Why is constitution important

The Bill protects the rights of all people in South Africa, not only citizens. The state must respect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill. These rights can be limited in certain circumstances. For example, freedom is a right we all have, but the state has the right to send people to prison if they have been convicted of a crime by a court.

This is a special category of rights because not everybody will be able to enjoy them immediately. Instead, the state has a responsibility to secure these rights for people within what it can afford over a period of time. The Human Rights Commission monitors the state's progress on socio-economic rights. The separation of powers Briefly, the Constitution provides for the state to be separated into the legislature the part which makes laws , the executive the part which governs the country from day to day , and the judiciary the courts.

The courts The courts are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law. They must apply the law impartially without bias. One example of the way a court applies the law is by deciding whether a person accused of a crime is guilty. If the person is found guilty, the court will decide on a punishment.

The courts also decide on other things. For example, the Constitutional Court decides on all constitutional matters. The spheres of government The Constitution says there are three spheres of government - national, provincial and local.

Each sphere has legislative law-making power over certain things and executive power and responsibility for certain things. Section 1 explains how the citizens elect the legislatures. The spheres of government are different to the old system in which most decisions were made at national level and merely implemented at provincial and local government level. The spheres of government are distinctive each one is clearly separate from the others , interdependent they depend on each other , and interrelated their functions are related to one another.

The three spheres have a constitutional duty to co-operate with one another. Sphere Legislature Legislative power Executive Powers and responsibilities Local Municipality Makes by-laws local laws about certain things, subject to provincial and national laws Town clerk and municipality members Responsible for local matters like local development and services Provincial nine provinces Provincial Legislature Make laws about provincial things like housing, subject to national laws.

For some things, provinces may make laws even if Parliament disagrees. Premier and MECs members of the executive council of each province Makes provincial policy, subject to national policy. Drafts and implements provincial laws.

Responsible for provincial matters like health, policing and housing. On some issues, provinces may make their own policy even if national government disagrees. National Parliament Make laws for the whole country, although provinces have more power over certain things. President, Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers Makes national policy, draft and implement national laws. Responsible for national matters like intelligence, defence and foreign affairs.

Independent institutions to guarantee democracy Six independent state institutions protect and deepen our democracy: 1. The Public Protector - to investigate the conduct of state officials on behalf of the public, but not court decisions 2.

The Human Rights Commission - to promote the protection, development and attainment of human rights 3. When this commission is established, it will promote respect for the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities. The Commission for Gender Equality - to promote the protection, development and achievement of gender equality. The Auditor-General - to audit how taxpayers' money has been spent by the state and its organs.

The Independent Electoral Commission - to manage national, provincial and municipal elections and ensure that these elections are free and fair. The Constitution has 14 chapters 1. The founding provisions cover the values of the Constitution; the Constitution as the highest law, citizens are equal, the anthem, the flag and 11 official languages.

The Bill of Rights protects the rights of all people in the country, not just citizens. The Bill of Rights also guarantees the right to housing, health care, food, water, social security and education. However, these rights will not be available to everybody immediately. During his administration, the United States declared war on Great Britain.

In August , British troops invaded Washington, D. Madison devoted his last years as President to rebuilding the capital and the national economy. At the time of his death in , James Madison was the last surviving delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan, which outlined a Congress with two bodies: a House of Representatives and a Senate. The new government would also have a separate executive branch, headed by a president, who would be both chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces. The plan also called for an independent judiciary.

Although Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan, its actual author was James Madison, a young Virginian who served in the Confederation Congress and knew its weaknesses firsthand.

Much of what we know today about the Constitutional Convention we owe to Madison, who kept detailed notes of the secret sessions. In an effort to avoid public pressures that might hinder their ability to reach a consensus, the delegates had barred the doors and windows and conducted all their business away from public view.

The official minutes of the convention recorded little of the debate between the delegates. His notes reveal the shared sentiments and disagreements among the delegates, the alternative proposals they considered, and the compromises they reached. The Virginia Plan envisioned a republic based on popular consent. Elected officials would represent the people, although the people could vote directly only for members of the House of Representatives.

State legislatures would elect senators. Members of an Electoral College, chosen by the people, would elect the President. The Virginia Plan provided that each state would have representation in the House and Senate that reflected the size of their populations. Because every state had one vote under the old system, the smaller states, representing a minority of the population, could block the will of the majority. The smaller states refused to accept any plan that sacrificed their equality.

They countered with a plan, introduced by William Patterson of New Jersey, that would have preserved the government structure under the Articles of Confederation. The convention voted to reject the New Jersey Plan in favor of the Virginia Plan, granting the larger states the most members in both houses of the new Congress.

But the smaller states would not tolerate inequality, and they continued to fight for their rights. The convention reached an impasse, just as it planned to take a few days off to celebrate the Fourth of July. It appointed a special committee to try to work out the disagreement during the recess. Chaired by Roger Sherman of Connecticut, the committee split the difference between the two factions.

This became known as the Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise. The delegates accepted the compromise and, as an additional assurance to the smaller states, wrote into the Constitution that no state would lose its equality in the Senate without its consent which, of course, no state would give.

Through this compromise, the Constitution went on to create a single nation from a confederation of states. Yet, the states remained as permanent and integral parts of the new federal system.

The absence of anyone representing Rhode Island served as a reminder to the other delegates that it would be folly for them to require unanimity in any new form of government. They provided that the Constitution could be ratified by the vote of nine of the thirteen states.

Nor would unanimity be needed for future amendments. Instead, the approval of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-quarters of the states would be required to ratify an amendment.

From May until September , the delegates deliberated over all aspects of the new government. They worked out its structure and listed the specific powers of each branch.

On September 17, , most of the delegates signed the new Constitution. Otherwise, the signers had good reason to feel satisfied with their accomplishment. The elderly Benjamin Franklin pointed out at the end of their deliberations that the back of the chair where General Washington sat while presiding had a half-sun carved upon it. Afterward, some of the delegates traveled directly to New York City to serve in the Confederation Congress.

They presented the Constitution to the Congress, which transmitted it to the states for ratification. Proponents of the Constitution identified themselves as Federalists. Its skeptics became known as Anti-Federalists. The opponents feared the Constitution would create a powerful central government that would overwhelm the states and would run contrary to the democratic spirit of the American Revolution. The Constitution was a pragmatic document that sought to balance the varied interests of the large and small states, the mass of people and the wealthier elite, and those who supported and those who opposed human slavery.

George Mason had never left his native Virginia until he traveled to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Born on a Virginia plantation in , Mason was a planter and also treasurer of the Ohio Company, which sold land to settlers moving westward.

To assist his work with the Ohio Company, he read each of the colonial charters. At first he worked closely with his fellow Virginia delegate, James Madison, but soon their thinking diverged and Mason grew disillusioned.

Mason feared the Constitution gave too much authority to the President over Congress, and too much power to the national government over the states. He died in , suspicious of the Constitution to the end. The northern states had already begun to abolish slavery at the time of the Constitutional Convention, but the southern states were growing more dependent on slave labor.

At the convention, southern delegates insisted that the Constitution not interfere with slavery. Northerners agreed, both because they considered slavery a state matter, and because they felt that the southern states would never enter the Union without such a guarantee.

The Constitution prohibited Congress from ending the importation of slaves before It also provided that slaves be counted as three-fifths of a person to determine taxation and representation in Congress. At the time, slaves accounted for about 20 percent of the U. During the ratification of the Constitution, the most inflammatory issue was not its toleration of slavery but its lack of a bill of rights.

But despite all of this information, we still have a question in our mind that why is the constitution important, so let's discuss further on the topic. Source: brainyquote. The constitution is something that every country has in its possession and, all constitutions around the world are unique in their way but share the same objective, which is to make sure that there remains stability in the nation.

The constitution has much verbal meaning, and all of them denote the sense of constructing or building up to something. One might wonder if this is how the document of principles got its name. The constitution is something that sets the limits and boundaries of the governments' interaction and powers. The Constitution works as a means by which the government in the rule knows as to what extent they can impose rules and regulations on the citizen of the country.

Let us see how the constitution works. One of the major problems for any country is that the distribution of power sometimes leaks from here and there causing civil uproars and various issues that lead to the economic and social downfall of the country.

Thus the only thing that the constitution of India concerns about most is the Power Distribution. A constitution is set for the countries to develop successfully. Thus, any added improvements in the constitution will thrive up to this. Thanks to the constitution, the power of the governmental bodies flow in a certain path.

As for the Indian Constitution, it distributes the power horizontally throughout the three major institutional bodies of the Indian Jurisdiction. Where The Parliament acts as the supreme body and all the bills and amendments passed down with their consent which will help you to understand the working of the constitution and will help you to conclude why is the constitution important.

Source: peo. So, as now we have enough knowledge and understanding about the term constitution and its aspects, it's time for us to learn what the importance of a constitution for a country is. These points will help you to get to the answer to your question which was why is the Constitution important. The constitution is an embodiment: Constitution is a written instrument which serves as the embodiment of the rules of a political or social organization.

These rules and regulations lay down the base of the nation so that it can run without any sort of issue or dispute and in case any problem occurs in the legal and governmental sectors or between the masses of the country and the judiciary, these provisions help the country to get through this phase where there is a regular threat of a civil war breakdown which is probably the last thing any country can have nightmares about.

The constitution forms the basic structure of any government: The constitution of any country is important because of the fact that it lays down all the legal and cultural aspects under which its people and the governmental bodies will be governed and that too when there are foreign interactions in the personal affairs every now and then by international organizations. The executive, the legislature and the judiciary are the main organs of the government that the constitution establishes.