Origins of Democratic ideas

The Philosophes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Spirit of the Laws (1748)

• Separation of powers
• Checks and balances

• Voltaire

• Advocated individual freedoms;

criticized traditional institutions

• Candide

• Rousseau

• On the Social Contract

• Based on the General Will

Colonial America

• House of Burgesses (1619)

•
Representative form of government in
Virginia

• Mayflower Compact (1620)

•
Social contract for common
good/survival

• Fundamental Orders of

Connecticut (1639)

•
First written constitution

•
Outlined individual rights

Colonial Resistance

• Navigation Acts

•
Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act
(1764), Stamp Act (1765)

• Ideological Arguments

•
Taxation without representation

•
Virtual representation

• First Continental Congress

•
Declaration of Rights and Grievances

•
Petition to the King

• Second Continental

Congress

•
Olive Branch Petition

•
Declaration of Independence (1776)

•
Articles of Confederation (1777, 1781)

Declaration of Independence

•
Primarily written by Thomas
Jefferson

•
Based largely on Locke’s ideas

•
Political theory, list of grievances,
colonial unity for independence

•“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed, That whenever
any Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness.”