This article will be a compilation of five weak points of the Articles of Confederation Worksheet. The overall goal of this Worksheet is to help members of Congress to better understand the workability of the original Articles of Confederation. To be successful in reading and understanding this worksheet, it is important to not make it too long. However, it should contain some points about each of the five weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
The first of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation is the lack of representation. The states did not vote on what would be done in the federal government. They were allowed to elect the government with an approval process, which meant that their representatives had to be approved by the majority of their state. This causes a problem when trying to hold a confederation meeting since no one can say how many representatives are required to get a specific item passed.
The second weakness of the Worksheet is the number of responsibilities given to the delegates. The representatives have many responsibilities including voting and requesting amendments. While these may seem like the same thing, the Worksheet makes it sound like the federal representatives have little power. In actuality, each state gets the same number of representatives regardless of the number of people living in the area.
The next weakness of the Articles of Confederation is the lack of planning for emergencies. During times of disaster, there would be only one representative from each state. Additionally, there would be only one representative from each region. The legislature in some regions would never have been affected by the emergency and therefore would not have had any input in any emergency measures.
Another weakness of the Articles of Confederation is the fact that it does not detail what type of government is needed to handle the economic power of each state. If a certain area is rich, it should be represented as well as if it is poor. A workable confederation could not handle different types of wealth, because that would create problems such as the states that had less money making different regional governments.
The last weakness of the Articles of Confederation is the fact that it lacks any type of currency. Each state has its own currency, but the official money is made up of nothing but paper. Money is worthless is very dangerous during the early years of a confederation.
As a final note, all five weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation can be covered under different headings. As an example, the lack of representation would be solved by allowing each state to choose the system of representation to use. If the states want to have more representation, they need to put in a petition in order to change the size of the delegation that they have to the Congress.
The next time you read about the Articles of Confederation, look at the five weaknesses of the Worksheet. It can teach you more about the confederation than any other written source. Although, it is not worth trying to understand the Articles of Confederation if it does not cover all five of the weaknesses of the confederation.
