How did the ideas of Locke Montesquieu Rousseau Voltaire and Beccaria influence the founding fathers?

Answer 1

Locke's political philosophy influenced the American Revolution the most. To exemplify this, recall Thomas Jefferson's famous phrase from the Declaration of Independence: "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". This phrase actually appeared in the writings of Locke in his Two Treatises on Government where he says "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions." Jefferson changed the last condition from "possessions" (or "estate") because he feared people would claim they have the right to the property of others, so he claimed people have the right to pursue that which makes them happy.Locke also believed in the following political and philosophical principles: (1) government is required to protect people's natural rights, (2) government should have limited power, (3) the type of government should be accepted by all citizens, (4) absolute monarchy is immoral, (5) government has an obligation to those it governs, and (6) people have the right to overthrow government if the it fails its obligations or takes away natural rights (revolution).

Montesquieu wrote The Spirit of the Laws. His article described checks and balances on government by dividing the functions of power between three separate branches of government to protects liberty. One can see his ideas about separation of governmental powers reflected in the United States Constitution with the separate branches of government: the legislative, judiciary, and the executive.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the champion of democracy because he believed that authority lies with the people. In The Social Contract, written in 1762, Rousseau states that (1) man is born free, (2) controls by a freely formed government are good, (3) consent to a form of governments means that the individual gives up self-interest in favor of the common good, and (4) when government is by the consent of the governed the people retain their rights. Jefferson makes implicit reference to Rousseau when in the Declaration of Independence, he states that the King of England no longer has the consent of the colonists which he rules and therefore his power over them is nullified.

Voltaire opened peoples eyes to the corruption by officials and aristocrats with his biting satirical works. His writings allowed others to see the injustice of slave trade and religious prejudice. The Declaration of Independence also reflects British government corruption which devastated the American colonies and drove the Founding Fathers to revolution. Additionally, Voltaire was a staunch supporter of the freedom of speech, which is emphasized by the American Constitution.

Beccaria was an Italian writer who sought to change these excessive and cruel punishments by applying the rationalist, social contract ideas to crime and criminal justice. His small book, On Crimes and Punishments), was published in 1764 and was well-received by intellectuals and some reform-minded rulers who had already accepted the general framework of social contract thinking. Even more important for the book's acceptance, however, was the fact that the American Revolution occurred soon after this book's publication. These two great revolutions were both guided by naturalistic ideas of the social contract philosophers. To these revolutionaries, Beccaria's book represented the latest and best thinking on the subject of crime and criminal justice. They therefore used his ideas as the basis for their new criminal justice systems.