Were the founding father's motives for the creation of the Constitution democratic reform or economic gain?

Answer 1

The way this question is answered depends a great deal on what is understood by "democratic reformer."

If the word "democratic" is given an extremely narrow definition, it is easy to say that the founding fathers were not democratic reformers. Their original intent was only to throw off the yoke of british rule. Looking back to pre-revolutionary America we see that the colonial governments were modeled after british limited monarchy, the colonies had assemblies, upper and lower houses, and while they did not have a king they had a governor who was chosen directly by the king so as to be an extension of the kings will in the colonies. We must assume that even during the revolution the founding fathers had no designs of a democracy and even after the revolution some might hesitate to call the government formed a democracy because it lacked a strong central government. In fact, the Articles of Confederation were modeled more after the grecian city-states which were republican governments.

One might argue that it is irrelevant to the concept of democracy whether the central government is weak or strong; by this argument, Switzerland is the least democratic country in the world and absulute dictatorships are more democratic since they are centralized. In addition these remarks really only apply to the actions of the founding fathers prior to the Constitution of 1787 since that Constitution created a stronger central government although it retained a monarch-like figure in the position of President.

The founding generation were democratic reformers in many ways, and were really seen as radical during their time. They did receive a lot of their ideas of democracy from the Enlightenment writers, such as Locke, Voltaire,and Rousseau. Nevertheless, many of the founders were rather reserved on giving democratic power and say in the government to the common man, being uncertain that the country would be able to remain stable and orderly if such was the case.

Answer 2

The Founding Fathers were tired of the power that a King had and no longer wanted to be under that rule. They wanted to have their own power, and power of the people. They wanted democratic reform and were more worried the future of the people than that of money and wealth.

Answer 3

The Founding Fathers wrote no stipulations to provide suffrage to all of its citizens. The Revolutionary War did nothing that changed the limited Democracy in the original colonies. First of all, only men over the age of 21, who were white and Protestant, and owned property were allowed to vote. This essentially meant the wealthy aristocrats, decided all the laws in the states, despite being in a minority. Women, blacks, those who did not own property, as well as Catholics in some places, were not allowed to vote.

Answer 4

The following is excerpted from: The Never Realized Republic: Political Economy and Republican Virtue, Peter Joseph O'Lalor, (Charleston, Booksurge Publishing, 2005), rev. 2nd ed. Copyright