American Government › Section B · The Constitution › Topic B.1
Roots of the American political tradition
The revolutionaries of 1776 did not invent their ideas from nothing. They drew on centuries of English law, on Enlightenment theories of natural rights and consent, and on more than 150 years of governing themselves in colonial assemblies.
In this topic
- Old ideas behind a new nation
- Magna Carta and English law
- The Glorious Revolution and the Bill of Rights
- John Locke: natural rights and consent
- Montesquieu and the republican tradition
- Colonial self-government
- Representation and the imperial crisis
- Worked example: the representation argument
- The Declaration as political theory
- Worked example: Locke and the Declaration side by side
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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