Answer:
Explanation:
In a confederation, authority is decentralized, and the central government’s ability to act depends on the consent of the subnational governments. Under the Articles of Confederation (the first constitution of the United States), states were sovereign and powerful while the national government was subordinate and weak. Because states were reluctant to give up any of their power, the national government lacked authority in the face of challenges such as servicing the war debt, ending commercial disputes among states, negotiating trade agreements with other countries, and addressing popular uprisings that were sweeping the country. As the brief American experience with confederation clearly shows, the main drawback with this system of government is that it maximizes regional self-rule at the expense of effective national governance.
The Articles of Confederation left most of the power, especially the important power of the purse, with individual states. The National Government, or confederation, had little power to tax, no real ability to defend the nation from foreign or domestic threat, no power to regulate interstate commerce and so on. Perhaps the Articles of Confederation was a necessary and inevitable stage in the development of a Constitution embodying a relatively strong national government.
