Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Foundation Of American Government

The Foundation of the American Government

A lot of thought went into writing the American Constitution. Many ideas were blended together, not limited to those of the men who were in the room as James Madison put pen to paper to write the Constitution. The Founding Fathers were inspired by many thinkers from the Age of Enlightenment, and the original ideas of these Enlightenment thinkers directly influenced the American Government. Montesquieu's ideas of separation of powers and checks and balances, Rousseau's idea of social contract, a Paine's idea of Common Sense all inspired the founders of the American Government and continue to influence how the American Government functions today.

Charles Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, or more simply referred to as Montesquieu was a French philosopher who is most famous for his theory of the separation of powers. This theory calls for three separate branches of government; an executive branch, a law making body, and a judicial branch. Along with the separation comes checks and balances.
The Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau would agree with this statement as it goes right along with his idea of social contract. Rousseau argued that no one person was entitled to have natural authority over others (St. Rosemary). He thought, instead, that an agreement should be formed in which all individuals give up their natural liberty in order to create a general will, which in turn would represent the sovereign state (St. Rosemary). His ideas inspired the Founding Fathers to create the American Government in a way that the needs and wants of the people powered the government. If the rights of the governed are not protected, then they won’t agree to be governed. In the current American Government, laws are passed by the vote of the people and they’re made with protecting the rights of the people in mind so that social contract is