The Enlightenment

Reason  1600s & 1700s, following Scientific Revolution  Change in society and politics  Applied reason to understanding people and government in a logical way  Natural law: law that applied to everyone and could be understood with reason  Direct challenge to absolutism and Roman Catholic Church  Freedom and equality for all  Influenced the development of democracy

Significant Ideas  Positive Human Condition  New thinking that put importance on the individual  In feudalism/unlimited government, people could not question authority or have rights  Change gave people freedom and value  Social Contract Theory  Government exists to benefit the people  Agreement between the citizens and leadership  If government failed to protect or serve the people, the people had a right to rebel and set up a new government (break up the contract)

John Locke  England  Influence by Glorious Revolution  Believed all humans were born with natural rights (rights belonging to all)  Challenged absolutism  Defined social contract theory  Influenced the idea of the “consent of the governed”  Approval or “consent” must come from the people - voting and elections  Influenced American patriots like Thomas Jefferson  Ideas were basis for the Declaration of Independence

Jean-Jacques Rousseau  France  Believed government to protect the “general will” of the people  Government’s duty to implement policies to benefit the general populace  Majority rule  General will – what is best for society as a whole  Ideas formed “popular sovereignty”  Government gets power and legitimacy based on what the citizens want  Encouraged “civic virtue”  People should be educated on how to be good citizens  Laid basis for future totalitarian governments

Baron de Montesquieu  France  Focused on governmental organization  Admired English model of government  Legislative + Executive  “Separation of powers”  Government must be limited in power by dividing it into branches  Branches should “check and balance” each other  Suggested a modified model:  Legislative + Executive + Judicial  Influenced the ideas in the Constitution

Voltaire  France  Focused on civil liberties  Freedom of speech  Freedom of religion  Advocated a separation of church and state

Influences of Enlightenment  American Revolution  Locke’s ideas inspired the Declaration of Independence  Thomas Jefferson argued that colonists could rebel against King’s rule because their rights had been violated (break the social contract)  American Constitution  Ideas for framework for new limited government  Ideas were put into practice

 French Revolution  Americans often visited France to engage in intellectual discourse about ideas  French citizens influenced by ideas of philosophes  French military aided colonists in American Revolution and were influenced by revolutionary ideas  French unlimited government was attacked for being undemocratic