Problems in American Democracy

lated and carried out. This agency develops where men live in groups. One of the chief objects of government is to adjust indivi

e there are numerous gradations up to the great complex governments of the leading nations of to-day. With the origin and general development of government we are

chieftainship, when, as the result of territorial expansion and cultural development, the chief of a group of tribes became the king of a settled and civilized people. The absolute monarchy existed in most of the countries of Europe previous to the end of the eighteenth century

ntensified by the monarch's abuse of power. A striking example is offered by English history. As the result of his arbitrary rule, King John was in 1215 obliged to sign the Magna Charta, by which act he gave up many important powers. The limits thus set upon the kingly power were affirmed and extended by the

a monarch there is generally an elective president, with varying powers. The republic is a very old form of government, but in the republics of Greece, Rome and Venice the powe

t English monarchy, while the French republic came into being as the result of the destruction of a monarchical government. Most of the republics of Latin America date from the throwing off of the Spanis

when a greater population and an increasing political complexity require the people to act through their representatives, rather than as a body. In the sense that democracy is popular control, the term democracy may conceivably be applied to any form of government. The present government of Great Britain, for example, is technically a limited monarchy, yet the gradual extension of popular control has made it on

RICA.-There are four reasons why d

indolent and inefficient, and rewarded the capable and self-reliant. Pioneer conditions did not encourage a cringing or submissive spirit, but fostered independence and individualism. The spirit of equality tended to become a dominant feat

Europe, thronged to the new land. Once here they often found the older American communities intolerant, and so struck out into the wilderness to found new and, to th

d equal, and that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed, became prominent in early American politics. Where the democratic tendencies of the settlers were reinforced by such traditions, an oppressive government could not last. In Carolina

ment as a device to help people get along together, they concluded that that government is best which most helps the masses of the people. The existence of a British monarch was a small factor in the everyday life of the early settlers, and from this it was a short step to a

639 the inhabitants of three Connecticut towns came together in a mass meeting, and drew up the Connecticut Fundamental Orders, which many authorities regard as the first written constitution in this country. Aside from the fact that the Orders created a small republic in the heart of the wilderness, they are of importance because they issued directly from the people, without suggestion from, or directio

House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in the New World. The representative democracy spread rapidly through the colonies, in many cases replacing the pure democracy as a form of local government. In Massachusetts Bay, for example, the population of the colony became so dispersed,

glish government. Early in the seventeenth century this principle was transferred to the government of the English colonies in America. There was established in each colony a legislative branch for the enactment of laws, an executive branch to see that the laws were enforced, and a judicial branch for the interpret

ed that they were only nominally subject to England. In each colony there was an assembly chosen by a restricted number of voters. This popular assembly championed the cause of the colonists against the governor, who in most of the colonies was primarily an agent of the Crown. Af

lution simply erased the name of the king from documents and institutions already American in spirit and character. The states either retained their old charters as constitutions, as in the case of Connecticut and Rhode Island, or framed new constitutions based upon the experience of colonial government. The popular legislative assembly was everywhere retained. The common law of England

NS ON T

f the chief obje

ntial feature of th

country once ruled by

ce between an absolute

nction between a mon

n republics and ex

tical democracy, and show its relatio

sons for the rise of dem

plication of the demo

as the representative

inciple of the "se

were the colonies s

of the Revolution upo

RED R

ings in American De

f the fo

mocracies, vol. i,

Government and Po

the Development of Ameri

ntier in American

N THE REQUI

democracy in the world a c

mocracy increasingly impo

gnificance of local self-gove

ntier meant a steady movement away from t

er promote individual

s are fostered by pioneer

the Virginia House of Burgess

r of the colonial gover

wers of the colonial legi

lonial judiciary. (

the suffrage in colonial

INVESTIGATI

e origin and development of a club or society of whi

nce to social and economic conditions. (Consult local histories

local government in your sect

he first constitut

day governments of the world on the

y. (White, The Making of the Engl

ament. (White, The Making of the E

sh judiciary. (White, The Making of th

emocracy. (Bryce, Modern Dem

mocracy. (Bryce, Modern Dem

erm "democracy." (Bryce, Modern

Revolution. (Beard, Readings in America

rican Democracy. (Turner, The Fronti

chusetts. (Osgood, The American Colonies in t

rd, Readings in American Govern

Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, vol. ii, chapter xx. Bear