Section Objectives

After you have completed this section, you will be able to:

1. Analyze the influences on the founding documents and the U.S. Constitution.
2. Explain how social contracts theories of Locke and Hobbes contributed to the American form of democracy.
3. Describe the rights developed out of the British struggle for democracy in the following documents and explain their effect on the American form of government.
4. Identify the contributions of Baron de Montesquieu to the political thought in framing the U.S. Constitution.
5. Analyze the effect of the Articles of Confederation on the U.S. Constitution.
6. Describe the Madisonian Model of separation of powers and checks and balances.
7. Explain the arguments of the Federalists and Anti-federalists.
8. Explain how the power of judicial review became part of the Constitution and discuss the impact of judicial review.