"The Constitution fails to meet the needs of a rapidly changing society" To what extent do you agree with this statement.

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"The Constitution fails to meet the needs of a rapidly changing society"

To what extent do you agree with this statement Martin McGeown

When the Constitution was written by the 'Founding Fathers back in 1787, they intentionally made it so that it could survive over time. They made it flexable so because they envisaged that there were problems that they could not forsee in the future, these are things such as the Depression of the late twenties and early thirties. 'The Framers' intended for the amendment process to be the main way of updating the constitution and through time this has been evident.

An important part of a democratic government is the accountability of those in power, in recent times we have seen the system in America fail, in part this may be due to the fact that the constitution may be outdated. During Bill Clintons' second term of office there were a number of scandals that rocked the White House, the first being the Paula Jones affair. During a hearing about the Paula Jones affair Clinton stated that he had not had "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky, this turned out to be a lie and Congress attempted to impeach him. The impeachment failed due to the wording of the constitution as it was based on the fact that they believed he had committed 'a high crime or misdemeanour' but Clintons' lawyers asked for a definition of this and Congress could not give one. This shows that the wording of the constitution was outdated or the constitution was badly worded. There was also a lack of accountability during the Watergate scandal as President Nixon was able to escape with no punishment even though he was part of a conspiracy to commit a felony, all charges against Nixon were dropped by his successor Gerald Ford due to the fact that Presidents have the power to withdraw charges against anybody in America. This shows that there is an essential part of the democratic process missing due to flaws in the constitution.
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When the constitution was first written in 1787 there was a strong possibility of war, so when the founding fathers drew up the constitution they added in an article which said that all people have the right to bear arms. This article has been problematic ever since. Within the last decade there have been many high profile shootings in schools such as Columbine, this has led to a stronger fight against the gun laws. There are those such as the National Rifle Association who say that that right can not be taken away from them as it is ...

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