Establishing a Constitutional Democracy

Timeline: Key Points in the Democratization of the

United States

Taxation Without Representation

• Levying of taxes by a government in which the people are not represented by their own elected officials.

Hobbes and his Leviathan

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) thought that humans are by nature warlike and selfish. His treatise Leviathan held that the only way to maintain human society was for individuals to consent to rule by a single, all-powerful leader or government.

The Wealthy in State Legislatures

Map of Competing Claims

The Connecticut Compromise

Electoral College

• Those chosen to cast a direct vote for president by a process determined by each state.

Amending the Constitution: A Two-Stage Process