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What did the Founding Fathers set out to do? Exactly what form of government did they hope to create, and where did those ideas come from?

Objectives

Students will:

  1. Review the advantages and disadvantages of federal, confederate, and unitary systems of government.
  2. Explain why the Founding Fathers created a distinctly new form of federalism and adopted a federal system of government instead of a unitary system.
  3. Analyze the influence of historical ideas and philosophies related to American democracy, including the ideas of John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Niccolò Machiavelli, and William Blackstone.
  4. Evaluate the character of American democracy and its promise and perils as articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville.

Skills Needed

Students must be able to:

  1. Identify and describe the ideas that the U.S. founders borrowed from ancient Greece and Rome.