There have been several political discussions in blogs and on the bulletin boards, lately. Many of these relate to US politics. Thus, I have decided to start a new series that breaks down the US Constitution into its articles and amendments. This first item in the series is just an overview of the generalities of the Constitution, serving as an introduction.

----

What did it establish?
The US Constitution establishes the country as a Federal Constitutional Republic. What exactly does that mean? Let's cover the term piece-by-piece.

Federal
"Federal" refers to the centralization of the government. The difference between "federal" and "national" is that a federal government is meant to be small, retaining most of the power and the rights to the localities - in this case the states and communities. A national government differs from this in that most of the power is centralized. Due to this federation of smaller components, many historians will treat "United States" as a plural term. For example: "The United States are governed by the three branches."

Constitutional
The constitutional aspect of the government refers to how all laws stem from a single document that makes up the whole governing structure. What is amazing is that this entire document was only 4 pages handwritten, or about 17 pages of either letter or A4 size. This contrasts with modern Congressional bills, which have been over 2000 pages for a single issue!

Republic
The founders knew that all democracies in the world had quickly led to corruption and mob rule. For this reason, they created a republic, more specifically a three-branch government with a bicameral legislature. These branches, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive, all have separate tasks that are equally balanced. The formation of the republic balanced representation between the people ("We the People" ) and the states ("the United States" ), both in big text at the start of the preamble, essentially giving a veto power to either in the case of an overreaching government.

----

Thank you for reading this introduction. Part 2 focuses on the Legislative Branch, as defined in Article I.