The Articles of Confideration

The Articles of Confederation & The Constitution Comparison/Contrast Paragraph

There are major differences between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.

        Articles of the Confederation is the first constitutional document of the United States. Articles of the Confederation were adopted at the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and ratified by all thirteen states.  According to articles, the Confederation solved questions of war and peace, diplomacy, Western territories, money circulation and state loans, while the remaining issues remained behind the states.

        It soon became apparent that the powers of the Confederation's government were very limited (in particular, it did not have the authority to tax and this weakened the unity of the new state. Another major drawback was equal representation from states in the Congress of the Confederation, which caused discontent of large and densely populated states. Criticism of the Articles of Confederation and the need for "the formation of a more perfect Union" led to the adoption in 1787 of the US Constitution, which entered into force, replacing Articles of Confederation in 1789.

         For example in the Articles of confederation States were sovereign. There were no independent executive and no federal courts-all laws enforced by state courts. No taxing power given to Congress. Congress had no power over interstate or foreign commerce. Congress consisted of one body and each state had one vote.  Congress had only specific, delegated powers and only state governments acted directly on the people.

The set of normative legal acts which were developing, supplementing and concretizing the provisions of the written Constitution of 1787, got the name "living" constitution, which actually regulated various spheres of life of American society and the state.