Post No. 57, The Origins of American Democracy (repost)

Because we just celebrated our nation's 250th anniversary, it is timely to repost "The Origins of American Democracy" from two years ago. Perhaps it will give pause to those who are considering a revolution today. It looks at the most influential ideas that influenced American founding fathers to first break from England, and then create their own unique compact of government, the American Constitution. 

From Post No. 34, June 2024  

Our democracy owes much to British influence.  Prior to the revolution, the colonies operated under England’s limited monarchy.  Each colony had a Governor as the executive branch, appointed by the King, a Colonial Counsel (subject to England’s House of Lords), and a Constituent Assembly, elected by male, land owing American colonists.  The Governor of each colony enforced the laws which were based on English common law.  So, even before the revolution, there was a system governed by established law of government in the colonies with an executive (the colonial governor) and a legislative arm elected by the people. The problem was that the King and the British parliament had absolute right to veto or institute new measures in the colonies if they so desired.  This was seldom used but the right still existed.  And, importantly, American colonists had no direct representation in the British parliament. When the British began to enforce taxes and actions against the wishes of the colonists, the colonists’ rebellion was primarily based on the writing of one man from a century earlier.  More on this later.

It is interesting to investigate how England developed such a stable system of government with representation by the citizens/subjects when much of the rest of the world was largely dominated by absolute monarchs or dictators.  England’s journey in this regard started a very long time ago in 1215 with the signing of the Magna Carta.  It was the first clear example of the power of an absolute monarch being limited.  It was the first baby step toward a constitutional monarchy in England, even if only the titled aristocracy were the only one’s that could question the King.  The next major step toward a representative government occurred in 1688 with the Glorious Revolution in England.  It was actually an invasion by the Dutch King William, supported by key figures in England.  William was married to the English King James’ daughter, Mary.  The upshot of this “revolution” was that William and Mary were acknowledged as King and Queen, but not before they agreed to the supremacy of the British parliament and a bill of rights for ordinary citizens. Interestingly, several of these rights are included in the American Bill of Rights.  So America’s journey toward a representative Republic was very much aided by England’s own journey toward a constitutional monarchy.

The ideas that had the most influence on the American Colonies’ rebellion against England, and the basis for forming a people’s compact, the American Constitution, is mostly due to one man, John Locke.   He was a philosopher and is mainly known for his political philosophy although he had other groundbreaking ideas concerning human nature, a topic not for this post.  He lived during latter half of the 1600s and was active during England’s Glorious Revolution in 1688.  His ideas on government are mainly included in his “Two Treatises of Government” and “A Letter Concerning Toleration”.

Locke posited that individuals have “natural rights”.  Like Thomas Hobbes before him, he imagined that an individual in nature is naturally free and and is able to pursue his needs as his reason dictates.  But in the state of nature there are always bad guys who will either do him harm or steal his property or his possessions.  To remedy this situation people will form a “commonwealth” and give up their natural rights to a government that makes and enforces common laws that all are bound by.  The maintenance of this government depends on the majority consent of the citizens involved in the compact, “the consent of the governed” in Locke’s words.  Therefore Locke states that “The great and chief end of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property (life, liberty and estates).  To which in the state of nature there are many things wanting.”   

Unlike Hobbes before him, Locke insists that “no one is above the Law” and that the monarch or executive is bound by the same laws as everyone else in the commonwealth.  Otherwise, an executive could easily take actions against the benefit of the people or against the will of the people, and in effect, become a dictator.  But he also insisted that the people should not rise up against the government unless there are serious instances of tyranny by the government.  He even suggests that “moderate tyranny” is not enough to justify rebelling against the government, and that any group that rebels must have serious grievances to justify such action.

One might recognize from the American Declaration of Independence the words and reasoning of John Locke.  The preamble to the July 1776 Declaration states:

“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation”  (underlining mine).  

A major part of the declaration provides a list of nineteen “grievances” that compel them to rebel against the British.  One might also recognize Locke in the Declaration’s words:

“that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty  and the Pursuit of Happiness”

The underlined piece is direct from Locke’s writings.  Jefferson, who penned the first draft of the declaration, wrote that John Locke was “one of the three greatest men that ever lived” (Newton and Bacon the other two).  It is notable that Jefferson was also influenced by Locke’s “Letter Concerning Toleration”.  Jefferson adopted Locke's ideas when years earlier he helped created colonial Virginia's constitution, which included for the first time the idea of separation of church and state.

The next step (after the British were defeated in the Revolutionary War) was the writing of a new constitution for this new government.  John Locke was heavily referenced by the founding fathers in writing this “compact” for the “commonwealth” of the people.  One other example is Locke’s “Letter Concerning Toleration”, which was incorporated in the Constitution’s sections concerning separation of church and state.

I suggest there is one other person who had a major influence on the structure of the Constitution: the French philosopher Montesquieu and his main work “The Spirit of the Law” in 1748.  He outlined a process for the separation and balance of powers into a legislature, an executive and a judicial branch of government.   James Madison, a writer of the Federalist Papers, that provided the reasoning for much of what became the U.S. constitution, made frequent references to Montesquieu.  Madison wrote that Montesquieu is to the idea of separation of powers as “Homer is to epic poetry”.

One could say that our democracy, our Republic, is heavily indebted to the British and two main individuals, one British (John Locke) and one French (Montesquieu).  Of course, our founding fathers were aware of other writers, such as Hume, Voltaire and the ancient Greeks and Romans, but none were more influential than the two described in this post.