Ideals of Democracy
Opening Remarks LOR-1.A.1
The US government is based on ideas of limited government including natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism and social contract.Sovereignty is the right of a government to rule. It can derive from many sources, such as monarchy, a Divine Right by God, or the leadership of an elite group. American political culture is based on the principle of popular sovereignty - the idea set the government's right to rule comes from the people. As stated in the Declaration Preamble, all of the government's power comes from the citizens, and when citizens are unhappy, they can replace the government to regular, free, and fair elections.So what is the function of government? most humans cannot function and would not choose to live in chaos and turmoil, where mobs rule the land through might and violence these conditions describes Anarchy, or states without government and laws. Some people believe governments exist to prevent situations like those described above. legitimate and functioning governments create order, protect people, and give them ways to settle disagreements fairly and peacefully. government is an institution through which leaders exercise power to make and enforce laws affecting the people under its control. People create a government for a variety of reasons. Governments provide leadership, order, security And defense, Public Services, and economic assistance and Economic Security. government also functions as to provide leadership government officials set priorities and make all sorts of decisions on behalf of the people. They decide what actions are crimes, make decisions about who has to pay taxes and how much they have to pay, and determine who benefits from natural resources like coal and natural gas. They can require that people do things they might not do voluntarily, such as pay taxes or serve in the army. Without leadership, no one or anyone can be in charge thereby creating Anarchy. another function of government is to maintain order. and nearly any group of people there will be a disagreement and some way somehow Advantage taking of others. Two neighbors May argue about property lines. Parents May argue over a terrible call by a referee at their child's soccer game. Conflict is inescapable part of life. Governments try to control and contain conflict between people by placing limits on what individuals are permitted to do. Governments provide some sort of domestic security Force IE police or National Guard and to keep peace. governments also provide courts and other ways for people to resolve their conflicts. They also punish people who break the laws. Without government, civilized life would be impossible. an Effective Government allows citizens to plan for the future, get an education, raise a family, and live orderly lives. In the words of Abraham Lincoln
“ the legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves and their separate an individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do for themselves, government ought not to interfere”
American political culture is also based on the concept of republicanism, which means that the authority of the government comes from the people. Long gone are the days of the direct democracy practiced in ancient Greece, where eligible male citizens met to vote on policy issues. Representative government is more practical and efficient than asking Americans to vote on every issue facing the nation. Although the practice is still conducted on a small scale for example city council meeting we're voting on education representative government is more common. representative government citizens can choose representatives to assert their interests and values in the National policy making process. furthermore, representatives are held accountable in free and fair elections that take place at frequent and regular intervals. members of the House of Representatives stand for election every two years, and the term of US senator every 6 years. presidential elections happen every 4 years.
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Essential Knowledge:
The declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson with the help from John Adams and Benjamin Franklin provides a foundation for popular sovereignty, while the U.S Constitution led with important contributions from Madison, Humiliation and and members of the "Grand Committee," provides the blueprint for a unique form of political democracy in the U.S.
Question
How are democratic Ideals reflected in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S Constitution?
Photo showing visitors examining documents in cases at the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom.
Interior of the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, DC. Image credit: National Archives
Key points
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are documents that provide the ideological foundations for the democratic government of the United States . The Declaration of Independence provides a foundation for the concept of popular sovereignty, the idea that the government exists to serve the people, who elect representatives to express their will. The US Constitution outlines the blueprint for the US governmental system, which strives to balance individual liberty with public order.
National treasures
In the US National Archives in Washington, DC, armed guards stand on constant watch in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. There, underneath bullet-proof glass and beneath the watchful eyes of a state-of-the-art system of cameras and sensors, the faded pages of three documents are enshrined: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. At night, the documents are stored in an underground vault, rumored to be strong enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
Why are these pieces of paper so highly protected and cherished?
In short, it’s because they serve as the ideological foundations for the government of the United States. They express both the inspiration for American democracy and the blueprint for carrying it out.
In this article, you'll learn the origins of these documents, and we'll examine the democratic ideals found within them.
The Declaration of Independence
Setting the stage
In 1776, the thirteen British colonies in North America were rebelling against British rule, after more than a decade of strife over taxation and government representation. As the Revolutionary War got underway, representatives from each of the colonies agreed it was time to put forward a statement expressing the colonies’ reasons for desiring independence.
This momentous task fell upon Thomas Jefferson, a 33-year-old Virginia lawyer. Jefferson was inspired by the English
Enlightenment
philosopher John Locke, whose writings on government put forward two ideas that would become quite important to Jefferson:
· That all humans are born with “natural rights,” including the right to protect their lives, liberty, and property
· That government is a “social contract” between people and their rulers, which can be dissolved if rulers fail to promote the people’s welfare
Although these ideas seem pretty tame by modern standards, in the eighteenth century they were tantamount to treason. The nations of Europe were led by monarchs, who exercised the divine right of kings and owed little or no consideration to the will of their subjects. English citizens had some rights, certainly, but no one would dare to say that the English monarchy could simply be dissolved.
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson. Painted by Mather Brown, 1786. Image credit: WikimediaCommons
Writing the Declaration
Nevertheless, Jefferson, in writing the Declaration, hoped to dissolve the relationship between the American colonies and Britain. He drafted the Declaration and gave it to his colleagues, John Adams of Massachusetts and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, for revisions. After incorporating their suggestions, Jefferson submitted the Declaration to the colonial representatives for approval.
Read the full text of the Declaration of Independence
What is the Declaration of Independence?
At the most basic level, the Declaration of Independence is a list of grievances against the British Crown, seeking the sympathy of the international community for the cause of the colonies in revolting against their mother country. But at a higher level, the ideas expressed in the Declaration serve as the inspiration for American democratic values. They are some of the most poetic and meaningful words in all of American writing:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
These ideas, that all men are created equal and that government is based on the consent of the governed, became the foundation for the US political ideal of popular sovereignty: that the government exists to serve the people, who elect representatives to express their will.
The colonial representatives voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, which has been celebrated as the official birthday of the United States ever since.
Artist’s depiction of the Constitutional Convention. Painted by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856. Image credit: Teaching American History
The Constitution
Although the Declaration served as an inspiration for American democracy, it did not outline an actual system of government. In the years during and immediately after the Revolution, the US government operated under the Articles of Confederation, a government system that placed most power in the hands of state governments.
We’ll talk more about the specifics of the Articles of Confederation later on in this course, but for now, suffice it to say that by the late 1780s, it was clear that the Articles weren’t working. The United States needed a new, stronger blueprint for government.
In 1787, representatives from the states met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention. Their task was a difficult one: to create a government system that was powerful enough to meet the needs of the United States, but not so powerful that it would become tyrannical.
Likewise, they wanted to balance the will of the majority with the rights of the minority, so that the powerful many could not trample the few.
Leadership
Under the leadership of Revolutionary War hero George Washington, the delegates debated the elements of a new Constitution. The final version, influenced strongly by Virginian James Madison and New Yorker Alexander Hamilton, reinforced the idea that government derives from a social contract by citizens for their mutual advantage:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The Constitution drafted in Philadelphia more than two hundred years ago still forms the basis for US government today. Amended just twenty-seven times in that period (including the first set of ten amendments, or the Bill of Rights, which was passed immediately after the Constitution’s ratification), the US Constitution is the oldest functioning national constitution in the world. It serves as the blueprint for the unique form of political democracy found in the United States.
Source:
Democratic Ideals in the Declaration Of Independence and the Constitution
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-foundations/us-gov-ideals-of-democracy/a/democratic-ideals-in-the-declaration-of-independence-and-the-constitution