The Age of Democracy and the Age of Absolutism were two different periods of time. The age of Enlightenment had new ideas spreading throughout the world about government and human rights. The enlightenment was a great period of establishment of democracy .A democracy is when the common people are considered as the primary source of political power. Throughout the enlightenment there were philosophers who believed greatly in a democratic government. Some of the most familiar philosophers were Voltaire, John Locke, and Montesquieu.
John Locke is one of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers of the seventeenth century. His philosophical writings of individual rights and role of government to secure these rights were a major influence on the founding fathers of the United States of America. The founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison used many of the tenets of John Locke's philosophy to construct the American political ideology of liberal democracy. John Locke's view of what a civil society and popular sovereignty inspired the founding fathers and the colonists to develop a political and social discourse which fueled the American Revolution. Locke's influence can be seen in documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.
Capitalism and the Government Liberalism is the belief in an individual’s rights and freedoms. A constant struggle exists throughout the world to acquire the perfect amount of liberalism in a society. The source states, “society achieves its finest expression through the self-interest and freedom of individuals,” portraying a capitalist government. Supporting Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible hand, capitalists believe that the economy is self-regulating and can move itself out of recession and inflation, eliminating the need for government help. When the government is involved, a nation can reach its full potential, but without government control, societies are destined for corruption.
The Constitution was also written by people who were unhappy with the King of Britain and how he threw about his power. These important documents are so similar in almost every important way. The Constitution created the basis of democracy as it is known today, owing much credit to the Magna Carta. Proof that the Magna Carta influenced The Constitution is within the documents themselves. Both allow freedom of religion and promote due process of the law, giving a person accused of a crime a jury of one’s peers if there is a reliable witness.
Governments moreover can be modified or rescinded by the authority which conferred them. Locke maintained, in his Two Treatises of Government published just as it was just after an English revolution (for which Locke was to be something of an apologist), that revolution was not only a right but was often an effective obligation where states denied the operation of civil and natural
This is a simple matter of conflicting opinions as to what was right and what was wrong. Especially in the business world, things could not be left up to the ethics of individual people. Someone had to determine when things had escalated beyond ethical issues. According to the US info website and derived from the worldbook encyclopedia, the constitution establishes the form of the national government and defines the rights and liberties of the American people. It also lists the aims of the national government and the methods of achieving them.
Cassidy Moss Romaguera English IV: E 13 October 2013 The Exploitation of Love and Technology In the Dystopian novels 1984 and Brave New World, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley create atmospheres that consist of their prediction of the future. “1984” and Brave New World contain totalitarian governments that encompass distorted views on the way societies should behave. Although the two leaders in the novels, Big Brother and His Fordship, carry out their regulations differently, the idea of how to control a society remains consistent. The key to maintain and establish a successful totalitarian society is through controlling the ideology toward personal relations and correctly using the advancement of technology for the “common good”. In 1984, Big Brother advocates a totalitarian society through controlling love and relationships.
Aristotle believes that our three offices of the senate, the assembly, and the courts which are supposed to represent democracy are in fact monarchs. Ironically we overthrew our mother country because we believed that monarchs caused tyranny. Aristotle explains that our presidents, governors, and mayors are in fact our Monarchs. He explains that these people are a type of monarch because they hold powerful office in which one man is in charge of many problems of a public concern. Aristotle uncovers that tyranny still takes place in this alleged “free country”.
Another significant intellectual idealist with whom his ideas was evident in the declaration of France and greatly influenced the French Revolution was Rousseau. His idea of the social contract and general will of the people can be found in number six of the declaration of France . This idea was so paramount because it said the government must obey the general will of the people and takes general will over individual rights. It allows for government to be created for a general will rather than divine right. The French Revolution expanded mass participation for the general will of the people in political life and radicalized the democratic tradition which was inherited from the English and American experiences
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF POLITICS Introduction Politics is usually understood as obtaining power and exercising it over a people. It involves a situation in which an individual or group of people causes others to act in the same way in which otherwise they would not act. Politics is both a fine art and an inexact science. So much has be concentrated on the scientific aspects which include; the measurement and estimation of economic trends, the organization of finance, the devising of plans for social security, the discovery of what to do. There has been neglect of it being art; which is the outline and practice of how and when to do these things and above all, how to persuade a self-governing people to accept and observe them.