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How Did Rousseau Influence The Development Of American Democracy

706 Words3 Pages

Enlightenment philosophers were vital to the development of revolutionary ideas and new governments as they reshaped the way people understood issues such as liberty, equality, and individual rights. Without the values that John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau supported, the conditions for the American Revolution and the Constitution that resulted from it would be much different. John Locke’s ideas were extremely influential and I believe that his theories were crucial to the development of American independence. Locke believed that all individuals had natural rights that could not be taken away because they were given by God. As a Catholic, I believe that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, and …show more content…

His idea supported the fact that each individual had natural rights and that a monarch was not able to abuse their power and force any person to give up their rights. Rousseau promoted a civil state where all people enjoyed security, justice, liberty, property, and protection. I believe that Rousseau’s ideas were vital to the development of an American democracy because he supported the idea of giving power to the people and believed that they should vote for their own laws, but I do not agree with his idea of allotting all the political power to the people and having no separation of powers. Ensuring that people have power is crucial so that the voices of the people are heard, but the separation of powers is necessary to prevent any person or part of the government from becoming too powerful. If the political power was simply handed to the people without balance, there could be corruption. Overall, Rousseau inspired people to exercise their rights to speech and vote and his ideas were imperative and demonstrated in the beginning of the U.S. Constitution in the words “We the …show more content…

I believe that Montesquieu’s ideas were crucial to the structure of the government, as the foundation of the U.S. Constitution was based upon his separation of powers theory. Without the creation of the Separation of Powers, one branch of government would become too powerful and a system of checks and balances would not be able to be formed. The ideals that the Founding Fathers used in the creation of the American government and the ideals set in stone today would not have been the same without

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