Vocab: Thomas Hobbes- an English political philosopher who believed in the inherent selfishness of mankind Checks and Balances-

a way to regulate the government by giving each branch slight powers over the other to ensure no individual or group gets too much influence Separation of Powers- creating separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches so power is divided Summary: The American Political Tradition, by Richard Hofstadter, examines the Founding Fathers reasoning behind the design of our constitution. Hofstadter asserts that the framers of the constitution were led by a distrust of the common man, and saw human beings as incapable of anything but being self serving. While they feared true democracy, the Founding Fathers still realized that power must ultimately derive from the people. The establishment of checks and balances allowed the government to check vice with vice, or distribute power across the three branches so no one groups ambition will allow it to take power from the other two. This passage also examines the issue that the framers of the constitution believed that liberty was in essence the freedom to own property; therefore freedom was granted to male landowners but not slaves or the poor. This concept of freedom fed the belief that those who owned land were the ones worthy to govern the new nation. Evaluation: The structure of the constitution is heavily influenced by Hobbes theory about the selfishness of man, and though humans are not completely without morals the founding fathers took necessary precautions while writing the document. Checks and balances keep any one section of the government from gaining too much power and, for the most part, effectively separate the duties of each branch. The Fathers understood that in a political arena vice would never be checked by virtue, but that power must be combated by power. The idea of federalism relates to the framers beliefs because power is further divided between state and federal governments. A federal government would fix the problems found in the Articles of Confederation and keep the masses from gaining too much power, while maintaining state governments appeased those opposed to strong central rule. This article also brings up the point that the Fathers greatly feared democracy; they associated freedom with owning property. It is interesting that the framers were so concerned about the selfishness of man, and yet only thought those worthy of power were landowners. Today, much of the population owns no property, but still has an equal say in American politics. Power has strayed from who the Founders intended, and owning property no longer creates a political caste system in American society.