In fact, U. S. government has shown itself to be strong and resilient. Numerous events in U. S. history demonstrate this, but perhaps nothing more than the Civil War. During the Civil War, some states decided that they no longer wanted to be part of the country and attempted to form their own country. A number of states in the South seceded from the Union. The government survived this tremendous challenge and managed to reunite the North and the South into a cohesive, unified and functional country again.

There are specific traits unique to the United States that contribute to its strength. They include the Constitution, that relatively short document that dictates the skeleton of how our government will function; and in particular, a feature built into the Constitution by its authors known as "separation of powers," our diverse population, and our considerable wealth.

While aggregate wealth can be a tremendous benefit for any country, the United States was not always a wealthy country. So while wealth may contribute to the United States' grea

The Constitution has remained a living, working document because of provisions put within it. Section 1 of Article III states, "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Since the Constitution was the supreme law of the land, and the Supreme Court the final court of the land, it was up to the Supreme Court to make one very crucial decision on occasion: determine whether or not a law is constitutional -- that is, whether or not it violates any part of the Constitution.

Some political incidents demonstrate the strength of the Constitution. At various times in our country's history, one government entity or another has attempted to control what is called "hate speech" because such talk in public is inherently offensive. Some scholars have noted, however, that exposing such ideas to public scrutiny allows the citizens to realize for themselves that some groups or individuals hold extremely distasteful notions. The principle of freedom of speech has allowed such groups' ideas to be revealed for everyone to consider (Gates, PAGE). Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas explained it well when he said, "When ideas compete in the market for acceptance, full and free discussion [exposes] the false and they gain few adherents." (Martinson, PAGE)

Article I lists the duties of the Legislative branch of government -- Congress. Article II lists the duties of the Executive branch -- the President. Article III lists the duties of the Judicial branch -- the Supreme Court and the Federal Courts (Mount, PAGE). With this clearly defined structure, the authors of the Constitution made it very clear that each branch of the government had markedly different responsibilities. There is some interplay between them, of course. The President appoints the Supreme Court Judges, but the Senate must ratify that appointment. Recent current events have shown that checks and balances apply in this system. President Bush realized he would not have senate support for the appointment of Harriet Bush to the Supreme Court and, after she withdrew her name for consideration, made a second nomination. Such an instance demonstrates the Constitutional structure of all three branches of the g

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Approximate Word count = 1544
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)