Jeffersonian democracy

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• The core political value of America is representative democracy
  Representative democracy
  
  File:Electoral democracies.pngRepresentative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of Election individuals representing the people, as opposed to either autocracy or direct democracy....
  ; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption, especially monarchism
  Monarchism
  
  Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch....
   and aristocracy
  Aristocracy
  
  Aristocracy is a form of government, in which a few of the most prominent citizens rule. This may be a hereditary elite, or it may be by a system of cooption where a council of prominent citizens add leading soldiers, merchants, land owners, priests, and lawyers to their number....
  .
• The yeoman
  Yeoman
  
  Yeoman is a noun used to indicate a variety of positions or social classes and is also used as a complimentary adjective in reference to a diligent, dependable worker or the work of such a person....
   farmer best exemplifies civic virtue
  Civic virtue
  
  Civic virtue is the cultivation of habit s of personal living that are claimed to be important for the success of the community. The identification of the character traits that constitute civic virtue has been a major concern of political philosophy....
   and independence from corrupting city influences; government policy should be for his benefit. Financiers, bankers and industrialists make cities the cesspools of corruption, and should be avoided.
• Americans had a duty to spread what Jefferson called the "Empire of Liberty" to the world, but should avoid "entangling alliances
  United States non-interventionism
  
  Non-interventionism, the diplomatic policy whereby a nation seeks to avoid alliances with other nations in order to avoid being drawn into wars not related to direct territorial self-defense, has had a long history in the United States....
  ."
• The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers. Most Anti-Federalists
  Anti-Federalism
  
  Anti-Federalism refers to a movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution of 1787....
   from 1787-88 joined the Jeffersonians.
• Republicanism
  Republicanism
  
  Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by other means than hereditary, often elections....
   is the best form of government and representative democracy
  Democracy
  
  Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
   is needed to prevent the tyranny of the majority
  Tyranny of the majority
  
  The phrase tyranny of the majority, used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority's interests so far above a minority's interest as to be comparable to "Tyrant" Despotism....
  , as Madison explained in Federalist No. 10
  Federalist No. 10
  
  Federalist No. 10 is an essay by James Madison and the tenth of the Federalist Papers, a series arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution....
  . Jefferson maintained that, "[a] democracy is nothing more than mob rule
  Ochlocracy
  
  Ochlocracy is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of constitutional authorities. In English language, the word mobocracy is sometimes used as a synonym....
  , where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
• The wall of separation between church and state
  Separation of church and state
  
  Separation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religion institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other....
   is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
• The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals. The Bill of Rights
  United States Bill of Rights
  
  In the United States, the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of constitutional amendments, and came into effect on December 15, 1791, when they had been United_States_Constitution...
   is a central theme.
• The federal government must not violate the rights of the states
  States' rights
  
  States' rights refers to the idea, in politics of the United States and United States constitutional law, that U.S. states possess certain rights and political powers in relation to the federal government of the United States....
  . The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
  Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
  
  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were important political statements in favor of states' rights written secretly by Vice President Thomas Jefferson ,who would later become president, and James Madison in 1798, respectively....
   of 1798 (written secretly by Jefferson and Madison) proclaim these principles.
• Freedom of speech
  Freedom of speech
  
  Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to denote not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used....
   and the press
  Freedom of the press
  
  Freedom of the press consists ofconstitutional or Statute protections pertaining to the Mass media and published materials.With respect to governmental information, any government distinguishes which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classified information as sensitive, classified or secret and being...
   is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government. The Federalists' violation of this idea through the Alien and Sedition Acts
  Alien and Sedition Acts
  
  The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798. They were signed into law by President John Adams, and the Federalist Party in the United States Congress?who were waging an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War....
   of 1798 became a major issue.
• A standing army
  Standing army
  
  A standing army is an army composed of full-time career soldiers who 'stand over', in other words, who do not disband during times of peace. They differ from army reserves who are activated only during such times as war or natural disasters....
   and navy are dangerous to liberty
  Liberty
  
  Liberty, the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force, is generally considered in modern time to be a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the right to act according to his or her own free will....
   and should be avoided; much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo
  Embargo
  
  In international commerce and International relations, an embargo is the prohibition of commerce and trade with a certain country, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internal situation, given that the effects of the embargo are often able to make its economy suffer from the initiative....
  .
• The United States Constitution
  United States Constitution
  
  The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
   was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept. However, "no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation."

See also

• Jacksonian democracy
  Jacksonian democracy
  
  Jacksonian Democracy refers to the political philosophy of United States President of the United States Andrew Jackson and his supporters. Jackson's policies followed in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson....
  
• Liberal democracy
  Liberal democracy
  
  Liberal democracy is the dominant form of democracy in the 21st century. During the Cold War, liberal democracies were contrasted with the Communist People's Republics or "Popular Democracies", which claimed an alternative conception of democracy....
  
• American election campaigns in the 19th century
  American election campaigns in the 19th Century
  
  In the 19th century, the United States invented or developed a number of new methods for conducting American Election Campaigns. For the most part the techniques were original and were not copied from Europe or anywhere else....
  
• Jeffersonian political philosophy
  Jeffersonian political philosophy
  
  Jeffersonians, so named after Thomas Jefferson, support a federal government with greatly constrained powers, and are strong advocates and followers of a strict interpretation of the U.S....
  
• Republicanism in the United States
  Republicanism in the United States
  
  Republicanism is the value system of governance that has been a major part of United States civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and inalienable rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, rejects inherited political power, expects citizens to be independent in their performance of civ...