1. Roots of American Democracy

2. Judeo-Christian Traditions
• Justice stressed that people should
create society based on respect for the
law

3. Natural Law
• Universal set of moral principles that
supersedes human law
• If human law violated natural law, it is
unjust

4. Direct Democracy
• Ancient Greece
• Took root in New England town
meetings

5. Representative Democracy
• Ancient Rome
• Decision making by officials elected
from citizenry

6. English Tradition built on 3
main documents:
• Magna Carta
• Petition of Right
• English Bill of Rights

7. Magna Carta
• Charter: written grant of authority
• Limited the king’s power
• Rule of law
– All people, including monarch, are subject
to the law

8. Petition of Right
• Limited government
– King’s power not absolute
• Prohibited arbitrary arrests and
quartering of troops in private homes
without owners consent

9. English Bill of Rights, 1689
• Individual rights
– Rights that are yours simply because you’re
human
• New rights included:
– Right to petition king
– Right to bear arms
– Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment
– Right to trial by jury

10. English Enlightenment
• Thomas Hobbes
– Social-contract theory
• Hobbes believed man in natural state
was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and
short.”
• People willing to give up some freedom
in exchange for peace and order
– Groundwork for idea that government
formed by consent of the people

11. • John Locke
– Social-contract theory
• Locke believed man in natural state was equal and
enjoyed natural rights
• Agreed with Hobbes that people willing to give up
some freedoms in exchange for government’s
protection
• Argued that if government failed to protect natural
rights that people had the right to overthrow the
government and make a new one
– Natural rights
• Rights all people have simply because they’re
human
• Includes life, liberty and property

12. French Enlightenment
• Baron de Montesquieu
– Charles-Louis de Secondat
– Separation of Powers
• Government should be organized in a
way that prevents any one person or
group from dominating
– Three Branches
• Executive, Legislative, Judicial
• Separate functions for each branch

13. • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
– Popular sovereignty
• General will of the people (people
power)
• In order for government to have
legitimacy it must be based on popular
sovereignty
– If government acts against general will, it
has broken social contract and should be
dissolved

14. Mayflower Compact, 1620
• Agreed to live in a “Civil Body Politic”
and obey equal laws created by chosen
representatives
• First written framework for self-
government

15. Massachusetts Body of
Liberties
• New England’s first code of laws
• Guaranteed basic rights

16. Declaration of Independence
• Government formed to protect
“unalienable” (can’t be taken away)
rights
– Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
• Government gets its “powers from the
consent of the governed”
– Popular sovereignty