The Articles of Confederation might have been an effective idea, but not an effective government. If you call something a government, it implies that it has the ability to function in governing adequately. The Articles of Confederation failed at effectively governing the United States.

The United States had just broken away from a strong central government and was very much afraid of a powerful tyrannical ruler. This lead to the creation of an extremely weak central government with strong state governments (this is a confederacy); it was one of the most limited governments in world history. It had no president, no judicial branch, and its congress was made up of one representative from each state. The congress' sole power was to determine peace and war. Congress did not have the ability to raise money by collecting taxes, it could ask for taxes but the states could choose to...