How Did The Roman Constitution Influence The Federal Government

The founders were influenced both positively and negatively by the past governments of their time by forging a negative constitution that limits government interference. The founders were ruled by King Georg’s forceful hand, and that directly influenced how they viewed governmental power. Our constitution constantly built parameters that stopped the federal government from growing too large. For example our constitution has checks and balances which was a system that allowed the federalists to give more power to the federal government while ensuring it could not be taken advantage of. The were a way for the government to check itself, and prohibit one branch from monopolizing the power. The Roman Republic was a government that influenced our …show more content…
Our founders distrusted direct democracy, and prefered a representative form of government because direct democracy gives too much power to the majority; ensuring that the general will, will always prevail. Even The Articles of confederation, a form of government that favored general will over the federal government so much so the federal government had so little power, it couldn't even get the states to pay their war debts, was not a direct democracy. England was a representative government as well, but they represented the people by social class; our founders did not agree that this was a fair and just way of governing. SImilar to England to vote in america one had to qualify; you had to be a white male who owned land. Unlike england; land was fairly easy to acquire in America, so around seventy percent of the white population could vote. The founders did not want a “mob rule” because they wanted the people to have a voice, but many of the citizens were uneducated; making it imperative that the people had a representative that was devoted to the issues at