Which Enlightenment idea (natural rights, social contract, consent of the governed, or republicanism) is most important for creating a limited government and why?
Where did enlightenment thinkers believe that natural rights came from?
Human beings are born with them.
They are given by the government.
John Locke gave them to everyone.
Enlightenment thinkers from Paris gathered and identified that as a good way to improve the human experience.
Which best describes the social contract?
Governments give up some of their rights to allow people have complete freedom.
Governments rule by the permission of the governed.
Citizens keep all of their rights with no rules and complete freedom.
Citizens give up some freedom they would have in exchange for the government protecting their right to life, liberty, and property.
Consent of the Governed means that when a government has 'failed,' the people can do what?
Ask the government to hold new elections to try again with new leadership.
Revolt
Form committees to look into why the government failed in the first place.
Nothing
What is republicanism?
The idea that leaders should gain power through heredity, or family ties.
The idea that governments have a responsibility to hold up their end of the social contract.
The idea that a country's leader should be chosen by the citizens in a general election.
The idea that democrazy is bad because of uneducated mobs of people having the power to vote.
Why were Enlightenment thinkers afraid of a mob of uneducated people that had the power to vote?
Being uneducated, they might make poor decisions.
It would contradict the consent of the governed.
It would put government back in the state of nature where people were free to rob and kill as they pleased.
Uneducated people would not hold up the social contract.
