Values of American political thought Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Values of American political thought - Essay Example The American government derives its power from the people in form of a constitution which ensures checks and balances. America was a British colony and therefore subjected to the English law and constitution and is a monarchy form of a government ruled by hereditary kings. In such form of government, the will of the king is the law of the land hence the people are subject to oppression (Paine). The pilgrims from Britain thus found a colony in America and settled in the northern parts of Virginia and signed the mayflower compact on 11 November, 1620 to â€Å"preserve order and further their aims† (Mount). They thus created laws and constitutions and all individuals were to be bound by these laws. The laws ensured equality and fairness and determined the authority of the governors and were the foundation of the U.S constitution. According to Paine, men are born free and equal and live together as a society but as the population increases, the resources become scarce thus the nee d for designing regulations to govern the sharing which eventually become laws. The societies also enlarge and it becomes difficult to address all of their concerns hence the need to elect representatives who have the same interests as the majority thus forming a government. The American government is based on this idea of equality and fairness; it is a republican government which derives its power from the people through their representatives in the House of Representatives.The declaration of independence in 1776 also indicates that the government derives its power or authority from the governed.... The congress is made up of House of Representatives and the senate whereby the members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people. Madison James asserts that people have diverse interests hence the society is divided into parties consisting people of common interests. The federal government is able to break and control the violence brought about by factions through the use of the constitution. According to him, state governments are not able to do this as they have majority people with same interests hence fewer parties and may not represent the interest of all people. However, federal government is vast and few people represent the interests of the majority thus it is difficult to have biased interests. The constitution thus checks and balances the authority and power of government by controlling the effects of factions (Federalist, 10). The democratic form of government is a major competitor of the republican form of government. This type of government derives power and authority from the people the only difference from the republican government being that in the former, the people exercise their power directly whereas in the latter people exercise their power through representation in the government. The people in the democratic government meet often since they are situated at short distances but the number of individuals is limited to a certain number. The states that form the federal government are sovereign and have been against control by the federal government. The federal government makes and administers laws which are limited and the state governments make laws that concern only the state (Federalist, 14). They are smaller in size