AP Gov

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 applied to the social world as well. Especially influential were the writings of

English philosophers Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–

1704), Swiss-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), and

French philosopher Montesquieu (1689–1755).

Thomas Hobbes and The Leviathan In his famous work The Leviathan,

Hobbes argues that when humans live in “a state of nature” rather than in a

governed state, the result is anarchy and war, and human life is “solitary, poor,

nasty, brutish, and short.” A modern example is Somalia after the collapse of its

repressive government in 1991. The resulting stateless society endured a long

series of bloody civil wars.

The remedy for this condition, according to Hobbes, was for people to

give up some of their rights, as long as others did so as well, and agree to live

in peace. In his view, an absolute sovereign—the Leviathan referred to in the

title—would hold society together, yet still honor a social contract, as long as

the sovereign’s rule took the good of society into account.

John Locke and Natural Law John Locke, a British philosopher, argued

in Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) that natural law is the law of

God and that this law is acknowledged through human sense and reason. In

contrast to Hobbes, he proposed that under natural law—in a state of nature—

people were born free and equal. According to this law, Locke reasoned, “No

one can be . . . subjected to the political power of another, without his own

consent.” Locke argued further that natural law not only entitled but actually

obligated people to rebel when the rule of kings did not respect the consent of

the governed.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and The Social Contract Rousseau was much

influenced by Locke. He spoke for those “intending their minds” away from an

irrational and oppressive political order, away from a governmental theory that

rested in the divine right of kings and clergy to rule and misrule. The opening

sentence of his influential treatise, The Social Contract, dramatically lays out a

key human problem: “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.” The

social contract Rousseau describes is the agreement of free and equal people to

abandon certain natural rights in order to find secure protections for society

and to find freedom in a single body politic committed to the general good. He

envisioned popular sovereignty—the people as the ultimate ruling authority—

and a government of officials to carry out the laws. Baron de Montesquieu and The Spirit of the Laws French philosopher

Montesquieu (1689–1755), like Rousseau, recognized in The Spirit of the Laws

(1748) both the sovereign and administrative aspects of governmental power.

He saw a republican form of government as one having defined and limited

power while granting political liberty to citizens. Montesquieu argued for

the separation of powers in the administrative government, comprised of the

executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Enlightenment thought was well known among English colonists in North

America. According to historian Carl Becker, “Most Americans had absorbed Locke’s works as a kind of political gospel.” The American revolutionaries

believed that men were entitled to “life, liberty, and property” and that these

cannot be taken away except under laws created through the consent of the

governed. These beliefs formed the bedrock of the political ideology known

as republicanism. In a republic, citizens elect leaders for a limited period

of time; the leaders’ job is to make and execute laws in the public interest.

The lack of colonial representation in Parliament, such as taxation without

consent and subsequent infringements of liberty, violated fundamental rights

and the values of republicanism. These violations were remedied by the

creation of an independent, limited, and representative government based

on the ideas of natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and the

social contract. Declaring Independence

American-British tensions rose to new heights in the early 1770s. Colonists

protested Parliament’s taxing them without consent or representation.

To enforce the tax laws and to quiet the discontent in America, the British

government sent a military force to the colonies. Friction between the soldiers,

trying to instill order, and the colonists, trying to enjoy their liberty, resulted in

a decade of conflict that further divided the two sides.

British suppression of self-rule, economic punishments, and unfair trials

and imprisonments finally brought the two sides to blows. In fact, the battles of Lexington and Concord had already taken place by the summer of 1776 when

the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Virginia delegate Richard

Henry Lee offered a short motion declaring American independence and the

authority of this Congress to vote to officially end the relationship with Great

Britain. Delegates from the colonies debated the motion for days before breaking

the session to allow some delegations to travel back to their legislatures to make sure

they were adequately representing them. The same gathering, before it temporarily

adjourned, commissioned a committee of five men—Thomas Jefferson, John

Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston—to draft a

full, more official statement to summarize the colonists’ views.

On June 11, the five men met at Franklin’s lodgings and planned the

document’s content and shape. When Franklin declined the invitation to draft

it because of his shaky health, they handed the assignment to Thomas Jefferson.

The Second Continental Congress reconvened on July 1 to debate the enhanced

resolution. Over the next two days, Jefferson and the committee made 85

revisions or deletions. The full body debated and then voted on July 4, 1776,

to approve the document, which became the Declaration of Independence. It

provided a moral and legal justification for the rebellion. The Revolutionary War intensified, and the Continental Congress sent

diplomats to foreign countries and military generals to lead the fight. The

colonies-turned-states created a more official government under the Articles of

Confederation, the nation’s first constitution. (See Topic 1.4.) The war raged on

until General George Washington’s army defeated the British at Yorktown,

Virginia, in 1781. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the war. The U.S. Constitution: A Blueprint for Government

After experimenting with a decentralized federal government under the

Articles of Confederation, the Confederation Congress called a convention in

Philadelphia for the sole purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. In

May 1787, delegates began to arrive at Independence Hall (the Pennsylvania

State House) to get an early start on improving national governance. Thirty-six￾year-old James Madison was among the first to arrive. The Virginia lawyer was

well prepared for the deliberations. His friend Thomas Jefferson served in Paris

as the U.S. ambassador to France and sent Madison books on successful and unsuccessful governments. Madison’s influence in creating the plan for the new

government and his stalwart support of it during the ratification process (see

Topic 1.5) earned him the nickname “Father of the Constitution.”

The delegates elected George Washington as president of the Convention.

He presided as a calming force during heated debate. In fact, Washington’s

participation alone elevated the validity of the endeavor. Alexander Hamilton’s

intellect, drive, and quest to elevate the nation made him instrumental in

shaping the new design. Benjamin Franklin, the elder statesman at age 81,

offered his experience as one who had participated in the drafting of the

Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Treaty of

Paris with Britain. He also held distinction in discovery, invention, and civic

endeavors, embodying Enlightenment ideals.

In addition to these leading statesmen, states sent representatives with

significant experience in public affairs—some who became future Supreme

Court justices, Cabinet members, and notable congressmen—intent on creating

outcomes beneficial to their state. All were well versed in Enlightenment

political thought and had served the Revolutionary cause.

The delegation decided on procedural matters and formed the Grand

Committee. The committee was made up of one delegate from each of the

states represented at the convention. George Mason, William Paterson, and

Benjamin Franklin were among those on the Grand Committee. The Grand

Committee was instrumental in forging the compromises needed to work out

the many conflicting interests as the new form of government took shape. (See

Topic 1.5 for more about the constitutional compromises.)

An Enlightened Constitution

When the delegates completed their work on September 17, 1787, they had

created a blueprint for a unique form of political democracy. They recognized,

as did Hobbes, the need for a strong executive, but they discarded his idea that

such a person should have absolute power, as a monarch would. Instead, they

created an executive branch headed by an elected president, ultimately subject

to the will of the people. Like Locke and Rousseau, they believed that people

committed to a social contract by giving up some individual rights in exchange

for the benefits of a government that sought justice and preserved fairness. Like

Montesquieu, they supported the separation of powers. BIG IDEA The U.S. Constitution establishes a system of checks and

balances among branches of government and allocates power between federal

and state governments. This system is based on the rule of law and the balance

between majority rule and minority rights. The plan for government under the

new constitution included three separate branches—legislative, executive, and

judicial—each having unique powers and each able to block the others from

gaining too much power. Congress as the legislative branch could tax, borrow

money, and regulate commerce. The president would serve as commander in

chief. The judicial branch included a Supreme Court and a plan to create lower

courts. The Constitution also outlined a system to elect the president. A Representative Republic

The framers wanted the citizen representation of a democracy, but on a national

level, so they created a representative republic, a collection of sovereign states

gathered for the national interest, national needs, and national defense. To

promote popular sovereignty, the framers required popular elections every two

years for members of the House of Representatives, but those were the only

popular elections they put in the original Constitution. State legislatures elected

their senators until 1913. The state legislatures named their electors (done

today by citizen voters), and then the Electoral College elects the president.