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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (114834)9/14/2003 10:38:02 PM
From: Sam  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
The US was the first democratic society since Greece and the Roman Republic, and within the space of 100 years we saw dozens of other former monarchies had became democracies (or at least experimented with the concept).

Furthermore, I believe the US differentiated from Greece and Rome by introducing the concept of inalienable rights into their governmental system.


You need to read The Federalist Papers, and perhaps some of Jefferson's letters and papers as well.

First, neither Hamilton nor Madison believed that the country they perhaps more than anyone else invented was a "democracy," it was a republic, and to them that was a crucial distinction. And it was a "mixed" republic at that--that is, they introduced oligarchic elements into the constitution in order to make democracy workable. And second, they didn't believe that the govt they invented was unique due to "inalienable rights." They thought that their brand of federalism and representation (Madison's notion of the "extended republic") was what was unique about it; pretty much everything else was in writers from Aristotle and Plutarch through Locke and Montesquieu. But it is true that Jefferson and perhaps also Madison thought that separation of religion and state--what they often called "freedom of conscience" and the right to private conscience--was perhaps the most important part of the revolution. It is a short step from there to the right to privacy.
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