Short Essay: The Establishment Of Democracy

Consequently, a limited government was created in response to these new thoughts. Furthermore, this new type of government was extremely revolutionary because it changed the way that the citizens had thought or viewed about the government. Two Enlightenment philosophers that influenced the creation of the government were John Locke and Montesquieu. John Locke had the belief that everyone had natural rights (life, liberty, property) and that if the government failed to protect these rights, they could be overthrown and replaced. Also, Montesquieu’s idea of the separation of powers helped shape the government.

Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover all served as presidents during 1901 and 1939, none of which were Progressives and therefore did not influence anything with those views. In addition, the Progressive movement did not benefit everyone in America, nor was it completely successful. The Progressive movement was successful in many ways such as granting women the right to vote in 1920 by passing the 19th amendment as well as banning child labor, increasing civilian participation in politics, and breaking up trusts, but it failed to reform large parts of the population like African Americans and Native Americans. In addition to the lack of Civil Rights Reform, Progressive movements like prohibition were major failures. Not only was the 18th amendment repealed, but it started the rise of organized crime.

John Locke believed this as well, that the citizens should be able to change the government if needed. However, this also showed what Thomas Jefferson was going through. He was not only founding a government, but he was rebelling against one. He disliked the idea of monarchy, and giving total control to the government. This further shows that John Locke had an influence on Pres.

Hence Federalists came up with the Bill of Rights as a way to get the Constitution ratified and for people to really see a needed change. The Bill Of Rights which lists specific prohibitions on governmental power, lead the Anti-Federalists to be less fearful of the new Constitution . This guaranteed that the people would still remain to have rights, but the strong central government that the country needed would have to be approved. The 1804 Map of the nation shows that even after the ratification of the United States Constitution there still continued to be “commotion” and dispute in the country. (Document 8) George Washington stated that the people should have a say in the nation and government and everything should not be left to the government to decide.

The Articles of Confederation made up America’s first constitution. This constitution was hastily and poorly made and solved the problem of a lack of government in America. The Articles were designed to limit the government’s power over the citizens. The Articles of Confederation also did not include anything about an individual or a president to guide the country. This was because of the colonists’ past experience with Britain’s king and him having too much power over the people.

If you do some simple math the only states that needed to approve it were the ones who didn’t offer resistance to the Articles and wanted a new government. Another silly thing all the founding fathers missed in the Articles is that the continental congress couldn’t enforce any laws. Which in so many words meant that congress could make all the laws they wanted but none of the states had to follow it due to the state government having much more power than the federal government. All the flaws in the Articles in confederation had made many things happen such as Shay’s rebellion and of course the adaptation of our new government which took ten months for the first nine states to ratify the rest of course came one by

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president and he served from 1829 to 1837. He lost the 1824 election but won in 1828 because of expanded suffrage that allowed the common people he appealed to, to vote. During his presidency, he made many controversial decisions especially regarding Native Americans and his authoritative style of governing. Also, while he was in office there were many divisive issues, particularly about states’ rights and the power of the Federal Government. Overall, his presidency did not follow the central idea of democracy that is “by the people, for the people” and therefore it was not an era of democracy.

When the United States first gained their independence from Britain they needed to create a strong government for their colonies. The United States created their first government called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles came with many problems like no power to tax, no power to enforce the law, or regulate commerce. 10 years after having a weak government, they believed that a new type of government need to be created in order to become a strong government. They came up with the Constitution.

You were either a Federal or a Anti-Federal (against or with the Constitution). Both sides had their own reasons to believe to accept or decline the offer. Anti-Federalist believed that some poor would never get into government, there was no liberty in press, the government had too much power, and most of the rights they fought for in the war isn’t present in the constitution (life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness). The Federals said that the Constitution was a new protecting, efficient federal government for the many current problems, the complaints of the farmers, the

Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10 that democracies “have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” This belief led the Constitutional Convention to drastically limit popular participation in government action. Even the president is not voted in by popular vote, and is rather selected by electorates, who were themselves originally selected by state legislatures. So essentially, the public would vote for the legislator, who would vote for the electorate, who would finally vote for the president. The justices of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, are selected by the president and confirmed by congress rather than voted on.