“When people fear government, there is tyranny. When the government is afraid of the people, there is freedom. » By 1787, enlightened statesmen began to understand and accept the flaws in the Articles of Confederation. It was too weak and did not allow the economy of the new nation to prosper. The system provided for by these articles failed to create a strong central government and even lacked a judicial system. One of the main weaknesses of the central government was that it could not tax the states, which led to an unequal distribution of power, and the states became extremely powerful. The challenge was to draft a new constitution strong enough to hold the country and states together, guarantee the rights of the people, and not allow a single person or group of people to become tyrants. So when the fifty-five Representatives met in Philadelphia in May 1787 to amend the Articles, they instead created a strong and powerful new revolutionary government that protected the people against tyranny. The constitution protects against tyranny through the separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, and the establishment of federalism. The problem of tyranny can exist even within a democracy when "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judicial, in the same hands, whether belonging to one, a few or many... can be rightly considered the very definition of tyranny. The Constitution called for a separation of powers, and Federalists, like James Madison, asserted that "liberty requires that the three great departments of power be separate and distinct." The separation of powers, which would be a major protector against tyranny, required three branches: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. These branches...... middle of paper...... the articles of confederation of the United States could not have prospered because of the weakness of the central government and state tyrants. Under the Constitution, separation of powers, government checks and balances, and federalism have proven to make the nation stronger and more united than ever while eliminating all forms of tyranny. No party or branch of government could overthrow another and only the people had the power to overthrow the government if their rights were threatened. To this day, the constitution protects the people when the government attempts to interfere with public rights. Examples include the recent SOPA and PIPA internet bills which failed to pass due to public outrage and were deemed unconstitutional. The safeguards that the Constitution placed against tyranny are still relevant today and will remain in place for centuries to come..