Enlightenment Philosophers and the

�American System

 

Enlightenment Philosophers

Voltaire:

1.       Believed in free speech. �I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.�

2.       Feared rule by the commoners.� �Once the common people begin to reason, then everything is lost.� I hate the idea of government by the masses.�

Hobbes: the Social Contract.� Felt people always would act with selfish intentions so they entered into an agreement where they gave up their rights to a strong ruler to gain law and order.

Rousseau: the Social Contract.� Believed in direct democracy.����

Locke:

1.       Natural Rights.� Everyone has the rights to Life, Liberty, and Property.

2.       Purpose of government is to defend these rights, and if they do not then the people have the right to overthrow it.

3.       Government exists by popular consent.

Montesquieu urged a separation of the powers of government in his book The Spirit of the Laws.� Should be three branches of the government.� This was necessary to keep an individual or group from gaining total control of the government.

  1. a legislature would make laws
  2. An executive branch would see that the laws were carried out
  3. The judiciary would interpret the laws

The American Revolution

1.      Americans believed so strongly in this right that they later included it in the Constitution�s Bill of Rights as part of the First Amendment.

  1. Al though a Democracy, the US Government had many restrictions as to who could actually take part in the government, limiting activity to white, male, landowners; effectively eliminating the �common people�.

Americans took a combination of both of these philosophers� ideas in their ideas for American democracy.� They related to Hobbes� idea of man needing a strong rule to keep order, but they believed that this government should be run democratically.

 

 

  1. These are in the Dec. of Independence
  2. Colonists justified the revolution by listing their grievances and showing how their government did not respect their natural rights.
  3. Preamble of Const. Starts, ��we the people�� showing how they felt that all Americans were giving their consent to the new government.

 

The writers of the Constitution adopted this very system.� They created the checks and balances system under which each branch of government exercises some control over the others

  1. The Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives is the legislature
  2. The President heads the executive branch
  3. The Supreme Court heads the judicial branch