American Philosophical Ideals

1
American Philosophical Ideals

• Liberalism as the Mainstream of American
  Political Thought
• Historical Groundwork for American Liberalism
• Legacies of the Age of Enlightenment
• Deism and Mercantilism - Definitions
• The Declaration of American Ideals
• Problems of Establishing A Stable Political Order

2
Liberalism as the Mainstream of American
Political Thought

• According to noted historian Louis Hartz,
  through most of our national history there have
  been no effective challenges to liberalism for
  the hearts and minds of Americans.
• As the dominant system of political thought in
  American life, liberalism
• sees the individual as a rational,
  self-interested person entitled by nature to
  certain inalienable rights such as life, liberty,
  and property
• suggests governments are created by contracts
  among such individuals to serve or protect these
  rights, but are otherwise limited in their
  authority
• argues that rights, contracts, and limits to
  governmental authority necessitate a major role
  for law in organizing society
• sees private striving as the best means for
  distributing economic or other rewards of social
  life.

Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America
(New York Harcourt, Brace, World, 1955).
3
Liberalism as the Mainstream of American
Political Thought

• The points on the preceding slide are all
  fundamental assumptions of classical liberalism.
  They are widely held as fundamental or
  self-evident truths in the American political
  mentality. From these assumptions flow
  particular values which are shared by most
  Americans, even if they are not well-analyzed.
• Among the values that are held in the American
  (liberal) political culture are
• order
• liberty
• equality
• justice
• rule of law
• In American political discourse, debate occurs
  over how to define these values, over how to
  prioritize these values when they are in conflict
  with one another, and over how to pursue these
  values as a matter of public policy.

• personal achievement
• private property
• democracy
• localism
• capitalism

4
Historical Groundwork for American Liberalism

• The Age of Enlightenment - a scientific and
  philosophical movement of the 18th century
  characterized by
• the questioning of traditional (conservative,
  organic) doctrines, teachings, and values
• the free use of reason.

5
Legacies of the Enlightenment

• atomistic concept of society
• individualism as the avenue of universal human
  progress
• deism as the dominant theological orientation
• capitalisms emergence as accepted economic
  doctrinaire
• republicanism as the preferred form of government

6
Deism and Mercantilism - Definitions

• Deism - a movement or system of thought
  advocating natural religion (natural law, laws
  of nature, laws of the universe, laws of the
  cosmos, etc) based on human reason rather than
  divine revelation, emphasizing morality, and in
  the 18th century denying the interference of GOD
  with the laws of nature
• Mercantilism - economic systems developing during
  the rise of the European nation-states (decay of
  feudalism/manorialism) intended primarily to
  unify the state or increase the power and wealth
  of the state through colonization and conquest
  and by strict government regulation of the entire
  economy to secure a favorable balance of trade,
  the development of agricultural and manufacturing
  sectors, and the establishment of foreign trading
  monopolies. Economic efforts and energies were
  devoted to the task of empire-building.

7
The Declaration of American Ideals

• Natural rights - laws of nature dictate that all
  persons are created with certain inalienable
  rights (life, liberty, and property)
• Social contract theory - 1 governments
  legitimate purpose is to secure individual rights
  and liberties and 2 government derives its
  legitimate powers from the consent of the
  governed
• Limited government - beyond the powers needed to
  secure individual rights and liberties,
  governments powers are severely limited
• Right of revolution - if government breaks the
  contract, the people have a right to establish a
  new system of government.

8
Problems Establishing a Stable Political Order

• Articles of Confederation
• Because each STATE was sovereign, state
  constitutions, not the Articles, determined the
  kinds of governments Americans lived under
• Amendments to the Articles required the unanimous
  approval of all 13 states
• States reserved the exclusive power to tax
• Many states issued their own currencies
• There was no separate national executive branch
• Congress was unicameral with each STATE having
  one vote.