The Roots of American Government

This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.

The years from the 1750s until the mid-1770s were uneasy times in the colonies. First the colonists fought the French and American Indians to gain land. Then they argued with the British king about their rights and freedom.

Democracy in all the colonies grew rapidly. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress took the step that many Americans believed was inevitable. It cut all political ties with Britain and declared that «these United Colonies are free, and independent states». Two days later, on July 4, it issued the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence is the most important document in American history. It was written by Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer from Virginia.

After repeating that the colonies were now «free and independent states» it officially named them the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence was more than a statement that the colonies were a new nation. It said that governments should consist of representatives elected by the people; that the main reason that governments existed was to protect the rights of individual citizens.

What Is Law?

Law is the whole set of rules that are supported by the power of government and that control the behaviour of members of a society. The law itself provides the basic structure within which commerce and industry operate. It safeguards the rights of individuals, regulates their dealings with others and enforces the duties of government.

There are two main kinds of the law — public and private (civil). Private law concerns disputes among citizens within a country, and public law concerns disputes between citizens and the state, or between one state and another.

The system of law consists of different categories of law.

There are laws which enable citizens to take legal action against the state. These actions are part of constitutional law. A constitution is the political and ideological structure within which a system of laws operates. Most countries have a formal written Constitution describing how laws are to be made and enforced.

Many countries face similar social, economic and political problems. Nations have always made political and economic treaties with each other. International law is created to regulate relations between governments and also between private citizens of one country and those of another.

Criminal law deals with wrongful acts harmful to the community and punishable by the state.

Civil law deals with individual rights, duties and obligations towards one another.

As well as defining the powers of government, most constitutions describe the fundamental rights of citizens. These usually include general declarations about freedom and equality, but, also some specific provisions. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was first adopted in 1950 and has now been signed by every country of Western Europe. Individual citizens of these countries have the right to bring a complaint before the European Commission if they think their government has broken the Convention. But despite the development of legally binding national and international conventions, millions of people in the world still do not enjoy human rights.

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Roots of Democracy in the USA

Студентка 4 курса

Нестерова Наталья Васильевна

преподаватель – к.ф.н. Е.В.Белик

Одинцово 2014 г.

                                             
— President Abraham Lincoln

                                                
Gettysburg Address, 1863

Speaking at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg in the midst of a great civil war
fought to preserve the United States as a country, President Lincoln
gave us in his ringing conclusion perhaps the best-known definition
of democracy in American history. By «government of the people,
by the people, and for the people,» he meant, the essentials of
democratic government he so well described are applicable to all nations
that aspire to a democratic society.

Democracy is hard, perhaps the most complex and difficult of all forms of government. It is filled with tensions and contradictions, and
requires that its members labor diligently to make it work. Democracy
is not designed for efficiency, but for accountability; a democratic
government may not be able to act as quickly as a dictatorship, but
once committed to a course of action it can draw upon deep wellsprings
of popular support. Democracy, certainly in its American form, is never
a finished product, but is always evolving. The outer forms of government
in the United States have altered little in two centuries, but once
we look past the surface we discover great changes. Yet, most Americans
believe — and rightly so — that the basic principles underlying their
government derive directly from notions first enunciated by the framers
of the Constitution in 1787.

The root principles

Constitutionalism: Law-making must take place within certain parameters; there must
be approved methods for laws to be made and to be changed, and certain
areas — namely the rights of individuals — must be off limits to the
whims of majority rule. A constitution is a law, but at the same time
it is much more than that. It is the organic document of a government,
laying out the powers of the different branches as well as the limits
on governmental authority. A key feature of constitutionalism is that
this basic framework cannot easily be changed because of the wishes
of a transient majority. It requires the consent of the governed expressed
in a clear and unambiguous manner. In the United States, the Constitution
has been amended only 27 times since 1787. The framers made the amendment
process difficult but not impossible. Most of the amendments have extended
democracy by enlarging individual rights and wiping away differences
based on race or gender. None of these amendments were lightly undertaken,
and when adopted, all had the support of a great majority of the people.

Creation of law: History records that formal laws have been made by mankind for five
millennia, but the methods different societies have used to make the
rules under which they will live have varied enormously, from edicts
by god-kings to majority vote at village meetings. In the United States,
law is made at many levels, from local town councils, on up through
state legislatures, to the U.S. Congress. But at all these levels, there
is a large input from the citizenry, either directly or indirectly.
Law-making bodies recognize that they are responsible to their constituents,
and if they do not legislate in the people’s best interests, they will
face defeat at the next election. The key to democratic law-making is
not the mechanism or even the forum in which it takes place, but the
sense of accountability to the citizenry and the need to recognize the
wishes of the people.

An independent judiciary: Alexander Hamilton remarked in The Federalist in 1788-89 that the
courts, being without the powers of either sword or purse, would be
«the least dangerous branch» of the government. Yet courts
can be very powerful in a democracy, and in many ways are the operating
arm through which constitutional constraints are interpreted and enforced.
In the United States, the courts may declare acts of Congress and of
state legislatures invalid because they conflict with the Constitution,
and may enjoin presidential actions on similar grounds. The greatest
defender of individual rights in the United States has been the court
system; this is made possible because most judges have life tenure and
can focus on legal issues without the distraction of politics. While
not all constitutional courts are the same, there must be a body that
has the authority to determine what the Constitution says, and when
different branches of government have exceeded their powers.

Role of interest groups: In the 18th century, and in fact well into the 19th, law-making represented
primarily a dialogue between the voters and their elected representatives
in Congress or in state and local governments. Because the population
was smaller, governmental programs more limited, and communications
simpler, there was no need for citizens to resort to mediating organizations
for assistance in making their views known. But, in the 20th century,
society grew more complex, and the role of government expanded. Now
there are many issues that voters need to speak about, and in order
to make their voices heard on specific matters, citizens create lobby
groups, groups advocating public and private interests, and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) devoted to single issues. There has been much internal
criticism of this aspect of American democracy, and some people claim
that those interests with access to large sums of money can make their
voices better heard than those with fewer resources. There is a certain
truth to that criticism, but the fact of the matter is that there are
hundreds of these groups who help to educate the public and lawmakers
about particular matters, and in doing so they help many individual
citizens of ordinary means get their views known to their lawmakers
in a complex age. With the age of the Internet upon us, the number of
voices will increase even more, and these NGOs will help to refine and
focus citizen interest in an effective manner.

Protecting minority rights: If by «democracy» we mean rule by the majority, then one
of the great problems in a democracy is how minorities are treated.
By «minorities» we do not mean people who voted against the
winning party, but rather those who are indelibly different from the
majority by reasons of race, religion, or ethnicity. In the United States,
the great problem has been that of race; it took a bloody civil war
to free black slaves, and then another century before people of color
could count on free exercise of their constitutional rights. The problem
of racial equality is one that the United States is still wrestling
with today. But this is part of the evolutionary nature of democracy,
the drive to become more inclusive and to grant to those who are different
from the majority not only protection against persecution but the opportunity
to participate as full and equal citizens. Examples of nations treating
their minorities in a bloody and horrible manner are numerous, and the
Nazi Holocaust against the Jews is only the most vivid illustration.
But no society can aspire to call itself democratic if it systematically
excludes specific groups from the full protection of the laws.

Civilian control of the military: In ancient times, the primary responsibility of a leader was to lead
society’s military forces either to defend the nation or to conquer
others. All too often, the popularity of a successful general led him
to seek control of the government through force; he who controlled the
military could easily sweep all others aside. In modern times we have
seen, far too many times to count, a colonel or general using the power
of the army in a coup to overthrow the civilian government. In a democracy,
the military must not only be under the actual control of civilian authorities,
but it must have a culture that emphasizes the role of soldiers as the
servants and not the rulers of society. This is easier to accomplish
when there is a citizen army, whose officers come from all sectors of
society and after a term of service, return to civilian life. But the
principle remains the same: The military must always be subordinate;
its job is to protect democracy and not rule.

We can derive certain overarching themes. First, and most important,
is that in a democracy the ultimate source of all authority is the people.
The Constitution of the United States announces this boldly in its first
words: «We, the People of the United States . . . do ordain and
establish this Constitution.» All powers in government must come
from the people, and must be accepted by them as legitimate. This validation
takes place through a variety of means, including the processes of making
law as well as free and fair elections.

A second general principle is that there must be a division of powers
so that no one part of the government can become so strong as to subvert the will of the people. Although the president
is always seen as the most powerful office in American government, the
Constitution limits those powers and requires the chief executive to
work in harmony with the other branches as well as with the constituency
of voters. Although civilian control of the military would seem to place
great power in the president’s hands, the culture underlying the military
in a democratic society works against the misuse of that force. Courts
also exist to serve as limitations not only on the executive but on
the legislative branch as well. In a democracy, government must be in
a balance, and all the different parts must appreciate the wisdom and
necessity of that balance.

Third, the rights of individuals and of minorities must be respected, and the majority may not use
its power to deprive any person of basic liberties. In a democracy this
may often be difficult, especially if there is a diverse population
holding diverse views on critical subjects. But once a government deprives
one group of rights, then the rights of all the people are in jeopardy.

These themes run throughout the Democracy Papers, and each topic supports
all of these overarching principles. The will of the people is ensured
through free and fair elections, through the making of law, through a free press
examining the workings of government, and through a right to know what
the government is doing. It expresses itself through interest groups,
even if a bit unevenly. In the United States, the division of powers
is mandated by the Constitution, an organic document held in near reverence
by the American people. It is also seen in limitations imposed upon
the government, by civilian control of the military, and by a federal
system. And rights of minorities are ensured through many means, the
most important of which is an independent judiciary.

But can these principles be translated into other cultures? There
is no simple answer, because the success of any governmental system
depends on so many intertwined features. During the colonial period in American history,
the imperial government in London could not exert close control of its
distant American colonies, and so power and authority devolved onto
the local legislatures. This in turn led to a federal system encapsulated
in a Constitution that reflects the peculiar historical situation of
the people of the United States. The perceived excesses of the British
king led to limits on executive authority, while the experience of a
citizen militia laid the basis for civilian control of the military.

Individual rights proved harder, but as democracy has evolved in the
United States, the rights of the people have expanded from those of
white, property-owning men to include men and women of all races, colors, and creeds. Diversity, originally seen as a problem for government,
became one of the great strengths of democracy. With so many different
peoples, religions and cultures in large democratic nations, any effort
to impose one uniform manner of life would have proven disastrous. Instead
of fighting diversity, the American people made it a cornerstone of
their democratic faith.

Other nations as they experiment with democracy — and it is always
an experiment — will need to examine how the attributes described in these papers can best be created and sustained in their own
culture. There is no one way; to paraphrase the poet Walt Whitman, democracy
is a multitude, often contradicting itself. But if we keep our eye on
the basic, immutable principles — that ultimate authority resides in
the people, that governmental powers must be limited, and that individual
rights must be protected-then there can be many ways in which to achieve
those goals.

Constitutionalism, in its most general meaning, is «a complex of ideas, attitudes,
and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority
of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law».

1) Roots of Democracy in America by author E. Holt (1941)

2) Современные соединенные штаты Америки.
Энциклопедический справочник. — 1988

3) Власова Е. А., Костенко С.М. Focus on the USA.
– СПб.: Наука, 1992

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