SOURCES OF AMERICAN FOUNDING
1. Greek source-Athens –the vocabulary of politics
Man is by nature a political animal- Aristotle, Politics
POLIS=CITY>village
(a collection of households),
family, individual
politikos=political=that
which concerns the city
politikos=politician=statesman
polites=citizen=one who has a share in ruling and being ruled
politike=political science=having expertise in politics,
political science is the master science
politeia=constitution=organizing principle of the city
democracy=rule by the people
aristocracy=rule by the few
kingship(monarchy)=rule by one
philia=friendship, love=necessary condition for citizenship
2. Religious source-Puritan Founding-the voluntary ideal, covenant theology and the origin of American liberty
For the work we have in hand, it is by a mutual
consent through a special overruling providence, and a more than ordinary
approbation of the Churches of Christ to seek out a place of cohabitation and consorteship under a due form of government both civil and
ecclesiastical. In such cases as this the care of the public must oversway all private respects, by which not only
conscience, but mere civil policy doth bind us; for it is a true rule that
particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.
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Kingdom of Heaven
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CITY ON A HILL
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----------Kingdom of Man
1630 - John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts
Bay Colony, wrote A Model of Christian Charity, a guide to
Puritan political/religious thought
-the source of Puritan ideas
is the Protestant Reformation, especially Calvinism –grace, faith and
the problem of politics
-the purpose of Puritan
politics is to found a city on a hill-a light unto the nations, a model
political order
-the basis of proper political order is charity from
Latin charitas=love, friendship
-civil liberty is to do that which is good, just, honest
3. Liberal source-John
Locke-natural rights and the origin
of American liberty
I esteem it above all things
necessary to distinguish exactly the Business of Civil Government from that of
Religion¼The care of Souls cannot belong to the Civil
Magistrate¼the Power of Civil Government relates only to Men’s
Civil Interests, is confined to the care of the things of this world, and hath
nothing to do with the world to come. Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
1632-1704-Locke, a philosopher whose
works influenced such diverse areas as politics, economics, psychology, and
religion.
-Second
Treatise of Government shaped the
thinking and language of the Declaration of Independence.
-people are born free and equal into a peaceful state
of nature-there is no government
-in the state of nature all people have natural rights granted by the Creator:
life, liberty and property
-government is created by people,
through the consent of the people
-the purpose of government is to secure natural
rights: life, liberty and property
-the purpose of government is not to care for the
souls of the citizens-calls for religious toleration
-if government seeks to deprive us of rights we have the right of revolution
4. The American Revolution-1775-1781: How the religious and liberal traditions influenced the ideas and politics of the American Revolution
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,
-1775 the Revolutionary War begins with the
Continental Congress’ declaration of the Articles of War. Initially, the Congress declares its intent
to reunite with
-1776 Thomas Jefferson authors the Declaration of
Independence declaring the basis for a legitimate government and justifying
independence and Revolution
-1776 John Adams publishes Thoughts on Government, a
pamphlet explaining the best form of government. This influences many of the state
constitutions that are soon adopted
-1777 Articles of Confederation, adopted by the Continental
Congress providing the form of national government lasting until the
adoption of the Constitution in 1789.
The goal of the War reflects both the liberal and religious traditions.
Liberal: Government by the consent of the
people/purpose of government is securing individual rights: life, liberty and
property /revolution justified by denial of Natural Rights---Evidence:
Declaration of
Religious: Purpose
of government is, through mutual consent, to establish a City on a Hill/
charity or friendship as basis for political order---Evidence: Bible is most
cited text used to justify Revolution/state constitutions/von Steuben and
training of Continental Army/Articles of Confederation and friendship
5. The
Constitution and the Problem of
The
radical infirmity of the Articles of Confederation was the dependence of Congress
on the voluntary an simultaneous compliance with its requisitions, by so many
independent communities, each consulting more or less its particular interests
and convenience and distrusting the compliance of the others.
-The limits of the voluntary ideal and the
failure of the revolutionary idea of citizenship
-The
Federalist Papers (Madison, Hamilton and Jay)
-Federalist 10- “
-The Federalist solution to the problem of liberty and
order (representative government, large territory, and bloodless war of
commerce)
-why liberty encourages factions and threatens
political order
-how the new representative government provides an
answer to the problem of liberty and order
-compromises of the Constitutional Convention
-why did the framers of the Constitution consider
knowledge of ancient
-the idea of representative
government in the Constitution reject the old idea of citizenship and
civic virtue?
6. Federalism
and the Idea of liberty
I think, then,
that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are
menaced is unlike anything that ever before existed in the world; our
contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain
for an expression that will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have
formed of it; the old words despotism and tyranny are inappropriate: the thing
itself is new, and since I cannot name, I must attempt to define it.
I seek to trace
the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first
thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the
petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them,
living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and
his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind.
As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not
see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself
and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said
at any rate to have lost his country.
Above this race
of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to
secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is
absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority
of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood;
but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well
content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but
rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly
labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that
happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their
necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns,
directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their
inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all
the trouble of living?
Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency
of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a
narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The
principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men
to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.
Alexis
de Tocqueville,
Democracy in America
Section 4: Influence of Democratic Ideas and Feelings
on Political Society.
Chapter
VI: What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear
-
Why did the founders create a federal system of government?
-dual
federalism
-modern
federalism
-why
does Tocqueville fear that a strong national government and welfare state will
emerge in American politics?
-Separation
of powers & change over time
-Checks
and balances & changes over time