There were many compromises and proposals in the making of the United States Constitution. What if certain key features had been different? Here's some possibilities that I don't think receive much attention -
- What if the Constitutional Convention stuck to their original role of trying to strengthen and reform the Articles of Confederation rather than starting from scratch with a new Constitution?
- What if the President (or whatever the executive was called) was elected by Congress, making the office more like a Prime Minister, but one with a specific term of years?
- What if the President was chosen by the governors of the states?
- What if the executive consisted of a three-man committee rather than a single President, which is what Madison's original plan called for?
- What if slaves were counted as more or less than 3/5 of a person for the purpose of allocating congressional representation for each state?
- What if the President was not named as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, but instead that role would be held by a senior military officer appointed and supervised by Congress?
- What if the Constitution had explicitly given each state the right to secede from the federal union formed by the Constitution, and set out the specific procedures for doing so?
- What if the Supreme Court's role had been more explicitly defined?
- What if the Constitution did not provide for a Supreme Court?
- What if the Vice President was given more to do?
- What if there was no Vice President?
- What if there were explicit provisions requiring all states to keep their militia trained to a high standard, supervised by regular army officers?
- What if Congress was allowed to end the slave trade before the beginning of 1808?
- What if the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, later known as the "Bill of Rights", had never been added? (Some supporters of the Constitution did not think that they were necessary, but many members of the state ratifying conventions agreed to vote for ratifying the Constitution only if these Amendments were added as soon as possible.)
- What if the Constitutional Convention stuck to their original role of trying to strengthen and reform the Articles of Confederation rather than starting from scratch with a new Constitution?
- What if the President (or whatever the executive was called) was elected by Congress, making the office more like a Prime Minister, but one with a specific term of years?
- What if the President was chosen by the governors of the states?
- What if the executive consisted of a three-man committee rather than a single President, which is what Madison's original plan called for?
- What if slaves were counted as more or less than 3/5 of a person for the purpose of allocating congressional representation for each state?
- What if the President was not named as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, but instead that role would be held by a senior military officer appointed and supervised by Congress?
- What if the Constitution had explicitly given each state the right to secede from the federal union formed by the Constitution, and set out the specific procedures for doing so?
- What if the Supreme Court's role had been more explicitly defined?
- What if the Constitution did not provide for a Supreme Court?
- What if the Vice President was given more to do?
- What if there was no Vice President?
- What if there were explicit provisions requiring all states to keep their militia trained to a high standard, supervised by regular army officers?
- What if Congress was allowed to end the slave trade before the beginning of 1808?
- What if the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, later known as the "Bill of Rights", had never been added? (Some supporters of the Constitution did not think that they were necessary, but many members of the state ratifying conventions agreed to vote for ratifying the Constitution only if these Amendments were added as soon as possible.)