Final answer:
The Articles of Confederation required nine out of thirteen states to approve new laws, aiming to protect state sovereignty and prevent central power concentration. This system demonstrated significant weaknesses, leading to the replacement of the Articles by the U.S. Constitution with an improved legislative process.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Articles of Confederation represented an early governing document for the United States, formed to establish a confederation of sovereign states with a very limited central government. One notable feature of the Articles was that it required the approval of nine out of the thirteen states to enact new laws. This feature was designed to maintain a strong state autonomy and to prevent any single entity from amassing too much power, reflecting the recent experience with Britain and the desire to preserve local self-governance. Moreover, the Congress under the Articles lacked the power to regulate trade, tax states, or enforce its own laws without a national judiciary. This led to weaknesses in the national structure, resulting in the replacement of the Articles by the U.S. Constitution in 1789, which included a different system for enacting and amending laws to better balance the needs of the nation.