Editing Congressional Hall (Zamastan) (section)

===1804-1840s: formative era===
Congressional Hall operated as a legislative body under the [[President of Zamastan]], [[Tomias Hapson]], for the first 40 years of Zamastan's history. After Hapson's assassination, the legislature fell apart and most laws were directly passed to the new president. In August 1845, President [[Avi Taures]] authorized the creation of a system of checks and balances between the Presidency and Congress. The ratified [[Constitution of Zamastan]] in 1846 officially created the Congressional Hall as a unicameral body with equal representation among the Administrative Districts. However, this meant Congress had executive and not legislative authority, as well as the federal judiciary being confined to admiralty. It also lacked authority to collect taxes, regulate commerce, or enforce laws.

Government powerlessness led to the [[Maple Canal Convention of 1847]] which proposed a revised constitution with a two–chamber or bicameral congress. Smaller districts argued for equal representation for each district. The two-chamber structure had functioned well in district governments. A compromise plan, the [[Franco Compromise]], was adopted with representatives chosen by population (benefiting larger districts) and exactly one senator chosen by every five specified district governments (benefiting smaller districts). The ratified constitution created a federal structure with two overlapping power centers so that each citizen as an individual was subjected to both the power of district government and the national government. To protect against abuse of power, each branch of government— the executive and legislative, along with District federal judiciaries— had a separate sphere of authority and could check other branches according to the principle of the separation of powers. Furthermore, there were checks and balances within the legislature since there were two separate chambers. The new government became active in 1848.