What were the shortcommings of the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 1

Because each state had no intention of giving up power to a national (central) government, there were major weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation. Congress did not have the power to levy or collect taxes. It could only request money from the states or borrow money. A major weakness was the failure of the Articles to give the Congress the power to regulate trade. States were free to enact taxes against products from other states and nations. Congress did not have the powers to enforce its laws. The Articles could only be amended (changed) by the consent of all the states. There was no executive branch under the Articles. There was a President of Congress, but he had no executive powers. Finally, there was no national court system. MrV

Answer 2

There were many disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation (soon to be replaced by the U.S. Constitution).

Here are some:

1. No power to generate revenue (tax)

2. No central government power

3. Under the Articles of Confederation, we had no President, therefore we also had no leader to follow.

4. There was foreign currency between states (for example: If you lived in Georgia and traveled to Missouri, the states would have different currencies therefore you could be rich in one state and in another state you could be of the lowest poverty.)

5. There was no power to enforce the states to follow the laws.

6. We had no way to gather an army (no protection against foreign countries).

7. We had no power to control/regulate trade.

8. No national court system. (this means you commit all the crimes you want in one state, and if you simply moved to another state you would have no even the slightest charges on your head, and no one could do anything about it!)

As you can see there were many weaknesses to the Articles of Confederations. That is why the founding fathers later replaced it with the U.S. Constitution.

Answer 3

the down fall of the a.o.c were that they were to loosely bound. and states could make there own laws and gave the government very little power