INFLUENCES OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Complete each section of the matrix below. Include APA citations for all unoriginal ideas, facts, or definitions.
Documents
In 2-3 sentences, provide a summary of each document, and discuss each document’s significance or influence on the values of the American political culture or the ideas for the structure and organization of the U.S. Federal Government.
Magna Carta
- (Allison, 2018).
Mayflower Compact
This refers to a set of rules that proposed self-governance for the Plymouth colony. Mayflower Compact was written and signed on the English ship. It was meant to end the conflict between the Pilgrims and other travelers. It also served to bring peace in the country since all those who signed were bound to respect laws established by the document (Rodríguez, 2018).
(Jefferson, 2019)
Articles of Confederation
This was the first written constitution of the United States in 1777. The article was meant to create a stronger union between the thirteen states and an authoritarian government that could overcome Great Britain. The government was granted the power to declare war, make alliances, and sign treaties during the fight for independence (Jefferson, 2019).
The Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan was a proposal for the establishment of a bicameral legislature in the newly founded United States of America. James Madison drafted it in 1787. The bicameral house consisted of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This proposal broadened the legislative branch of government for a better government (Miller, 2018).
The New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey was a response to the Virginia Plan. It proposed a unicameral legislature with each state having an equal number of representatives. This empowered the smaller states since they acquired equal powers in the house as the larger states (Crepet, Nixon, & Weeks, 2018).
The Connecticut Plan
The Connecticut Plan proposed a bicameral legislature with the proportional demonstration in the lower house and equal representation of the states in the upper house. It also stated that all measures of revenue would originate in the lower house.
The U.S. Constitution
The U.S. Constitution refers to the supreme law of the United States of America. The constitution contains a set of rules governing the country as well as the system of governance in the country. The first three articles of the document outline the three branches of the U.S. federal government, namely; the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. (Tooker, 2017).
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is an article in the U.S. constitution that contains individual rights and freedom of every citizen of the country. It resulted from the first ten amendments to the law to address the objections raised by anti-federalists. The Bill of Rights is significant in that it limits the powers of the federal government from infringing on the rights and freedoms of citizens(Monk, 2018).
Philosophers
In 2-3 sentences, provide a summary of who each philosopher was, and discuss how each philosopher’s writings and ideas influenced the founding fathers as they developed the values of American political culture and the nature and structure of the U.S. system of government.
Thomas Hobbes
He was an English political philosopher who lived between 1588 and 1679. His ideas influenced the adoption of the federal government in the U.S. He argued that people should have equal rights and that no one should be more powerful. This informed federalism and establishment of the central government
John Locke
He was an American political philosopher. He redefined the nature of government by saying that the primary duty of any government is to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens and that all individuals are equal before the law. He also believed that a government was only legitimate if it was consented to by all citizens through an election. This formed the basis of American governance (Schouls, 2018).
Montesquieu
Montesquieu was a French lawyer and a man of letters. He was one of the most influential political philosophers of the Age of enlightenment. Montesquieu’s political views, particularly the idea of separation of powers, shaped the modern democratic government (Shackleton, 2017).
Selected Founders
In 2-3 sentences, provide a summary of who each founder was, and discuss the role of each person in the establishment of the United States of America and its system of government.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was an American Polymath who took part in the foundation of the United States. He was also a political philosopher, politician, scientist, and postmaster. He played a significant role in the American Enlightenment as well as in the history of physics since he had several discoveries and theories regarding electricity (Weinberger, 2019).
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman, politician, a legal scholar as well as an economist. He was an influential interpreter and promoter of the constitution of the US. He also took part in the foundation of the UN’s financial system (Roediger III & DeSoto, 2016).
George Washington
George Washington was an American political leader, military leader as well as a statesman. He was the founding father of the United States and served as the first president of the USA.
Thomas Jefferson
An American philosopher and statesman who drafted the U.S. Declaration of independence. He was also the third president of the United States. He believed in a representative democracy, arguing that the will of the people was expressed through elections and that the decision of the majority was paramount.
James Madison
An American statesman, philosopher, lawyer, founding father, and the fourth president of the united states of America. He participated in the drafting of the American constitution, for example, through the Virginia plan. He was also a strong advocate of a federal system of government evident through his writings of federalist papers(Bernhardt, David, Gutierrez, & McFarlane, 2018).
John Adams
He was an American statesman who became the second president of the country. He was the leader of the American revolution that helped the country attain its independence from Britain. In this way, he played a pivotal role in the establishment of self-governance in the U.S. He was also an advocate of federalism (Adams, 2016).
Political Factions
In 2-3 sentences, provide a brief explanation of each of these factions, and discuss how each viewed the power and scope of the U.S. Federal government.
Federalists
Federalists refer to a group of people that supported the establishment of a federal government in the united states after independence, for example, James Madison. They argued that it was the best system to achieve good governance in the country (Aroney & Kincaid, 2017)
Anti-Federalists
Anti-federalists, on the other hand, were another group of people that opposed the adoption of the federal government. They feared that the government would be too powerful to the point of threatening individual freedoms and liberties (Oldham, 2018).
Types of Democracy
In 2-3 sentences, discuss the characteristics and principles of each type of government, and describe how (if at all) those principles are used in the structure of the U.S. system of government.
Representative Democracy
Representative democracy, also referred to as direct democracy, is a type of democracy where the people elect leaders to represent their interests and concerns. The elected officials act as the custodians of their people’s attention by ensuring that they are addressed accordingly. This is the system applied in the United States of America (Lovenduski, 2019).
Concepts
In 2-3 sentences, describe how each of these concepts exists in the organization of the U.S. federal government, and discuss why this concept is essential in a representative democracy.
Separation of Powers
This refers to the distribution of government functions to the different arms, namely; the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. This limits the features of each division, thus preventing one from performing the function of another (Redish & Pope, 2019).
Checks and Balances
This a system that gives each arm of government a sense of independence by clearly stating the role of each arm. It prevents one branch from expressing too much power (Mautner, 2016).
References
Adams, J. (2016). Papers of John Adams, Volume 18 Vol. 18: December 1785-January 1787: Harvard University Press.
Allison, J. W. (2018). Minimizing Magna Carta and modernizing exposition of the rule of law in the English historical constitution. In Handbook on the Rule of Law: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Aroney, N., & Kincaid, J. (2017). Courts in federal countries: federalists or unitarists? : University of Toronto Press.
Bernhardt, P., David, A., Gutierrez, V., & McFarlane, D. (2018). Past, Present and Future Development of James Madison Park.
Crepet, W. L., Nixon, K. C., & Weeks, A. (2018). Mid‐Cretaceous angiosperm radiation and an asterid origin of bilaterality: diverse and extinct “Ericales” from New Jersey. American journal of botany, 105(8), 1412-1423.
Jefferson, T. (2019). The declaration of independence: Verso.
Lovenduski, J. (2019). 3. Feminist Reflections on Representative Democracy. The Political Quarterly, 90, 18-35.
Mautner, G. (2016). Checks and balances: How corpus linguistics can contribute to CDA. Methods of critical discourse studies, 3, 155-180.
Miller, A. B. (2018). A Management Plan for Historic Bridges in Virginia: The 2017 Update. Retrieved from
Monk, L. R. (2018). The Bill of Rights: A User’s Guide: Hachette Books.
Oldham, A. S. (2018). The Anti-Federalists: Past as Prologue. NYUJL & Liberty, 12, 451.
Redish, M. H., & Pope, L. (2019). Pragmatic Formalism, Separation of Powers, and the Need to Revisit the Nondelegation Doctrine. Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, Forthcoming, 19-05.
Rodríguez, C. L. (2018). Mayflower Compact (1620). Orden constituyente y análisis de desmembramiento. Revista europea de historia de las ideas políticas y de las instituciones públicas(13), 388-393.
Roediger III, H. L., & DeSoto, K. A. (2016). Recognizing the presidents: was Alexander Hamilton president? Psychological science, 27(5), 644-650.
Schouls, P. A. (2018). Reasoned freedom: John Locke and enlightenment: Cornell University Press.
Shackleton, R. (2017). Montesquieu, Bolingbroke, and the separation of powers. In Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (pp. 405-418): Routledge.
Tooker, E. (2017). The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League. In The Invented Indian (pp. 107-128): Routledge.
Weinberger, J. (2019). Benjamin Franklin Unmasked: On the Unity of His Moral, Religious, and Political Thought: University Press of Kansas.