Explain Advantages and Disadvantages of the Process of Amending the Constitution

â€Å"Explain advantages and disadvantages of the process of amending the constitution† {15 marks} There process of amending the US constitution is a long process with lots of checks and balances created by the founding fathers; this was to limit radical and frequent amendments. The first part of the process is proposing an amendment this can be done in two ways, firstly by having two-thirds of both houses of the  United States Congress  agree to the proposal, or by a  national convention  assembled at the request of the  legislatures  of at least two-thirds of the  states agreeing to the proposal.To have a proposed amendment become part of the US constitution the proposed amendment needs to ratified, by having either ? of the states (38 states) agree to ratify the proposal or by holding state ratifying conventions in ? of the states, however this method has only been used once.One advantage of the process of amending the constitution is that it protects the cons titution from frequent change to do with popular opinion, it means that to amend the constitution the amendment has to be sensible and needed at not something to be taken lightly, this can be shown by the fact that the constitution has only been amended 27 times which shows change is possible but not too easy that it changes the historic values that America was built upon, helps control one party controlling power.This is an advantage as it means that when a party comes into power (e. g. republicans) they cannot go and make lots of amendments that benefit them or are in their opinion, as the house of representatives usually as around 50/50 republican democrats proportion and you need 2/3 to have a proposal accepted. The system is democratic as 38/50 must agree which means its fair and reduces the chance of lots of unnecessary changes.One Disadvantage is that the process is time consuming which means that if an amendment is popular with the public e. g. banning guns due to increased gun crime then it may be rejected by republicans which means it a no, however this was the point when the constitution was created, and was purposely made difficult to amend. However some would argue that it’s so hard to amend that it cannot move with the modern times freely.Another disadvantage is that because of the difficulties of amending the constitution it has led to the supreme court assuming the role, this is when the supreme court rules on a case that something is unconstitutional which means that local governments can decide whether to enforce their decisions. In an extreme case if amendment proposals are constantly being rejected then a new constitution may branch off to create these new amendments in a separate constitution wiping out the existing one.In conclusion the process of amending the constitution is a long and tedious one but it makes sure that an amendment has to be supported by a large percentage and something that should be taken seriously, this means that there is not lots of amendments which could jeopardise the historic values of the American constitution, and also make the nation less stable as there is constant change which could confuse people. Lastly the process of amending the constitution is confusing and frustrating but without it America could be changed radically very quickly.