Positives + Negatives of Constitution

• What is a positive of the constitution being entrenched?

  Preserves the intentions of the founding fathers and prevents populist movements from making drastic and poorly thought through changes
• The Constitution allows for clarity. There is a clearly outlined structure of government with separation of powers between the 3 branches of government, preventing any one person or group to have too much power
• Advantage of the simplicity of a codified constitution

  Allows all citizens to clearly know and understand their rights
• Advantage of the vagueness of the constitution

  Allows it to adapt to the modern world as it can be interpreted to mean different things
• Why is the extent of federal government unclear (negative)?

  The Elastic Clause or the ‘necessary and proper‘ clause in Article 1 of the constitution.
• Why has the power of the federal government expanded since the creation of the constitution?

  The vagueness of some areas of the constitution, such as the Elastic Clause which has caused regular conflicts between the states and the federal government
• The vagueness of the constituent leaves a lot to interpretation, the final say on which goes to the Supreme Court
• It is very hard to overturn a Supreme Court decision which arguably gives the 9 justices the ultimate say over important constitutional issues
• Why might giving so much power to Supreme Court be problematic?

  It is highly politicised and not necessarily impartial. There is also potential for conflict due to vagueness and differing interpretations
• What does the entrenched nature of the constitution make it difficult to do?

  Amend