Influencing Philosophies - AP Government and Politics

John Locke was an English Enlightenment-Era philosopher who famously wrote two treatises on government. His beliefs that there were certain inalienable rights granted to all individuals—to life, liberty, and property—were very influential over many of the American Founding Fathers. In particular, Thomas Jefferson based many of his writings and political opinions on John Locke’s philosophies, as can be seen, for example, in his own writing that all men have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Leviathan was written by Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century. It can be seen as the philosophical foil for John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government. In The Leviathan, Hobbes argue that human beings are naturally belligerent and inclined toward aggressive competition and self-interest. He believed that, due to the defects of human nature, the best form of government was an absolute ruler, who could constrain the chaos that would ultimately ensue in a free and democratic society.

Montesquieu was a French Enlightenment-Era philosopher whose writings greatly influenced the Founding Fathers. Most notably he argued determinedly for a separation of powers in any democratic government to ensure that no one part of the government could become despotic.

The Social Contract states that the only legitimate right to govern comes from a mandate of the people. It was written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and greatly influenced the American Founding Fathers.

According to statism, the rights of the individual are secondary to the rights and protection of the nation as a whole. Although the supreme right of the individual is supposed to be an established and guaranteed theory behind the formation of American politics and government, statism has taken on increased importance in recent years.

Charles de Montesquieu was a French, Enlightenment-era philosopher who greatly influenced the Constitutional Framers and the nature of the Constitution itself. In his The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu advocated for the separation of power into three branches of government, in order to prevent a democracy from descending into an autocracy or a monarchy.

The Social Contract is a series of essays, written by Jean Jacques-Rousseau in the eighteenth century. Its primary argument is that only the people have the absolute right to govern, and a leader can only assume this right if agreed upon by a majority of the people. Rousseau’s writings were very influential for the Constitutional Framers.

Thomas Hobbes was the author of the book, The Leviathan. He is most famous for advocating a strong autocratic ruler to prevent society from falling into a state of destructive chaos. Hobbes was most concerned with preserving law and order as a way to preserve life. He may be seen as an influential figure to the Constitutional Framers, if not the most important one.

The Enlightenment thinker, John Locke, was the most influential philosopher shaping the ideas of the Declaration of Independence; particularly his emphasis on natural rights is almost word-for-word echoed by Thomas Jefferson: "Life, liberty, and property" versus "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Albany Plan of Union was adopted in 1754 during the Albany Congress. The Congress was established to help the colonists plan for a combined defensive effort in the event of war between the British and French Empires (The French-Indian War or Seven Years’ War). However, the Albany Plan, proposed by Benjamin Franklin, went far beyond the original scope and attempted to establish a unified colonial government. It was not successful, but could be said to represent the germination of an idea.

John Locke is often considered the grandfather of the American constitution. His ideas on natural rights of life, liberty, and property and limited government are ideas that inspired the Founders. Other philosophers in the question came later, and were not specifically tied to early constitutional framers.

John Locke wrote that man was endowed with the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. Thomas Jefferson changed it to Pursuit of Happiness when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

The American system is often described as a democracy, but a more technical definition is a representative republic, where the people elect representatives to reflect their interests in a congress. A true democracy is when citizens have direct voting power, as in some Ancient Greek city-state governments.

Based on the philosophy of John Locke, a social contract is an agreement between society and government about how subjects are to be ruled. The social contract according to Locke was that government ruled at the behest of the people and its primary purpose was to protect natural rights.

John Locke is the correct answer. This was not a tricky question, it, \[un\]fortunately just requires rote memorization. Remember: popular sovereignty means that we the people elect representatives to rule for us, and they rule with our consent.

The other political philosophers can all be found in the constitution (not their names, of course, but their political ideas):

Isaac Newton: Action/reaction—checks and balances

Montesquieu: separation of powers between a legislature, executive, and judiciary

Hume: pluralism

Hobbes: elements of social contract theory

Baron de Montesquieu penned the idea of separation of powers in a political treatise. The Founders, to a large extent, followed his model—an executive, legislature, and a judiciary, each independent of one another. This was a fairly novel approach. Take Britain, for example. Britain has a unitary system of government (a constitutional monarchy, in fact), whereby nearly all of the power is concentrated in the legislature. The British legislature, “Parliament,” is bicameral, consisting of an upper (House of Lords) and lower (House of Commons) chamber. The executive is called the Prime Minister (PM), and comes from the legislature itself. What’s more, the PM is beholden to the legislature—in other, oversimplified, words, the PM is subject to the legislature. Until quite recently, the highest court was technically part of the legislature as well—the House of Lords consisted of “Law Lords” which interpreted the law.

Our government, however, operates completely differently. Other than impeachment, the President is not accountable to the legislature; he is beholden to the voters (technically the Electoral College). Similarly, other than being confirmed by the Senate, the Supreme Court is separate from the legislature. Thus, the Founders completely broke with British tradition and created the Constitution \[in part\] based on Montesquieu’s theory of separation of power.

The three elements of Constitutionalism are limited government, rule of law, and the fundamental worth of each individual. The framers believed that a government limited in power would be more responsible for its actions. The rule of law declares the Constitution "the supreme law of the land" or "higher law," meaning that no one or no other law is above the Constitution. Everyone is held accountable to the same standards outlined in the Constitution. The fundamental rights of each individual are most obviously observed in the Bill of Rights. This concept guarantees rights and liberties to each individual.

The Individualism theory of politics supports a procedural view of justice. A procedural view of justice states that a political system is only legitimate as long as it applies fair rules and procedures equally to all people. The Communitarian theory, on the other hand, supports a substantative view of justice. This means that justice is obtained through fairness of obtained results (fair procedures are not a measure of justice, but rather the results of procedures).

Anti-federalists strongly supported power to the states and the bill of rights. Anti-federalists were strongly opposed to the idea of a centralized, powerful authority figure. Rather, they wanted power to be left in the states. As a result, they supported a small national government that would be more responsive to the people. For these reasons, anti-federalists did not support the adoption of the Constitution. The anti-federalists also wanted a Bill of Rights to ensure their liberties without government interference. Upon adopting the Constitution, a Bill of Rights was added as a compromise.