Fostering the Will of the People in American Politics

Running head: American Politics 1
Institution
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American Politics 2
The US constitution got debated in 1787 in which two critical areas of observation
emerged. The first area of interest was on who was ready to represent the will of the people.
Another bone of contention was about if the debate of the constitution will lead to the economic
and the political goodwill for the ordinary people or the political inner circle friends (Kelly,
Harbison & Belz, 1991). The debate was not just a discussion for either side to win or lose but it
was a severe issue for power. The contest got heavily focused on where power would be vested
and the direction it would take. The constitutional drafters made a sharp and clear reservation in
regards to human rights and democracy. The authors of the constitution did believe that the only
way for the will of the people to be boosted and protected was through the implementation of the
law (Scholz, 1986). Although on the contrary, the will of the people got limited when the people
did not get the right to elect senators of their choice but instead the members of the house of
representatives did it. In such a case, the will of the people is not represented at the Senate since
the senators are not directly accountable to the ordinary people. Madison and Hamilton, the
leading federalists, argued that the criteria for choosing the Senate representatives did not take
into interest the will of the people. The requirements got based on how rich, the age bracket, the
strength of social class and the aristocratic power one had in swaying the US Senate (Forbes &
Gill, 1988). By electing such leaders to act as senators provided stronger grounds for limiting the
powers of leaders in the House of Representatives who were directly elected by the people.
The Federalists held that the crucial role of the government was to have control over her
citizens and their ability rule on the excesses. Whereas the antifederalists who were not
supporting the constitutional amendments opposed that the view of the government is the
controller of her citizens and other rules of law excesses. The Antifederalists argued that there
was little to show cowardice actions on fighting for the famous people’s will through the gained

American Politics 3
democracy (Lehman, Prewitt & Stone, 1975). The Federalists argued that the role of the
government was to reflect on the people’s views and have their rights protected, as the people
playing the role of supporting and checking on their leader’s development progress agenda. In
the end, the heated debates between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists came to an end, the
federalists have won and had the constitution amended to allow the chosen senators to got
created by the legislative arm of the state and not by the will of the people. The amended law
held that the US Senate should get constituted of two senators who were to represent a single
state, these senators were to be elected by the legislature arm (Etzioni-Halevy, 1997). It further
stated that one senator had a single vote.
Robert-Ak- Lafollette who had earlier on served as the US Senator, his efforts with other
federalists in the year 1913 made it possible for the US constitution to undergo amendments to
create room for the direct and popular vote way of electing US senators. The law outrightly
stated that the newly chosen senators would serve for six years in office in which two senators
represented a single state and for each senator, he/she had only one vote (Eisenstadt, 1971).
Further, Lafollette mentioned that for the will of people to be respected and boosted by the US
government called for the united efforts of men who would work aggressively on what they
believed is correct if indeed they wanted the government to get salvaged from evil-minded men
supporting the government for evil motives.
Despite the US constitution having been supported overwhelmingly and its completion in
the Philadelphia in the year 1787, it still needed to undergo ratification before its implementation
and promulgation as a legal binding document. This constitution for the US had highlighted on
the government’s structure, arms, powers and her limits in applying the enclosed laws
(Hofstadter, 2004). The ratification process called for at least nine states out of the total 13 states