He believed in “Life, Liberty, and Property.” One of the main framers that John Locke influenced majorly was a classical liberal and that was Thomas Jefferson. (Stephenson 119) Jefferson once states, “Our liberty depends upon the freedom of the press.” He played a big role in the creation of the Bill of Rights, which are all about equality and being liberal. He was the one who contacted Madison and told him to ratify the constitution because it lacked a bill of rights and the failure to provide for rotation in office. James Madison was the father of the Constitution and drafted the Bill Of Rights, which is all about equality. To make the people feel equally powered with the government and Madison was a liberal.
The main focus of liberalism is liberty and freedom, there are two types of liberalism classical and new liberalism, this therefore determines the type of liberty they want to achieve. Firstly liberals have a fear that some potential consequences of government such as no legitimate authority, the tendency for power to become concentrated in too few hands and the democratic systems may simply become the tyranny of the majority. Through this fear they offer a solution through the liberal constitution, it defines the right of citizens which could be a safeguard against encroachments by governments, distributes power among different institutions of government to prevent the concentration of power. These are only a few of many. By combining the doctrines of government by consent and constitutionalism, modern liberals have found a way of reconciling effective government with the right and freedoms of both the individual and intermediate groups.
The idea of freedom and pursuing democracy is especially pushed within classical liberalism and this can be seen through thinkers such as John Locke who envisioned individuals as being free and equal, having given consent to the government and therefore authority deriving from them not the people above. The French liberal Benjamin Constant said that the main enemies of liberty were over “powerful governments” and J.S Mill backed this point up with his view that the only purpose which power can rightfully be exercised over a member of a civilised society, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. Through the ideas of these thinkers within classical liberalism it is clear that because democracy defends freedom, it is promoted by liberalism as it allows citizens to protect themselves from tyrannical governments and not be repressed by the state. Furthermore, one can see that through democracy a political consensus is promoted which leads to political stability, if not everyone is given an equal chance to voice their opinion and views then this would go against the idea of giving the people free speech and steering away from an over paternalistic government. Indeed, it can be
The counter to elitism are the theories of egalitarianism and populism, which are doctrines in which they support the rights and powers of the common people in their ongoing struggle with the political elitism, they believe that all people are equal. Also, a strong belief that the common people can work together and have an equal opportunity to participate in democracy. (Abramowitz, 2003 pps.3-5) Each doctrine can be attached to a specific political party, to help understand who the elites are. Egalitarianism and Populism are best associated with Democrats. Whereas self reliance is associated with Republicans.
Oppressed and “poor” citizens would have the opportunity to succeed. Since the English colonists and founding fathers pushed for independence and self-reliance, they could then make a statement of unity, taking ownership of land and property, a majority of citizens profiting and political power. Another advantage of creating a nation is developing social harmony. They urged for a “middle” social class, as opposed to a majority of “poor” citizens and a few wealthy citizens, who have all of the power and control. Zinn pays tribute to the founding fathers by stating how effective their intentions were to start the American Revolution.
In general pressure groups are seen as an important element in modern democracy however they can also be seen as undemocratic. Pluralist democracy is the idea that democracy represents multiple different sections and groups and that political power is distributed in society. Pressure groups help to enhance this as they represent causes which may be ignored by the majority due to political parties and allow political power to be spread to the public as it’s a form of political participation, this allows the avoidance of dangerous concentrations of power. Evidently pressure groups are effective and enhance pluralist democracy as governments pay attention to pressure groups and consider the demands and decide to consent to them influencing any decisions, this shows they are accepting and know the effect pressure groups have as the government has not restricted creation and action of pressure groups. In addition a function of pressure groups is to inform and educate the public, this allow improvement of democracy as the electorate can make a more informed decision in political participation, such as the general election and referendums.
Common Sense Government as Defined by Thomas Paine Common Sense – an influential pamphlet authored by Thomas Paine galvanized American colonists to seek independence from Great Britain and unite under a representative democratic republican government. At the time Common Sense was distributed, it was a commonly held belief amongst the colonists that the English Constitution and British monarchy were the sources of political authority to which they were bound. Thus, even though colonists were frustrated and angered by the taxation and authority being exerted over them by the royal monarchy, to most colonists, at the outset it made “common sense” to obey the British monarchy and seek reconciliation, as opposed to separation. However, in Thomas Paine’s view it made “common sense” for the colonists to reject the widely accepted political notion of monarchy and to embrace a representative democratic government. With intent, he titled his pamphlet Common Sense, and
Article VII states that certain individuals get certain power- to a Classical Liberal power (in theory) should be distributed and shared; a higher power leads to different classes (like the bourgeois) or to more government, this is not a Classical Liberal ideology. Lastly Article VIII benefits the people but it is meant for the “common good”- not the individual. A Classical Liberal believes it should be all about the individual and that is how we achieve true economic prosperity for all. Classical Liberalism is not an outdated ideology in fact it is still used today. For instance: a Liberal (or Democrat) still believes in small government as well as thinking about the individual and constantly striving to make things better.
With this way, the self-interest ambition of one branch will counter the ambition of other branches just like James Madison wrote in federalist no. 51 that “Ambition…be made to counteract ambition”. And basing upon on the pluralist theory that the power in society is distributed among those interest group that compete with one another to take control of public policy. One more time, the Constitution has the control to limit these groups to avoid violence and aggression cause by these factions. Therefore, by using majoritarian principle and pluralist theory, James Madison affirmed that Republican has the power to control the faction’s effect better than
“to make the world a better place, we have to extend democracy to every level of society @presidentobama #people” * This is significant to the Socialist Action Party because they believe that the government should give equal finance oppurtunies to all levels of society. The party would like for everybody to be treated the same and everyonce should be offered the same thing. You cant just extend democracy to a certain group of people, you have to extend it to everyone. 6. “modern history is divided between the working class and the capitol class” * This is significant to the Socialist Action Party because people in the USA are divided by working titles, and this party wants to deplete that.