Ch 22 FRQ Flashcards
Enlightened despots (!!!)
3 important monarchs: Frederick the Great, Joseph II, and Catherine the Great.
Frederick the Great granted religious freedoms, reduced censorship, and improved education, and also his goal was to serve his country. These came from Voltaire and Wollstonecraft.
Joseph II introduced legal reforms and freedom of the press. He supported freedom of worship and abolished serfdom, but was reverted. This came from Beccaria and Voltaire.
Catherine the Great had a large reform of law based off Montesquieu and Beccaria. She also recommended religious toleration and abolishing torture, Voltaire and Beccaria.
Many rulers did this just to please their citizens and gain their trust.
Locke
Locke believed humans had the natural ability to govern themselves and favored self-government. All people are born free and equal with three natural rights, life, liberty, and property. The purpose of government was to protect those rights from the government and other people. If a government fails to do so, the people have a right to overthrow. Governments power comes from the consent of the people. Without government we would be reduced to a state of nature.
Montesquieu
French philosophe who was devoted to political liberty.. He proposed the separation of powers to prevent one group to have complete control. This means branches of government must be needed. This also was the start of checks and balances and formed the basis of the U.S constitution. Montesquieu also thought up Federalism which divides powers between national and state governments with three powers; delegated, reserved, and concurrent
Voltaire
French philosophe who never stopped fighting for tolerance, reason, freedom of religion and speech. Made many enemies in politics and was jailed and exiled to England many times.
Rousseau
A Swedish philosophe who was committed to individual freedom. Believed civilization corrupted people’s natural goodness and believed the only good government was one formed freely by the people and by the “general will” of society. Individuals give up their freedom to each other, the collective. He explains this in his book, The Social Contract. He believed the only good government was a direct democracy, one formed and governed by the people.
Beccaria
An Italian philosophe who was devoted to criminal justice. He believed laws were there to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes. Beccaria criticized torture, irregular trials, draconian punishment, lack of speedy trials, and capital punishment. Government should seek the greatest good for the greatest amount of people.
Hobbes
Hobbes believed people were naturally evil. Without government, it would be man v man. People should hand over all their rights to a strong ruler who was total power, an absolute monarchy, in exchange for law and order. This was Hobbes’ idea of a social contract. Hobbes said the ruler needed total power to control the citizens.
Enlightenment ideas and the thinkers reflected in U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights
Federalism was implemented based off of Montesquieu, including our branches and separation of powers. The bill of rights had freedoms based off of Voltaire, law and order based off of Beccaria, and natural rights along with other rights from Locke.
Federalism
Federalism was created by Monetsquie. It is a separation of powers between state and national governments. The separation of powers is so one wont have all the power. There are three powers, delegated, reserved, and concurrent. Delegated is for federal, Reserved is for the people/state, and concurrent is shared.
The delegated powers can regulate foreign trade, print money, conduct foreign relations, establish roads and post offices, declare war, and raise armed forces. Reserved powers can regulate trade, marriage laws, conduct state elections, and establish local governments. Concurrent powers can collect taxes, borrow money, establish courts, and charter banks.
Articles of Confederation
The articles of confederation deliberately made the colonies a weak republic as to not let rise of a tyrannical government. It only had one body, Congress. A republic is where people rule by representatives. Each state had one representative. Laws needed approval from 9 out of 13 states and were difficult to pass and Congress couldn’t collect taxes. This caused many problems with funds.
