Enlightenment Thinkers

The United States government is made up of representatives from several braches. The structure of the U.S government was created to divide the power of each branch equally to ensure that no one branch would overrule the expectations of the other branches. The government of the United States is represented by the Executive branch lead by the President, Congress, and the Federal Court system. The President has the ability to influence the population through his actions, Congress can create new policies that may benefit the people under the supervision of the President, and the Federal Court System can determine the laws or actions of each branch and decide whether they are unconstitutional. The three branches of government have some similarities and difference in how they operate their organization, however I believe that the federal court is the most important branch because interprets whether the president and congress are acting accordingly to the constitution.

The United States government is split into three parts to help ensure it remains balanced. Firstly, the founding fathers wanted a balanced government, unlike their recent British oppressors, there answer was to split the government into three branches: legislative (Congress), executive (The president, vice president, Cabinet members and executive agencies), and finally judicial (Supreme Court). Congress makes laws for the country, however the president can veto a law unless Congress members have a vote of ⅔ or higher. Also, the executive branch makes sure that the country follows its laws, the president is also elected for a maximum of two four year terms, if the president breaks any laws he can be impeached by the Supreme Court. Supreme Court

Chapter 7: Government and Politics in the United States I. The Organization of the American Government Before we go any further, I’d like to sum up my understanding about the U.S government. The head of the U.S government is called the Constitution, with its purpose of keeping the government from doing bad things. It is divided into three separate branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The Legislative branch, or the Congress, is the lawmaking branch. The Executive branch, with the President as the head, responsible for carrying out laws.

Baron de Montesquieu was not the only enlightened philosopher to have a profound impact on French Government. John Locke was a major influence on the people/government of the revolution around the time of the National Assembly. After meeting in the Estates General, the third estate wanted their rights once and for all, and declared themselves as the National Assembly. The National Assembly made the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” in August of 1789. John Locke believed in Natural and Civil Rights. He believed in freedom and rights that everyone should have. Showing that even the government changed due to Locke, the first article in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen states, “Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights.”

Around the same time, Americans were also influenced by the works of Charles, the Baron de Montesquieu, a French political thinker. He believed that there were three types of governments; a monarchy (ruled by a king or queen), a republic (ruled by an elected leader) and a despotism (ruled by a dictator). In his book, The Spirit of Laws ,

The Enlightenment period was a time where new ideas and observations were being formed. The discovery of these new observations included scientific, political, social, and religious laws and order. Among the political and social level, Montesquieu’s view influenced the United States government. Montesquieu believed that there should not be universal laws for every population because every population is different. Each population contained different social and political components; therefore they would need their own form of government to guide them. His view challenged the typical monarchy power. He encouraged the role of intermediary positions to rule over certain divisions of the country. The people who ran those divisions could mediate between

Who gave us new ways of thinking and played a role in the foundation of our country? There are many people that influenced our country and gave new ways of thinking, but there are a few unexpected players that most do not acknowledge and appreciate. The Enlightenment was a period in time from 1685-1815, where there was a drastic change in people's views towards subjects such as philosophy, politics and science. It was an extension of the progress of the Reformation and the Renaissance. It did this by continuing to extinguish the medieval perspectives towards life which were that the church ruled over every aspect of life and people were restricted. New ways of thinking came into play such as equality, logic, and freedom from the church,

The three leading figures of the Enlightenment were Charles de Secondat, the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Denis Diderot. Montesquieu attempted to divide

Baron de Montesquieu was a French lawyer and a political philosopher who lived during the Age of Enlightenment. He was born on January 18, 1689 in La Brede, France. He was greatly interested in philosophy, and he believed liberty was a natural right, but disagreed with absolute monarchs. He thought that sometimes governments could get too powerful, so he wanted the government to be split into 3 different branches. These ideas of the separation of powers eventually took a large part in the U.S. constitution.

Most of the Enlightenment thinkers such as Sir Isaac Newton, turned to science and did not believe that God was the cause for all of the events happening in the world. This new way of thinking had more people focus on themselves and others instead of turning to God for help. At this time “the mind of the nation was on politics...a forum for the expression of ideas” (The Story of the Times 123). The concept that a need for new ideas had emerged had caused people to self-reflect before coming up with new insight. An Enlightenment thinker named Benjamin Franklin had once tried to make himself a better person by writing an agenda with different moral behaviors. After he had conducted this he had written a piece called The Autobiography explaining

Rousseau also believed that laws should made directly by the people and not by representatives. Robespierre’s other main influence was the French lawyer and political philosopher Montesquieu who talked about how all three estates should have equal power and importance. These three themes compose Maximilien Robespierre’s main ideals and what he worked towards.

If I had the chance to build a government I would build it on Montesquieu's beliefs. On the other hand, I don’t relate to everything he believed. Montesquieu believed that government should be separated into three different powers. An example of this is the government in England government during this time (Montesquieu lived through 1689-1755) there was a king, Parliament, and there were judges in the English court. The Parliament made the laws, the king enforced them and then the judges would interpret the laws. Montesquieu thought that if you separated the government's power like this then none of the branches could take away freedom from the people. He created a book called The Spirit of Laws. This book became a huge influence for many

The Enlightenment was an attempt to submerge the Jews into the German culture. It was created with the intent of allowing Jews to become socially and stereotypically accepted into society. As a form of pity many author of the Enlightenment era similar to Lessing, argued that the Jews could become proper members of society. By describing the language, physical appearance, religion, and living styles of the Jewish race, Wagner found a way to destroy the progress and hope formed by the Enlightenment.

Montesquieu: was the France Enlightenment philosopher (1689-1755). He became famous after he wrote a sarcastic novel called The Persian Letter in 1712. He made sarcastic remarks on France. This novel gain a complete success right after it was published. Also, in essay The Spirt of Law, he compared and studied the forms of government which were republics, monarchies and despotism. He argued that the most crucial points is to promote liberty and prohibit tyranny. His theory of separation of power sparked many Enlightenment movements. (500-501)

Baron de Montesquieu philosophies on government are the most influential to the United States government today and how the people living in the states are governed. He uses some of the same ideas that Plato once voiced in The Republic about democracy and forms of government. Baron De Montesquieu said the main purpose of government is to maintain law and order, political liberty, and property of the individual. Separation of powers was a big idea and Montesquieu called the two types of government the Sovereign and the Administrative. The Administrative form of government involves the judicial, legislative and the executive branches and is most like the democracy that the United States uses today. Montesquieu also is antithetical to any