Great Compromise and Constitution
| Articles of Confederation | Great Compromise/Constitution | Virginia Plan |
| Central government derives power from, represents, and acts through state governments | Both | Central government derives power from, represents, and acts upon the people |
| Central government is just Congress | Central government with 3 branches: legislature, executive, judicial | Central government with 3 branches: legislature, executive, judicial |
| Congress represents state governments equally | Both | Congress represents the people proportionate to population |
| No veto over states | No veto over states | Veto over states |
| Power and supremacy in the states | Power divided, supremacy in the Constitution itself (Supremacy Clause, Article VI) | Power and supremacy in the central government |
| Few powers granted to the central government | Grant of specific powers (Article I, Section 8) | General grant of power to the central government, to do what the states cannot do |
| Main author: Dickinson | Main author of Great Compromise: Ellsworth | Main author: Madison |
| What was operating in the 1780s. This was what the Anti-Federalists wanted to keep | Compromises worked out by moderates | A plan, the Federalist agenda, their goals |