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UNIT 1

Foundations of

American Democracy

After suffering years of imposed tax laws, such as the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and the rights violations that followed, the American colonists presented the Declaration of Independence to the British Crown in 1776. Breaking away from British control and claiming sovereignty, the new states fought a war to establish their independence. The 1783 Treaty of Paris spelled out the peace terms and brought the war to an end. The new United States government at first operated under the Articles of Confederation, a loose association of the 13 states. However, the Articles provided insufficient structure to bind the states together, and its weaknesses were revealed. In 1787, delegates convened in Philadelphia to draft a new constitution. After a public debate between Federalists, who endorsed the plan, and Anti-Federalists, who opposed the plan, citizens of the states ratified it.

The Constitution defined the three branches of government, relations among states, national and state powers, and the process to amend the document. Among its provisions is the system of checks and balances, which keeps any one branch from becoming too powerful. The amendment process also allowed for the addition of the Bill of Rights and, eventually, a total of 27 amendments.

The Constitution established federalism, a two-tiered system of government that divides the power between the national and state governments. As new national concerns have surfaced, Congress has used its power to set policies to address these issues consistently throughout the states. Yet states use their power to maintain jurisdiction over schools, marriages and divorces, criminal law enforcement, motor-vehicle law, and other areas. Through state referenda, citizens have recently made changes on family leave, gambling, and the legalization of marijuana.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS: FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

LOR-1: A balance between governmental power and individual rights has been a

hallmark of American political development.

CON-1: The Constitution emerged from the debate about weaknesses in the Articles

of Confederation as a blueprint for limited government.

PMI-1: The Constitution created a competitive policymaking process to ensure the

people's will is represented and that freedom is preserved.

CON-2: Federalism reflects the dynamic distribution of power between national and

state governments.

Source: AP® United States Government and Politics Course and Exam Description

Ideals of Democracy

"Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families... Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries,

'TIS TIME TO PART."

—Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Essential Question: How are democratic ideals reflected in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?

The ideals of American democracy are firmly rooted in the establishment of the United States after the Revolution of the late 1700s. More than a century before, however, American settlers began to define democracy and self-governance.

When the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620, they knew their survival depended on working together and forming a "civil body politic," so they drafted a governing document, the Mayflower Compact. This agreement was grounded in Christian morals and the God-given right to self-rule, even while the Pilgrims remained British subjects. More than 150 years later, the Declaration of Independence, applying the principles of Enlightenment philosophy, provided a foundation for a government in which the people with protected rights, not monarchs, were the true source of governmental power. A decade later, the United States Constitution codified the ideals of self-government, consent of the governed, and representation into guidelines for a new nation.

Influence of Enlightenment Thought

The leading revolutionaries were inspired by Enlightenment thinkers who championed natural, God-given rights and a social contract between a representative government and the people, the true source of power. They argued that if a government violated the understood compact, then the people could take that power back.

Enlightenment Philosophers

Advocates for freedom from British rule drew on Enlightenment political theory. It had been developed when the principles of rationalism that had unlocked doors to the natural world during the Scientific Revolution were English o the social world as well. Especially infuential were The writings of English philosopher Thomas Hobbe (1588 -1679) and John Locke (1632-1704), Swiss-born philosopher Jean-jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), and French philosopher Montesquieu (1689-1755).