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Democratic ideals of US government - YouTube
Channel: Khan Academy
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what we're going to do in this video is
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discuss some of the foundational ideas
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for the united states of america and we
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could start at the most foundational of
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ideas and that's the notion of
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natural
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rights
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john locke one of the significant
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enlightenment thinkers describes rights
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like life
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liberty and you might expect me to say
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pursuit of happiness which is what we
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see in the declaration of independence
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but john locke refers to life liberty
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and
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property
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but even though his version is a little
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bit different than what ends up in the
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declaration of independence most
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historians believe that thomas jefferson
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was heavily influenced by john locke's
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idea of natural rights when jefferson
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wrote the declaration of independence
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and the idea here is that these are
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rights that people should be born with
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that should never be taken away from
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them
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and in the video on social contract we
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talk about the idea of why someone would
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form a government
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they would form a government they would
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give some rights to a government in
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order to protect these basic rights
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things like life liberty property the
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pursuit of happiness and so you might
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have some other rights that one would
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say in a state of nature people might
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have the right to
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have do physical harm
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on others
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the right to imprison
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others
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the right to tax
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others but in a social contract we
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decide hey
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instead of everyone trying to figure out
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things on their own let's give these
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rights to a
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government
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and in exchange the government should
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protect
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should protect all of these rights for
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the individuals and once again this is
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review from the social contract video
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this is the notion of a social
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contract
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now the next question is all right so if
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we are willing to engage in this social
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contract with a government what type of
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a government should it be and throughout
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most of human history governments have
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been things like
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monarchies where you have a single
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individual maybe a king or queen an
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emperor some type of a conqueror who is
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the sovereign who rules over the state
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but you could have you could instead of
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having one you could have a small group
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which would be an oligarchy
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or you could go to the other extreme
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where the people are sovereign and the
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word for that and this is a key idea for
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the united states is popular
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popular sovereignty the people are
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sovereign
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the government is accountable to the
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people sometimes this could be referred
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to as democracy
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now the founding fathers of the united
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states were a little bit suspicious of
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pure
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democracy or direct popular sovereignty
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they were afraid that if you start
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having factions and a majority faction
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were to come to power if you have a
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straight democracy then they might use
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that power to strip some of the natural
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rights of say their political enemies or
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people that they just don't agree with
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and so you have this other idea of
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limited government
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limited
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government and some of the key
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things that limit the government you
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could just say generally the rule of law
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things like the constitution
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including how the government is
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structured the checks and balances in it
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the bill of rights
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clearly is a check on government and you
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don't just have limited government when
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you have a democracy you could have a
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limited government even in a monarchy
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the united kingdom is officially a
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constitutional monarchy where you have a
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monarch whose sovereign has very limited
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powers because of things like the rule
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of law
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now the last idea that we're going to
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talk about in this video is the notion
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of a republic or the idea of
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republicanism
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because the founding fathers
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didn't actually like calling the united
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states a democracy instead they favored
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calling it a republic
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and the word republic can mean different
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things to different people today
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depending on what context you use to
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some folks today it means any form of
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government that not that's not a
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monarchy to other folks it means okay
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you have a democracy you have popular
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sovereignty but you have limited
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government you still have rights that
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protect minorities rights that make sure
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that even if people are not in the
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majority they are protected
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to the founding fathers they had a
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version of this notion of republic they
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did view a republic as something that
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would prevent the passions of an
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unfettered pure democracy but they
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thought it came mainly by having a
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representative democracy that if you had
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a smaller group of elected
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representatives as opposed to everyone
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getting involved in every issue that
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they could calm the passions of the
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crowds so to speak they also thought it
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was logistically more practical sure
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ancient athens could have something
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closer to a pure democracy but that was
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just a small city-state while here even
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the 13 colonies were significantly more
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vast and of obviously the united states
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would become even more vast than that
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and to appreciate this notion of a
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republic
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right over here is a quote from
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james madison in the federalist papers
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number 10. and just for some context on
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what the federalist papers even were as
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we mentioned shortly after the
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declaration of independence the founding
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fathers start drafting the articles of
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confederation they go into effect in
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1781 but this is really a loose
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confederation of states that each
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individually think of themselves as
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sovereign states it's really a pact that
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they'll engage in war together diplomacy
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together free trade but you have shae's
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rebellion and it's very clear and we'll
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talk about this in other videos that the
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articles of confederation are not
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powerful enough and so you have a
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constitutional convention in mid-1787
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in which james madison is a central
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figure some people discuss him as the
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father of the us constitution
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they draft what is today the
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constitution but then they have to sell
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it to the states in order for it to be
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ratified alexander hamilton has the idea
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of hey why don't we publish a series of
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papers and they eventually publish 85
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papers which will collectively be known
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as the federalist papers and hamilton
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writes most of them but he also recruits
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james madison and john jay and
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federalist papers number 10 which is
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perhaps the most famous is james
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madison's discussion of how do you avoid
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factions taking over the government and
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doing things that are not in the
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interest of the people and i encourage
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you to read all of federalist papers
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number 10 but i have a very small quote
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here and this is james madison's notion
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of what a republic was and he thought
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the united states should be republic the
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two great points of difference between a
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democracy and a republic are
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first the delegation of government in
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the latter so he's talking about a
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republic to a small number of citizens
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elected by the rest so he's really
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talking about representative democracy
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but he thought this was a key component
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of being a republic
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secondly the greater number of citizens
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and greater sphere of country over which
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the latter may be extended that only
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through a representative government
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could you actually govern over 13
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colonies or even beyond 13 colonies and
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that's why today obviously you might
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have had something closer to a pure
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democracy in ancient athens which was a
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city-state but today almost any
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democracy is some form of representative
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democracy which james madison would
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consider to be a republic but if you
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wanted to classify the united states
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today a fair term might be it is a
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democratic republic you definitely have
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popular sovereignty the people are
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considered sovereign but they don't rule
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directly they rule through
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representatives which by madison's
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definition would make it a republic so
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now that you're armed with some of these
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basic ideas i encourage you to engage
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even more with some of the founding
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documents for the united states and on
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top of the declaration of independence
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and the u.s constitution i encourage you
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to read as many of the federalist papers
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as possible because it's really an
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explanation of the ideas behind the u.s
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constitution and you should start with
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federalist papers number 10. as you'll
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see james madison is quite insightful he
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predicts how factions might form how
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parties might form and not always do
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things in the interest of its people but
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i'll leave you to decide whether he was
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right whether forming a republic helps
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this notion of factionalism and look at
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the world that we are in today and think
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about whether james madison would be
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happy or maybe he would be a little bit
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uncertain about how things turned out
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