Ch. 2 Our Political Beginnings

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Ch. 2 Our Political Beginnings
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Basic Concepts of Govt

• The colonists brought with them three main ideas
  about government from England
• 1) Ordered government
• 2) Limited government
• 3) Representative government

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Magna Carta

• Established the principle that the power of the
  monarchy was not absolute.
• Signed in 1215 by King John, it included these
  fundamental rights
• trial by jury
• due process of law
• protection against taking of life, liberty, and
  property

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Petition of Right

• Signed in 1628 by Charles I, it limited the power
  of the monarch in these ways
• The king could no longer imprison or otherwise
  punish any person except by the lawful judgment
  of his peers, or by the law of the land.
• King could not impose martial law in time of
  peace.

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• King could not require homeowners to shelter
  the kings troops without their consent
• Even the monarch must obey the law of the land

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English Bill of Rights

• Signed in 1688 by William and Mary, it included
• Required a standing army in peacetime had to
  have the approval of Parliament
• All parliamentary elections had to be free
• Taxes had to have the approval of Parliament
• The right to petition the king could not be
  punishable.

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• guaranteed the right to a fair trial
• freedom from excessive bail and from cruel and
  unusual punishment

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Where did these ideas come from?

• The Social Contract Theory the state arose out
  of a voluntary act of free people. The state
  exists only to serve the will of the people, that
  they are the sole source of political power, an
  that they are free to give or to withhold that
  power as they choose. This was the foundation
  for democracy as we know itthe concepts of
  popular sovereignty, limited government, and
  individual rights!

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• The proponents of the Social Contract were
• Thomas Hobbes (1651)
• John Locke (1689)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)

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• Hobbes wrote in his Leviathan about the state of
  nature and the natural condition of mankindman
  against manand the need to form a social
  contract (govt.) for protection and general
  welfare.

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• John Locke wrote the essay, the Second Treatise
  of Civil Government.
• Locke describes natural rights as the state of
  nature has a law to govern it, which obliges
  everyone
• People have a right to overthrow an unjust
  government.
• Govts. were formed by people voluntarily
  coming together to live by the will of the
  majority.

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• According to Locke, people trade perfect
  freedom for increased security.

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• Rousseau wrote in his Social Contract about the
  state of nature that man lives inman against
  manwhere there is no law or order. He said that
  man had to give up some of his natural rights in
  order to form a social contract (government).

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• The writers of the Declaration of Independence
  used Lockes ideas as its philosophical basis.
  The Declaration establishes unalienable rights
  as the cornerstone of natural rights. As a
  consequence of these rights, limited governments
  are formed receiving their power from the
  consent of the governed.