects the constitution from frequent change to do with popular opinion, it means that to amend the constitution the amendment has to be sensible and needed at not something to be taken lightly, this can be shown by the fact that the constitution has only been amended 27 times which shows change is possible but not too easy that it changes the historic values that America was built upon, helps control one party controlling power. This is an advantage as it means that when a party comes into power (e.g. republicans) they cannot go and make lots of amendments that benefit them or are in their opinion, as the house of representatives usually as around 50/50 republican democrats proportion and you need 2/3 to have a proposal accepted. The system is democratic as 38/50 must agree which means its fair and reduces the chance of lots of unnecessary changes.
One Disadvantage is that the process is time consuming which means that if an amendment is popular with the public e.g. banning guns due to increased gun crime then it may be
There process of amending the US constitution is a long process with lots of checks and balances created by the founding fathers; this was to limit radical and frequent amendments. The first part of the process is proposing an amendment this can be done in two ways, firstly by having two-thirds of both houses of the United States Congress agree to the proposal, or by a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the states agreeing to the proposal. To have a proposed amendment become part of the US constitution the proposed amendment needs to ratified, by having either ¾ of the states (38 states) agree to ratify the proposal or by holding state ratifying conventions in ¾ of the states, however this method has only been used once.
One advantage of the process of amending the constitution is that it protects the constitution from frequent change to do with popular opinion, it means that to amend the constitution the amendment has to be sensible and needed at not something to be taken lightly, this can be shown by the fact that the constitution has only been amended 27 times which shows change is possible but not too easy that it changes the historic values that America was built upon, helps control one party controlling power. This is an advantage as it means that when a party comes into power (e.g. republicans) they cannot go and make lots of amendments that benefit them or are in their opinion, as the house of representatives usually as around 50/50 republican democrats proportion and you need 2/3 to have a proposal accepted. The system is democratic as 38/50 must agree which means its fair and reduces the chance of lots of unnecessary changes.
One Disadvantage is that the process is time consuming which means that if an amendment is popular with the public e.g. banning guns due to increased gun crime then it may be