Enlightenment Thinkers and Democratic

Government
The Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) is the term used to define the outpouring of
philosophical, scientific, and political knowledge in Europe at the beginning of the 18th century.
European civilization had already experienced the Renaissance (1300-1600) and the Scientific
Revolution (1550-1700). The Enlightenment further transformed intellectual and political
life based on the application of science to dramatically alter traditional beliefs and practices.

Enlightenment thinkers believed that rational reasoning could apply to all forms of human
activity. Their writing can be "broadly understood to stand for the claim that all individuals have
the right to share their own ends for themselves rather than let others do it for them" (Pagden,
2013, p. x). Politically, they asked what was the proper relationship of the citizen to the monarch
or the state. They held that society existed as a contract between individuals and some larger
political entity. They advanced the idea of freedom and equality before the law. Enlightenment
ideas about how governments should be organized and function influenced both the American
and French Revolutions.

The Enlightenment is commonly associated with men whose writing and thinking combined
philosophy, politics, economics and science, notably John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Isaac Newton and Thomas Jefferson. Women too,
though often downplayed or ignored in the textbooks and curriculum frameworks, contributed
change-producing ideas and actions, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, Mary
Astell, Caroline Herschel, Emile du Chatelet, and Maria Sybilla Merian.

How did the Enlightenment's optimistic faith in the discovery and application of natural law
to human life inspire revolution and reform throughout the world?

Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau and Their Influence on

Government
The American Revolution and the subsequent framework of American government were heavily
influenced by John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau - three
Enlightenment philosophers who “developed theories of government in which some or even all
the people would govern” (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2019, para. 10). Each rejected in
one way or another the views of Thomas Hobbes who believed government must be led by an
all-powerful king.

The Constitutional Rights Foundation has characterized Locke as a “reluctant” democrat because
he favored a representative government, Montesquieu a “balanced” democrat who favored a
combination of a king checked by a legislative body, and Rousseau an “extreme” democrat
because he believed everyone should vote. Each influenced the founding and development of
United States government.

John Locke

John Locke (1632-1704) was a political theorist who is remembered as the father of modern
republican government. He believed a state could only be legitimate if it received the consent
of the governed through a social contract. In Locke’s view, social contract theory protected the
natural rights of life, liberty, and property. If this did not happen, he argued, the people had a
right to rebel. His ideas about the consent of the governed and the right to rebellion would later
influence the supporters of the American Revolution and the framers of the U.S. Constitution.

Locke supported England's constitutional monarchy and promoted democratic governments with
a system of checks and balances. Thomas Jefferson's famous quote from the Declaration of
Independence was based on Lockean philosophy: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

In Locke’s view, all men—literally men and not women—had the political rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of private property. He also believed that human beings, because of divine will
are by nature inherently good and can make their own reasonable decisions if left alone by the
government.

John Locke wrote Two Treatises on Civil Government (1690).

Baron de Montesquieu
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) is perhaps best known for his belief in the separation of
governmental powers. Inspired by England's Glorious Revolution and Constitutional Monarchy,
Montesquieu believed that in an ideal state there are two types of governmental authority:

1. the sovereign (King/President) and

2. the administrative powers (bureaucracy).

In Montesquieu’s view, there are also three administrative powers within a state, each providing
a check and balance on the others:

1. the legislature (parliament/congress),

2. the executive (king/head of state),
3. the judiciary (court system).

The purpose behind this system of checks and balances was to prevent a single individual or
group of people from having full control of the state. Ironically, while Montesquieu was inspired
by Britain's Constitutional monarchy, England during the time period did not practice separation
of governmental powers. Indeed, until the late 1800s, the British Monarchy effectively ruled the
nation with the help of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. To this day, England still
does not have an official written constitution.

The idea of a constitutional government with three separate branches of the state would later
become essential in the writing of the American constitution. To get any official new legislation
passed into law, the U.S. President must always work together with Congress. This is a legacy of
Montesquieu's political philosophy in practice today.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that human beings are basically good by nature, but historical
events have corrupted them and the present state of civil society. Although "he did not go to
school for a single day and was essentially self-taught, his writings included a political theory
that deeply influenced the American Founding Fathers and the French Revolutionaries. . ."
(Damrosch, 2005, p. 1).
"Rousseau Statute, Geneva Switzerland", Public Domain

In Rousseau's ideal world, people would live in small communal farming communities and make
decisions democratically. His 1762 work, The Social Contract, begins with the famous line,
“Man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains” (para. 2).

Rousseau believed that people could regain their lost freedom by creating a society where
citizens choose to obey laws they themselves created, giving up some personal self-gains in
exchange for a wider common good. He advocated for direct democracy where everyone’s votes
determine what happens politically.