Constitution Explained: What Is a Republic? | History in 5 | PragerU Kids

America declared its independence from England in 1776. I mean, who doesn't know that, right? We celebrated every 4th of July with hot dogs and things that explode. But what happened after America got its freedom? What would we do with it? Imagine finally graduating high school and then it hits you. What am I actually gonna do with my life? Things could get a lot better or a lot worse, all depending on how you handle this new freedom. So what would the founders do? People like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, you know, the guys you see on money and statues and stuff. It was up to them to establish a new government. No pressure. They wanted freedom, but not anarchy. What's anarchy? Imagine if there were no rules in your school and everyone did whatever they wanted. Now that may sound fun, but it wouldn't be long until things started looking like The Walking Dead. Nothing would get done. A lot of things would get broken and a lot of people would get hurt. You need rules and authority, like teachers and a principal, to keep things from going, well, crazy. A country is the same way. The founders knew that we needed a strong government with the ability to enforce rules, but not so strong that it would become corrupt and abuse the people, like basically every other country since the beginning of time. Some people wanted a monarchy with George Washington as king. He was flattered, but he refused and thought they were nuts for asking. He believed that that was too much power in the hands of one man, even if that one man was him. What a cool guy. So the founders studied every form of government throughout history. The one that seemed to work the best was called a republic. This system made the government strong enough to be effective and the people free enough to live their lives. Everybody wins. There was just one minor issue with republics. They always ended up collapsing and being replaced with a tyrant. It's a big minor issue. So the founders came together in 1787 to figure out how to create a republic that would work and last. They were trying to solve a problem that had never been solved in all of human history. Yeah, they were that bold. After a whole lot of arguing, some wig snatching, and a few miracles, they came up with a document that changed the whole world. And it's the reason we're living in a free country right now. They created a constitution, which is the blueprint for how our government works. Over 200 years later, we're still using it, and countries all over the world follow its example. So what made the constitution so successful? The whole document is built on one very important idea. Power corrupts. Think of it this way. Imagine you have one piece of pie to split between you and your sibling. Whoever has the knife to split the pie has the power. We all know siblings can't be trusted. They're gonna cut their half bigger than yours. Of course. It's no different with government. Those with power are likely to use it to their own advantage at the expense of everyone else. It's just what humans do. So what's the answer? Well, in the case of your knife-wielding sibling and the pie, you could do this. One of you gets to cut the pie, and the other one gets to choose which piece they want. You're dividing the power between both of you evenly to keep each other in check. The founders used a similar strategy. First, they divided the government into three separate branches, a legislative branch that makes the laws, an executive branch that makes sure those laws are followed, and a judicial branch that solves arguments about the law. This way, no single branch could get too bossy. Anytime one branch started to take too much power, the other two would stop it. The founders gave the system a cool name, checks and balances. Just like the pie, it's simple, but genius. Secondly, they made sure to give lots of power to the states and their own local governments. So not only is the power divided into three branches, it's spread out across the entire country. This brings the power closer to the people, where it should be. Imagine if some guy five states away made all of the decisions for your school. Meanwhile, he's never even visited. You're the one who knows that the cafeteria pizza needs more cheese. You don't expect someone halfway across the country to know that, or care. The people know what's best for their own communities, and that's exactly what the founders wanted, a government of the people. The Constitution is a great blueprint, but it only works if the people are involved. That's why Benjamin Franklin said, we have a republic if we can keep it. And that is where you come in. You and I, we are the people. It's up to us to understand the Constitution and keep this republic working. Thanks so much for watching this episode of History in 5. 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