AMERICAN DEMOCRACY HISTORY
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American Democracy History
In the American history of democracy, there have been many steps and changes towards democracy. However different states have adopted different democratic statutes and these were the first ones through which developments have been adopted and therefore currently these states still hold onto the basic faith of the founders of different states even though in some states there are many changes to the original versions of democracy as seen in different states. In other states, there are fewer changes as well. This paper, therefore, discusses these democracies and shays rebellion (Longley, 2020).
With the introduction of people’s power and sovereignty, there were different discourses towards what it means for the people to have all the power. There were different questions into how this was supposed to be institutionalized and if it was possible to give people all the freedom. Different states responded to this in different ways. This happened in the second half of the 18th century. Pennsylvania was the most democratic state in the US whereby it allowed anyone who was a male and paying taxes to be able to run for office as well as vote. This therefore even though criticized by so many people was the first beginning of true democracy. Pennsylvania removed the requirement that a person needed to own property to run for office. These changes were embedded into Pennsylvania’s constitution (Longley,2020).
However other states like South Carolina State created laws that were opposite the liberal passed by Pennsylvania. They passed a law to only allow just a very few members of the society who were men and who owned large sums of property to run for office. Therefore this meant that 90% of the population were cut out from their ability to run for political office as they were termed as those who were not able to make proper public decisions because of their lack of property ownership.
Shays rebellion was a rebellion by farmers against taxation which was too much and being enforced onto them. It happened in 1786 and 1787 and was named after its leader who was Daniel Shays of Massachusetts. The government responded to it in a positive way which led to the ratification of the constitution and the returning of George bush into politics and therefore it was these rebellions that made him be the first president of the United States as he was needed to render his service to Americans (UShistory, .org, 2021). This rebellion, therefore, confirmed the grievances and experiences of the farmers who were undergoing undue taxation.
References
Robert Longley (2020). Causes and Effects of Shays’ Rebellion. ThoughtCo. Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://www.thoughtco.com/shays-rebellion-causes-effects-4158282#:~:text=%20Key%20Takeaways%3A%20Shay%E2%80%99s%20Rebellion%20%201%20Shays%E2%80%99UShistory, .org. “State Constitutions.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, 2021, www.ushistory.org/us/14a.asp.
