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The influence of enlightenment on American society
How enlightenment influenced american government
The influence of enlightenment on American society
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There are many things that the government does well. There are definitely flaws in the systems, but the government does its job of upholding the values espoused by the Enlightenment regarding the proper role of government. The government does establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, providing common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessing of liberty. Here are the facts on how the government provide these things and how it makes America healthy:
The first way the government upholds the values of the Enlightenment is by establishing justice. Establishing justice is the government 's legal system that makes fair decisions for its citizens. The American government has created 3 separate branches to function. These
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Well let’s start with the definition of domestic tranquility. Domestic tranquility means that the U.S Government must maintenance law. That means that the government keeps thing safe and tries to preserve family life and its attendants rights. (http://www.civiced.org/ Terms to Know). The main way the U.S upholds domestic tranquility is by providing armed forces. These armed forces include the Marines, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, etc. The government creates and uses these forces to make sure America and it’s people are completely safe. America’s armed forces keep us safe from outside factors like terrorists. Our armed forces do not act alone. We have our own forces in the U.S that protect and serve cities and towns. We have a police department to protect a town from crime, a fire department that helps prevents and stop fires and hospitals that cure and treat sick or injured people. We also have things like the three systems to make sure the government is doing it’s job properly and fairly. With our armed forces to our own forces, the U.S Government does provide domestic tranquility by providing us with teams that promise to keep ourselves and cities safe.
James Madison said in The Federalist Papers “the operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger”
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What does this mean? This means that each citizen has good health, safety, morals and well being. (www.boundless.com/ Promoting General Welfare) There are many ways the U.S government tries its utmost hardest to provide general welfare. Some of these things include security, food laws, health care, education, etc. The government promotes general welfare by providing security because every citizen deserves protection and safety where they live. The U.S government provides protection with things such as police forces. The next example of general welfare is the food we eat. The U.S government makes things in our food legal and not legal for the sake of the people eating it. They do not want people to eat food that is complete chemicals. Though many foods do have chemicals and preservatives in it. We have a choice, we have choices between vegan food to organic food. Our government is trying to get rid of unhealthy choices, but also gives us healthy ones. The next one is health care. Though very controversial the U.S government is trying to give citizens affordable health care. Though in the process, they’ve accomplished some things. These include no co-pays on visits, low prices or free prescriptions, free shots, and birth control. Birth control has become an important thing lately. Now that it is more important, more people need it. But what if you do not have
I think government is important, but does not help preserve human society. History has gone throughout time and earlier generations have not had the knowledge and technology that we have today but we have evolved to what we are now without government. I think government is just there to keep everyone in line with laws and our rights and to control terrorism and making big decisions.
During the American Revolution, the Americans aspired to keep their government as far away from the resemblance of the British government as possible. Politics were changing in a time where the monarchs ruled the American people, that had to be put to a stop. States’ rights were being advocated into the new United States government as much as humanly possible. James Madison was a helper in writing the Federalist papers along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. Madison writes “you must first enable the government to control the governed” (Doc I), which demonstrates the authority that the Federalists initially wanted
It was established for the United States to have a document based foundation for the country to be run on. These Enlightenment thinkers got our founding fathers John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington all questioning God, Nature and Society. John Locke inspired our founding fathers to state in the document that all power should lie within out people. John Locke believed all people should have right to choose their leader. Montesquieu’s idea was also used in the United States Constitution. Montesquieu believed in the power of checks and balances, which means that not one branch of government gets too much power. Rousseau’s ideas were also presented in the United States Constitution. Rousseau’s idea was that all people get to vote for the president and congressmen. Other Enlightenment thinkers also have an influence on the United Sates Constitution. Voltaire’s ideas were also used he believed in religious freedom. The final thinker that is present in the structured law today is Cesare Beccaria. Beccaria believed that the accused have rights and that torture is unjust
In The Federalist Papers by James Madison, Madison discuses various aspects of government and how the government must be organized in order to better represent the people. In The Federalist, No. 10 Madison discusses the nature of political factions and parties and how they can affect the government and its practices. The Federalist, No. 51 discusses instead how the government being in branches helps maintain liberties and better protect the American people. The topics mentioned in The Federalist Papers continue to explain and structure our government today.
To say that the Articles of Confederation provided the United States of America with an effective government would be quite an over exaggeration. For most people in modern day, an effective government would be one that can govern mass numbers of people and still be politically correct in overruling decisions on matters while keeping the law in mind, yet keeping the benefit of common good front and center. But, the Articles of Confederation were not written in the present day, so these ideals of a competent government were not quite applicable. For most people, an effective government was one that could govern mass numbers of people, still giving the states and the people many rights, while still being able to keep all under control. This would have eliminated any possibility that a federal government could become too strong or resemble a monarchy. However, the Articles of Confederation did few of these things. The Articles of Confederation were ineffective because they provided a weak central government, did not give the authority to settle boundary disputes, and eventually led to civil unrest which included incidences such as Shays’ Rebellion.
There are many different ways in which the Enlightenment affected the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. One way was the by the idea of a Social Contract; an agreement by which human beings are said to have abandoned the "state of nature" in order to form the society in which they now live. HOBBES, LOCKE, and J.J. ROUSSEAU each developed differing versions of the social contract, but all agreed that certain freedoms had been surrendered for society's protection and that the government has definite responsibilities to its citizens. Locke believed that governments were formed to protect the natural rights of men, and that overthrowing a government that did not protect these rights was not only a right, but also an obligation. His thoughts influenced many revolutionary pamphlets and documents, including the Virginia Constitution of 1776, and the Declaration of Independence.
To begin with, the Enlightenment applied scientific methods to the study of human society just as prominent philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome. The Enlightenment period began with John Locke, an English philosopher who held a new concept of God called Deism, or the need for proof. He argued that people could learn everything they needed to know through their senses and reason, so faith was irrelevant. Locke published a book titled, Two Treatises of Civil Government which explains his theory of natural rights and natural law for all individuals. He then uses this to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate civil governments, and to argue for the rationality of a revolt against tyrannical governments. This was an idea of a social contract. This means that in order for one to be under the authority of a government, it must protect their rights to life, liberty, and property. If a government failed to protect these rights, then the people had the right to have a new government. This is the idea of popular sovereignty. Additionally, Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher argued that people act according to their own interest, but promote economic advancements while in competition. This meant that government should not regulate to favor individuals. It was decided that rational laws co...
The Declaration of Independence listed the grievances such as, “He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” The next important step to the foundation of a new government was to gain peoples ambition by showing how the government would be run if a new party took over. This goal was achieved by stating the rights of man. “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.” This statement made people hopeful and feel kindly toward this new government.
By the late eighteenth century, the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason as it was called had begun to rapidly spread across Europe. People began believing in the ideals of popular government, the centrality of economics to politics, secularism, and progress. This cultural movement was sparked by intellectuals and commonwealth thinkers such as the influential writer John Locke and the famous scientist Isaac Newton, both who emphasized the fact that man, by the use of reason, would be able to solve all of his problems-whether it be problems with the government, morals or the society. However, these ideals weren’t just limited to the European nations where they had first begun. On the other side of the world, off in the United States, American intellectuals began to reason with these ideas as well. As a result, the influence on the profound of modern economic and political thought had a huge impact on the United States, resulting in one of the most important documents in known in American history; the Constitution.
During his entire life, James Madison, who is one of the founding fathers, contributed many dedications to the States, especially when creating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As the fourth president of the U.S, he consciously chose to create a new model of presidential power that he thought would fit better with the system of the separation of powers after seeing “the danger overwrought executive power poses to republican constitutionalism” (Kleinerman). Despite of having such good intention, some of his actions led the country through some significant suffers.
Another very common example of the influence of the Enlightenment on our society is seen in the separation of power. The concept of separation of power into three branches was first introduced by Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu in his who believed that the government should be divided into three branches namely the Executive branch of government, whose duty is to ensure the implementation of the law, the Legislative branch of government, which is responsible for the creation and passing of law and finally the Judiciary branch of government that ensures that the laws are not broken and that those that do succeed in breaking the law are punished within the bounds of the law. In this quote “For we can not abuse power, must, by the arrangement
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison stresses that “measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.” Madison philosophized that a large republic, composed of numerous factions capable of competing with each other and the majority must exist in order to avoid tyranny of majority rule.# When Federalist No. 10 was published, the concept of pluralism was not widely used. However, the political theory that is the foundation for United States government was the influential force behind pluralism and its doctrines.
Government effects my life everyday in a vast variety of ways. From the quality of the milk that I drink in the morning, to the license and Insurance I need to drive my vehicle to school and work. Government also effects the taxes that are deducted from my salary. The government uses this money to protect consumers and provide services for the public amongst many other things.
Those who feared that the federal government would become too strong were assured by Madison in Federalist No. 14 that “in the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administrating laws…The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all those other objects which can be separately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity”
Therefore, the Enlightenment age was an important time in the history of both Europe and America. The ideas of the Enlightenment not only brought new ideas in the way of human thinking, but it also established new understandings of sovereignty and the relation of the leaders to their subjects. First, the Enlightenment absolutism took place. Peter the Great is the most accurate example of this way of governing. In England, the constitutionalism was the way of government. But those kind of governments were not what Enlightened philosophers thought was ideal. After the American and French revolution, a new kind of government emerged, the republican government. Under the republican government, the sovereignty lies on the people. In other words, people are the government, and they have the right to choose their representatives.