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Thomas paine and the american revolution essay
The evolution of democracy
Thomas paine and the american revolution essay
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In this course, we learned many concepts that have relationship with citizenship. And we know that citizenship is "the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen, the character of an individual viewed as a member of society, behavior in terms of the duties, obligations, and functions of a citizen" (par 1). People have rights and privilege as citizen, but also they must obey the law. I think the “Pillars of Citizenship” is mainly argue for the human rights. Declaration of Independence created to outline the American colonies ' decision to break apart from the British government. People at that time have many complaints about the British King, such as the trade taxes, the slavery problem, the presentation for …show more content…
In the essay of Rights of Man: he outlined the social institutions, and analysis the form of government. He stated the support to French revolution and defends the democracy as a form of government. On January 10, 1776, he published the 47-page pamphlet, Common Sense, which urged Americans to declare their independence and to replace the monarchy with a republic. Paine believed that democracy is the only form of government that can guarantee the natural rights of man. This is what I found in American History Central. As we can see, Paine believed that if people want the equal rights, the democracy is the only form that makes it come true. According to the lecture, democracy means ruled by majority, and the United States was the first truly representative, democratic form of government. I think it is very helpful for the development of the whole country. We can see every election period, the two major political parties have speech and make the citizens vote and elect the president that people are advocate. It worked really well, and the economy level was improved a lot after the Second World War. People have their voices, and everyone can …show more content…
According to the lecture, we learned that the grassroots activism become the fourth pillar of the citizenship. African-American grassroots group supported Paine’s idea about the equal rights of everybody. During that time, the Black Masons ware founded, and aim to abolish slavery. The Black Masons have many kinds of duties: they showed pity and compassion for strangers and help homeless people, show love to every black American family. They are grassroots group but they got many people’s support. Not only in America, but also they have connection with many global organization. John Marrant is one of the first black ministers to preach for the Calvinist Methodists in the US. He traveled to many countries all over the world and has speeches to them, and finally, the Black Masons became the first global civic organization because they were
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Democracy is a form of government by the people; especially: rule of the majority(Webster). This is what the United States is represented as, and this is based on the United States Constitution from which the United states draws all legal powers. In Robert Dahls book How democratic Is the American Constitution? He challenges this idea by trying to appeal to his readers in a way that they may view the United States Constitution in a different light. Dahl does this by pointing out flaws that the Constitution has and, draws on facts based on the other democracies around the world that the United States is compared too. He points out how many democratic ideas and innovations have a occurred since the conception of the American Constitution yet it has only adopted some of those idea.
Paine dwells on the differences between government and society. He stresses greatly on the fact that a government should be able to protect its society. Giving life and liberty to its people. He also points out that, Britain is the main cause of enemy to the Americas. Expressing disagreement with the British in American, he criticized the British government. He believes that the monarchy has too much power and their system is unreasonable. Paine complicates matters further when he writes, that the Americans are not British anymore. It is not British in a sense that it is so diverse, with different types of Europeans. In Paine’s views Britain is not a mother country, since it imposes harsh treatments and is in a war too often. The idea of best interest was important to Paine. In his views, Britain sees the Americas as profitable institutions to control and gains riches from, as opposed to the development and freedom of the nations. Independence from Britain was one of many ideas of this pamphlet. “Common Sense”, essentially pointed out the reasons why the colonies should leave the British and form a new government. His views on government inspired “Limited government” and “natural laws”, which gives citizens more control on how they shape their local environment and
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
The three types of Citizenships are what form the community. Each type of citizenship is
America’s form of representative democracy came as a result of the transgressions Britain committed against their colonies. Several hundred years of salutary neglect served well for those living an ocean away from their motherland. Realizing the prosperity that colonies had obtained through a semi-free market society, the King of England and the parliament began enacting many taxes and acts. Taking away the colonies freedom was unsettling amongst the colonists and eventually led to a revolution. This revolution secured freedom from Britain as well as founded a new nation with the first ever constitution. Although the process to achieve democracy in America was a long, laborious road the freedom, prosperity and equality of opportunity shared by those amongst the states could not be denied.
James Madison, who glorified the benefits of the system of government outlined in the Constitution, wrote the tenth essay in the Federalist Papers. In his essay, Madison advocated a republic system of government instead of a democracy because it “promises the cure for which [they are] seeking.” According to Madison, in a republic, unlike in a democracy, a “small number of citizens [are] elected by the rest.” In other words, one difference between a republic and a democracy is the fact that a republic is based on representation, while a democracy is based on the rule of the majority (mob rule). Madison favors the republic form of government because representation (republic) recognized the inalienable rights of all individuals, while democracy is only concerned with the views or needs of the majority. Therefore, in Madison’s mind, a democracy is an unsuitable government, especially for the United States; Madison thought democracy is just handing power over to the ...
“Democracy; racial and sexual equality; individual liberty of lifestyle; full freedom of thought, expression, and the press; eradication of religious authority from the legislative process and education; and full separation of church and state” (Jonathan Israel, A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy). They wanted to create a new political framework that used those principles as the basis of the most important documents that founded the US. The reason to create this new political forms came from the need to calm the civil unrest, suppress rebellions and guarantee stability on the whole country. Those documents are still effective nowadays thanks to those political revelations that thorough the Revolutionary War made this country one of the most powerful in the
Paine believed that America needed to break free of the British clutches. He spoke out against slavery and joined the army to help fight the war. He did not agree with hereditary monarchy and wrote another paper to argue this point (Franklin 321). Paine was very aware of his criticizers, and worked very hard to persuade them toward his way of thinking. In his pamphlet Common Sense he writes: "I have heard it asserted by some, that as America has flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect"(Paine 323). Paine states the following argument: ."..for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and proba...
Thomas Paine illustrated his views on American government in his book, The Rights of Man. During this time, America was flooded with many people emigrating from various countries. These people shared conflicting views and ideas, intensifying the belief that unity was impossible. Despite the Paine believed that the root of great success was due to the fairness implemented by the American government of 1791. The focus on the rights of man and principles of society was the reason the United States was as cordial as it was. However, it can be argued that the present American government does not follow Paine's depiction of the government in its understanding of the rights of man.
He believed that a government’s purpose is to protect us, but society is the positive that can come out of people working together to accomplish something. He stated, “society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its bests state is but a necessary evil…” Paine believed that government is an evil that is much needed, whereas society is a blessing that comes with having a government. Paine thought that the government’s job was to protect the people, their property, and freedom. Paine used an example to better appeal to the readers; he described a small group of people that had been left to fend for them in a secluded new part of the world. Obstacles such as hunger, labor, shelter, and even death eventually resulted in the formation of government and laws. He continued to describe how people would unavoidably become a society that needs government in order to function properly. Thomas Paine’s ideas about the relationship between government and society led him to believe that colonists should be the ones who create and execute laws, rather than a monarchist government. “In this first parliament,” Paine stated, “every man, by nature, will have a seat.” Paine wanted representation by the colonists instead of the King and
Paine starts out by stating that both society and government are very different. “SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only
Thomas Paine anonymously wrote “Common Sense”, a pamphlet discussing the ideas of independence from Britain. This helped the colonists put their frustrations with their government into words. Paine wrote it so simply that anyone could understand his ideas, and it was quite persuasive. He says, “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.” (Baym 326) Essentially, Thomas Paine explains how independence from the monarchy would be a really wonderful thing, and he ultimately explains that this independence is inevitable. He talks about how Britain is the parent of America. He compares America to a child growing independent of its parents. Although at one point, America was “flourish[ing] under her former connection with Great Britain”, he says that now it is time for America to grow independent. He uses the example of a child who has been raised on milk never moving on to eating meat. Although the child grew a lot on milk, that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t continue to grow by eating meat, by gaining more independence. (Baym 326) And he says that while Britain is their parent country, parents shouldn’t “devour their young,” or “make war upon their families.” (Baym 327) He’s using this extended parent example to show that America really doesn’t need a parent country anymore. This idea of total independence from Britain put a lot in perspective for Americans at the time. They became empowered and confident in this idea of
A memorable expression said by President Abraham Lincoln reads, “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Democracy, is a derived from the Greek term "demos" which means people. It is a successful, system of government that vests power to the public or majority. Adopted by the United States in 1776, a democratic government has six basic characteristics: (i) established/elected sovereignty (where power and civic responsibility are exercised either directly by the public or their freely agreed elected representative(s)), (ii) majority rule(vs minority), (iii) (protects one’s own and reside with) human rights, (iv) regular free and fair elections to citizens (upon a certain age), (v) responsibility of
My citizenship project is in the form of a recipe for the perfect pie. My citizenship pie holds the information about the recipe to become the best citizen you can be. The first piece of my project were the ingredients of my pie. I chose to use freedom, rights, voting, liberty, free speech, rights to bear arms, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. I chose these because in the passage The pale king, David Foster Wallace said, “We think of ourselves as citizens when it comes to our rights and privileges, but not our responsibilities.”. I put civic responsibilities in my ingredients because if you do some or all of these, it will make you a great citizen. I also put a few optional things in my ingredients such as
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, citizenship means “the quality of an individual's response to membership in a community.” That is the most detailed definition it had. It is true, but it leaves a lot of room for speculation. Does that mean that anyone with legally living in America is a citizen, or is there more to it than that? In my opinion, there is. To me citizenship means to care about your country, follow and respect its rules, and take an active role in helping it be a better place for other citizens. When I say care about your America, I mean that you don’t complain about its customs such as the weird obsession we have with the Fourth of July. Don’t roll your eyes when the culture is discussed. You are the one who chooses