The Amendment Process

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The Amendment Process

Advantages

  • Protects key principles of political process - the constitution is hard to change.
  • Protects the states and upholds federalism - Respects states rights. 10th Amendment.
  • Prevents abuse of power - Entrenchment stops an individual from one party changing the constitution for their own benefits.
  • Prevents ill-thought-through amendments - Needs several institutions and cross-party agreement to ratify it.
  • Prevents irrational thinking.

Disadvantages

  • Difficult to remove outdated aspects - hard to get wide support even though it has been over 200 years and society has changed.
  • Difficult to incorporate new ideas - Needs of society has changed but due to entrenchment, these improvements do not happen.
  • Amendment process is undemocratic - Goes against majoritarian democracy. Eg. 13/50 states are needed to oppose an amendment.
  • Gives the Supreme Court excessive power - Means that 9 unelected judges can have the say on key issues.

Evaluation

The amendment process does have more advantages than disadvantages, however, there are a number which do have a significant impact on the overall effectiveness such as the lack of democracy due to going against majoritarian ideas. Also, the difficulty to incorporate new ideas has an impact as it prevents the constitution from developing alongside society, which we live in so the laws should be in alignment with said society.

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