Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did indeed have the power to pass laws. However, it did not have the authority to directly force states to comply with those laws. This was a significant limitation of the Articles of Confederation, which was the first governing document of the United States from 1781 to 1789.
While Congress had the power to make laws, it lacked the ability to enforce them. The Articles of Confederation created a weak central government intentionally, as the founders wanted to avoid the concentration of power that they had experienced under British rule. As a result, the federal government had limited authority over the states.
To understand how Congress passed laws under the Articles of Confederation, you need to know about the structure and functioning of Congress during that time. Congress consisted of a single chamber, known as the Continental Congress, where each state had one vote. In order to pass a law, it required a two-thirds majority (nine out of the thirteen states) to approve it.
However, once a law was passed, it relied on the cooperation of the states for enforcement. Congress could make requests or recommendations to the states to comply with a law, but it lacked the power to compel them to do so. This meant that states had significant autonomy and could choose whether or not to follow federal laws. Consequently, Congress often struggled to enact uniform policies and maintain national unity.
The limitations of the Articles of Confederation and the weak central government it created eventually led to the writing and adoption of the United States Constitution in 1787. The Constitution granted much more power to the federal government, including the ability to create and enforce laws that applied directly to individuals and to compel states to comply through various mechanisms, such as the Supremacy Clause and the use of federal courts.
In summary, while Congress had the authority to pass laws under the Articles of Confederation, it did not possess the power to force states to follow those laws, highlighting a significant weakness of the system.