"Why does the American form of government work?"

“The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source”.

            The American form of government works because not only has it spread its “empire” out to most reaches of the world, but it also is tolerant of the cultures that fall under its rule.  Freedom of religion and of press are some of the privileges that American citizens enjoy, as well as freedom of belief/expression.  While this allows for many beliefs and practices to exist, it at the same time prevents one from becoming too dominant within the government.

“In the next place, as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters”.

The American form of government works because of how our elections are run.  All of the American citizens are allowed to vote, which creates a very large pool of people to make the decision.  The system of casting and collecting the votes is also fairly secure, making the results even more valid.  Of course, there are still discrepancies, but with such a large and generally influential population in the Untied States, there are rarely objections as to how fairly an election was won, making the winner’s position much more secure.

“In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government; and the usurpations are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct and separate departments”.

            As anyone who has learned a bit about American government knows, a distinguishing trait of the American government is that power is more or less equally divided amongst three separate bodies: executive, legislative, and judicial.  These three powers are then able to check each other, creating a government that can keep order among its people, while still making sure that the peoples’ personal liberties are not taken away.  As a whole, the government has plenty of power to manage and, if necessary, control it’s citizens, but no individual person or branch of government has the ability to turn the United States into a monarchy or oligarchy.

“Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority”.

            Similar to some of the other passages I have chosen, this passage supports the idea that it is the diversity of the United States that keeps it from being ruled by a single person or group.  The government itself is set up to prevent that, but the fact that there are so many beliefs, opinions, and people in the United States, as well as the ability to freely express those beliefs, contributes greatly to the success of the Untied States overall.  As we have learned, this country was started by many groups of people that wanted an unbiased government to support their personal way of life.  I personally believe that it is the continuation of enforcing these ideals that keeps the United States so stable and just, especially in comparison to other governments around the world today.