Founders established the United States of America during the late 18th and 19th century. Founding Fathers were associated with developing and signing of the declaration of independence. They included the first presidents of United States of America and the framers of the constitution and important American figures in the revolutionary war. Founders played a crucial role in securing the independence of America and nationhood. The Founding Fathers were opposed to democracy for the better part of the American history. They were mainly historians who had studied the different types of government and their aim was to prevent or avoid a government that would lead to dictatorship or tyranny. They were somehow opposed to democracy because it created a tyranny kind of power. The majority had the power, and for this reason, Founding Fathers were opposed to democracy in the beginning. They urged that democracy would force the minority to act in accordance to the will of the majority. They also saw that the majority in most times are wrong in decision-making. The discussion expounds of the main reasons the Founding fathers opposed the idea of a democratic form of governance.
The founding fathers had numerous reasons why they opposed direct democracy. The founding fathers wanted to avoid mob rule that was created when democracy took effect. They figured out that democracy would give the people power and lead to what they called a tyranny of the majority. A representative republic was established that would act in place of a democratic form of government. Democracy was opposed because of what it would create, a bureaucratic system, and the functioning of the government would be led by despots and oligarchs. Instead, a more balanced system of government that would favor both the government and its citizens avoiding any form of tyranny power at all cost was needed. Democracy would give the majority power to making significant decisions including the ability to elect the president of the country. Instead, in a representative government, the president is elected by a minority few in the Electoral College. It was not believed that high levels of public attention to policy were necessary to generate good policy outcomes. Though it was not an anti democratic period, a representative democracy system was established to rule America.
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Direct democracy was opposed, because of the many flaws and gaps it had. The Founding Fathers believed that a representative form of government was an important element of freedom. In opposing democracy, James Madison stated, “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they been violent in their deaths.” Democracy was then a form of government that would resemble the monarchy system in France, which it had the power to turn the majority into a tyranny and render the government’s functioning incapable of handling important issues, and hence governing a country like America would be difficult. Based on this fact, a representative democracy form of government was thought to represent the best kind to govern America.
Most of the leaders in the 19 th century were historians and had studied the forms of government extensively. A republic form of government did not enable voters to govern directly like in the case of a direct democracy; they would instead select representatives to speak for them. In a republic government, the representatives are not held hostage to uphold public opinion but to exercise their judgment. In a direct democracy, representatives are bound to slavishly uphold public opinion. A direct democracy could easily arouse the public thereby holding hostage to national policy, the passions from the public could hinder national policy. A representative form of government therefore mediates between public opinion and national policy. In a direct democracy, it is hard to remove a representative from office regardless of the crime he has committed, mostly corruption, because the majority will always have his back. That is not the case in a representative form of government where leaders are kicked out of office immediately they are suspected of any kind of crime. Democracy would again lead to formation of multiple political parties that would create factionalism. Democracy was again way out of option since the United States of America was a coalition of sovereign states. Each state was required to have a republican government. They wanted to avoid the situation where one state would override the interests of the others. Thus, a representative government allowed each state to provide two senators, regardless of the size. It was for a good reason the founders did not create a direct democracy Benjamin Franklin stated, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote “In the quote, Benjamin Franklin ridicules direct democracy.
The founding fathers established the constitution and the fact that they did oppose democracy as a form of government in the United States of America and it is then wise to say that the constitution did not support democracy either. The constitution was drafted and established to support a republican form of government.
The constitution represented an anti-democratic document that its chapters and articles do not provide for the practice of democracy. Critics have urged the government to change the constitution and have a referendum that will support democracy, but the founding fathers knew the reasons as to why they never allowed democracy to be a form of government. In the constitution, the power to elect a president is bestowed upon the Electoral College. Therefore, the people can be stuck with incompetent presidents elected by the elected president. This can be well seen in the recent election in America where the majority elected a different candidate, and the electoral l college elected a president who did not gather most votes in the election. The president, therefore, was unpopular and that he did not get a majority of votes, instead the Electoral College gathered votes to make him president.
The constitution is anti-democratic because it awards each state a certain number of representatives in the Electoral College regardless of the population size of the state. The constitution also establishes three parts in the federal government and of the three parts of the federal government it is only the house of representative that people get to elect directly. The other two forms of government people have no say in elected representatives. The constitution does not allow every American citizen to become a president, in the natural born citizenship clause; citizens who were not born in America cannot become president.
In conclusion, founding fathers opposed democracy because of the several reasons. They termed democracy to have flaws and gaps that would make a mob rule and tyranny by the majority. Also, in a democratic government, the Founding Fathers argued that it would be hard to eject a representative from office regardless of the misconducts showed by the individual because the majority will have the person’s back. Based on this reasons, the Founding Fathers opted for the representative form of government.
