Origins of Government
A N C I E N T G R E E K ’ S I N F LU E N C E
O N A M E R I C A N D E M O C R AC Y
Great Council passed laws that were favorable
to the wealthy.
Many Greeks wanted to participate in the
lawmaking process.
Citizens were permitted to participate in
lawmaking
Only men who owned large plots of land
were considered citizens
A N C I E N T RO M E ’ S I N F LU E N C E
O N A M E R I C A N G OV E R N M E N T
Romans established a Republic
More and more people were permitted to vote.
Romans decided that the laws be written down
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS
INFLUENCING AMERICAN
GOVERNMENT
1.
Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
2.
John Locke (1632 – 1704)
3.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
4.
Baron de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)
THOMAS HOBBES

In nature, people were cruel, greedy and selfish. They
would fight, rob, and oppress one another.

To escape this people would enter into a social
contract: they would give up their freedom in return
for the safety and order of an organized society.

Therefore, Hobbes believed that a powerful
government like an absolute monarchy was best for
society – it would impose order and compel
obedience. It would also be able to suppress rebellion.
Hobbes #2

His most famous work was called Leviathan.

Hobbes has been used to justify absolute power
in government.

His view of human nature was negative, or
pessimistic. Life without laws and controls would
be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Hobbes #3 - Quotes

A man's conscience and his judgment is the same
thing; and as the judgment, so also the
conscience, may be erroneous.

In the state of nature, profit is the measure of
right.

Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.
JOHN LOCKE

Believed in natural laws and natural rights.

At birth, the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank tablet.
Everything we know comes from the experience of the
senses – empiricism.

We are born with rights because they are a part of
nature, of our very existence – they come from god.

At birth, people have the right to life, liberty, and
property.
Locke #2

Most famous works are the Two Treatises on Government.

Rulers / governments have an obligation, a responsibility,
to protect the natural rights of the people it governs.

If a government fails in its obligation to protect natural
rights, the people have the right to overthrow that
government.

The best government is one which is accepted by all of the
people and which has limited power (Locke liked the
English monarchy where laws limited the power of the
king).
Locke #3

Locke’s ideas influenced Thomas Jefferson more
than anything else when Jefferson wrote the US
Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Locke justified revolution in the eyes of the
Founding Fathers.

Locke also influenced later revolutions in France
(1789) and in many other places in the world in
the 19th Century.
Locke #4 - Quotes

All mankind... being all equal and independent,
no one ought to harm another in his life, health,
liberty or possessions.

I have always thought the actions of men the
best interpreters of their thoughts.

The reason why men enter into society is the
preservation of their property.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

People are basically good but become corrupted
by society (like the absolute monarchy in
France).

For Rousseau, the social contract was the path
to freedom: people should do what is best for
their community.

The general will (of the people) should direct
the state toward the common good. Hence, the
good of the community is more important than
individual interests.

His most famous work was The Social Contract.

JJR questioned authority - absolute monarchy and religion.

JJR was passionate, he hated political and economic
oppression.

Influenced later revolutionaries, both middle class and
socialist.
Rousseau #2
Rousseau #3 - Quotes

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to
legitimate powers.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty,
but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can
seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a
minority can.
MONTESQUIEU

He strongly criticized absolute monarchy and
was a voice for democracy.

Separation of Powers - the best way to
protect liberty was to divide the powers of
government into three branches: legislative;
executive; and judicial.

Checks and Balances – each branch of
government should check (limit) the power of
the other two branches. Thus, power would
be balanced (even) and no one branch would
be too powerful.

Montesquieu studied the history of
governments and cultures all over the world.

His first book, The Persian Letters, ridiculed the
absolute monarchy and social classes in France. He
also wrote The Spirit of the Laws.

Montesquieu’s ‘separation of powers’ and ‘checks and
balances’ greatly influenced James Madison and the
other framers of the US Constitution. These ideas are
at the core of American government to this day.
Montesquieu #2
Montesquieu #3 – Quotes

The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the
lawgiver.

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the
proper degree of power that should be exerted on different
occasions.

The origins of America’s government can be traced back
some 200-300 years.

The new colonists in the Americas as they began to settle
along the cost and develop colonies, ports, and cities,
would take ideas from the Enlightenment Period.

In the case of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts, some groups
were escaping persecution in England.

Many of the laws that would come to be created stemmed
from the ideas of equal treatment for all men.
Ideas behind the forms of
Government
Ideas behind the forms of
Government, continued
• The need for an ordered social system, or
government.
• The idea of limited government, that is,
that government should not be allpowerful.
• The concept of representative
government—a government that serves
the will of the people
Influences on American
Government
The Magna Carta,
The English Bill of Rights,
The Mayflower Compact
Influences on American
Government
English document
signed in 1215
 Name means “Great
Charter”
 Limited the power of
the monarch
 How did it influence
American Government?

◦ Gave Americans ideas
about:
 Property rights
 Right to a trial by jury
 Legislative taxing power
The Magna Carta
Established in 1689
when William and Mary
took over England after
King James II was
kicked off of the throne
by Parliament.
 Kept the king from
passing laws without
Parliament’s consent
 How did it influence
American Government?

◦ Gave Americans ideas
about:
 Legislative power (checks
and balances)
 Basic rights of citizens
English Bill of Rights
Established 1620 by the
Pilgrims for the general
good of the colony
 First attempt by
colonists to govern
themselves
 How did it influence
American government?

◦ Gave Americans ideas
about:
 Self-government through
laws made BY THE
PEOPLE
Mayflower Compact
How our government formed over
Time
Three types of American Colonies
The royal colonies were ruled directly by
the English monarchy.
 The King granted land to people in North
America, who then formed proprietary
colonies.
 The charter colonies were mostly selfgoverned, and their charters were granted
to the colonists.


Until the mid-1700s, the colonies were
allowed a great deal of freedom in their
governments by the English monarchy.

In 1760, King George III imposed new
taxes and laws on the colonists.

The colonists would eventually: form a
confederation, propose an annual
congress, and began to rebel for
independence.
British Colonial Practices
Earliest forms of government

Mayflower Compact
◦ Colonists on the Mayflower signed the Compact
agreeing to help aid in the common good of all
the people.
◦ They agreed to create laws and follow the laws.
◦ This form of government was basically a
classical liberalism.

Virginia Colony
◦ Known for its rocky start in which the colony
experienced times of hardship, but thanks to
James Smith, Jamestown developed a “No work,
no food” policy and soon prospered.
Origins of Colonial Unity


Early Attempts
In 1643, several
New England
settlements
formed the New
England
Confederation.
A confederation
is a joining of
several groups for
a common
purpose.
Origins of Colonial Unity


The Albany Plan
In 1754, Benjamin Franklin
proposed the Albany Plan of
Union, in which an annual
congress of delegates
(representatives) from each of
the 13 colonies would be
formed.
Would inspire some of the basis
for the future Articles of
Confederation.
The Mid-1700’s in America
Problems with the British
During the mid-1700’s, the
British would begin to impose
unfair laws such as taxes to the
American colonists.
 Most of the taxes would be in an
effort to create revenue to fuel
the British military campaigns in
Canada or abroad.
 The Intolerable Acts were a set of
laws put forth by British colonial
rulers that imposed unfair
treatment of the American
colonies OR imposed heavy taxes
upon the colonists, or goods they
purchased.

Intolerable Acts

Stamp Act of 1765

Townshend Acts of 1768

Quartering Act of 1765

Tea Act of 1773
◦ Required printed documents to be produced on
stamped paper and carry a Revenue (tax) stamp.
◦ Acts that lead to further Taxation
◦ An act created by Thomas Gage, commander-inchief of the British in America. Used the act to allow
soldiers to stay in the houses of colonists.
◦ An act to help the struggling British Easy India
company survive, as well as to support the
Townshend duties.
◦ Also attempted to cut down on smuggling tea into
the Americas.
Intolerable Acts Continued
“No Taxation without
Representation!”
A Quote from the 1750’s and 1760’s in which
many colonists felt they were not directly
represented in the distant British Parliament.
 Any laws that were passed that were aimed at
taxing them were illegal under the English Bill of
Rights, 1689.
 This slogan, along with the idea of fair treatment
and equal representation would become further
basis for laws in the new future government.
 Intolerable Acts angered many Americans and
would be one of the primary factors for
Independence.
