In the past thousands of years, many people, ideas, and cultures had help mold the Constitution into what it is today. Ideas have been taken from the ancient times, from the Romans and the Greek, and up to early American history with the Magna Carta and the House of Burgesses. In making the Constitution, the framers looked at ancient literature, and ideas from Plato and Aristotle, to more modern literature such as the works of John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu.
Influences on the Constitution mark back to ancient times. James Madison and other framers study the works of Aristotle and Plato intently. Both Aristotle and Plato were Greek philosophers who theorized about how to make government better, called political philosophers. Plato’s book …show more content…
He pointed out the flaws of the four main political systems, and sought a new way of government. He came up with a subsidiary of a democracy, called, as his book was, a republic. This new form of government would have leaders be elected by the people they governed, and lead to the new political concept of popular sovereignty. This meant that in a democracy or a republic, if citizens felt that who they elected wasn’t doing a good job, they wouldn’t have to re-elect them. On the other hand, Aristotle denounced Plato's idea of an “ideal state,” in his book titled The Politics. Instead of trying to theorize an ideal state, Aristotle took a more practical approach in trying to make a Constitution that could be easily implemented. He divided some of the types of governments in Greece into either “True,” or “Defective.” After researching he figured that the easiest to implement and least problematic was a system called a polity. hybrid between an oligarchy and a democracy that would uprise with a strong, educated middle class. It is also referred to as a “Middle Class Polity.” In ancient Rome, they implemented a republic, and the Romans
Influences on the Constitution mark back to ancient times. James Madison and other framers study the works of Aristotle and Plato intently. Both Aristotle and Plato were Greek philosophers who theorized about how to make government better, called political philosophers. Plato’s book …show more content…
He pointed out the flaws of the four main political systems, and sought a new way of government. He came up with a subsidiary of a democracy, called, as his book was, a republic. This new form of government would have leaders be elected by the people they governed, and lead to the new political concept of popular sovereignty. This meant that in a democracy or a republic, if citizens felt that who they elected wasn’t doing a good job, they wouldn’t have to re-elect them. On the other hand, Aristotle denounced Plato's idea of an “ideal state,” in his book titled The Politics. Instead of trying to theorize an ideal state, Aristotle took a more practical approach in trying to make a Constitution that could be easily implemented. He divided some of the types of governments in Greece into either “True,” or “Defective.” After researching he figured that the easiest to implement and least problematic was a system called a polity. hybrid between an oligarchy and a democracy that would uprise with a strong, educated middle class. It is also referred to as a “Middle Class Polity.” In ancient Rome, they implemented a republic, and the Romans