republicans essays

republicans essays The Republican Party, since its first convention in Michigan in 1854, has had philosophy that has remained relatively unchanged. Its oath entices Americans to believe that "good government is based on the individual and that each person's ability, dignity, freedom and responsibility must be honored and recognized" How do the Republican philosophies hold up to the ideas of some of the political thinkers that we have discussed in class. In the selection to follow, I will examine the Republican's main philosophies and will describe how Rousseau would agree or disagree with their position. I will be using the Republican Platform of 1996 to aid in my discussion. Ideas that will be of focus will be the role of the government, property rights, and freedom of the individual.The Role of the Government "We are the party of small, responsible and efficient government... We therefore assert the power of the American people over government, rather than the other way around". The view of the Repu blicans across the Nation is that the role of government should be kept to a minimum. In this section, I will discuss certain views of the Party and how they would be accepted or rejected by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Republican notion has been that less government is better. Rousseau's notion was that of extrication. He states that the fundamental political problem is "to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and the goods of each associate with all the common force, and by means of which each one uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as free as before" (Cahn, 367). The Republicans would agree with Rousseau's idea. They (Republican Party) state that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution should be the basis for the role of government. The Tenth Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States re...