Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: It is fair to say that the institutions of our democracy have been seriously tested in recent years.Our forefathers understood that the system of governing they had designed in the Constitution would be tested because it was primarily dependent on the quality of elected leadership.After all, they were the sons of the Enlightenment --that period of history where philosophers like Hobbes, Montesquieu, Locke, Voltaire, Kant, and others believed they could improve the human condition on earth by relying on reason, science, tolerance, and a devotion to the fundamental natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.Our forefathers placed their trust in the ability of elected leaders to do what is right for the nation.Leadership is critical to democracy.At the Constitutional Convention, it was clear that the delegates did not want to centralize power in a King, a King Parliament, or a Star Chamber Court.They learned the lessons of history that power centralized is power abused.That is why they established three separate but equal branches of government --the executive, legislative, and judicial --each a check and balance on the others.Throughout our history as a nation, it has been an effective formula for limiting power, but it is also a formula for gridlock.The key to breaking that gridlock rests on the leadership of elected officials and their ability to work together, find consensus, and move forward.And if they fail to govern, the ultimate check built into our democracy is the power of the people to vote out failed leaders and elect in new leadership.But all of the hopes of our Founders in the Constitution have been seriously tested throughout our history by unprecedented crises. I. CRISIS & OUR DEMOCRACYThe Bible refers to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse --Conquest, War, Famine, and Death --all known as the harbingers of the Last Judgment.Today, they
Source: Journal of legislation
Author: Leon E. Panetta
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3164809727