American Government 1. The Nature of Government   a. The Purposes of Government   b. Types of Government   c. What Is a Democracy?   d. Democratic Values — Liberty, Equality, Justice 2. Foundations of American Government   a. The Colonial Experience   b. Independence and the Articles of Confederation   c. Creating the Constitution   d. The Bill of Rights 3. Federalism   a. The Founders and Federalism   b. Tipping the Scales Toward National Power   c. Federal-State Relations Today: Back to States' Rights? 4. American Political Attitudes and Participation   a. American Political Culture   b. What Factors Shape Political Attitudes?   c. Measuring Public Opinion   d. Participating in Government   e. Voting: A Forgotten Privilege? 5. How Do Citizens Connect With Their Government?   a. Political Parties   b. Campaigns and Elections   c. Interest Groups   d. The Media   e. The Internet in Politics 6. Congress: The People's Branch?   a. The Powers of Congress   b. Leadership in Congress: It's a Party Matter   c. The Importance of Committees   d. Who Is in Congress?   e. How a Bill Becomes a Law 7. The Presidency: The Leadership Branch?   a. The Evolution of the Presidency   b. All the President's Men and Women   c. Selection and Succession of the President   d. The President's Job   e. Presidential Character 8. The Bureaucracy: The Real Government   a. The Development of the Bureaucracy   b. The Organization of the Bureaucracy   c. Who Are the Bureaucrats?   d. Reforming the Bureaucracy 9. The Judicial Branch   a. The Creation of the Federal Courts   b. The Structure of the Federal Courts   c. The Supreme Court: What Does It Do?   d. How Judges and Justices Are Chosen   e. The Power of the Federal Courts 10. Civil Liberties and Civil Rights   a. Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens   b. First Amendment Rights   c. Crime and Due Process   d. Citizenship Rights 11. Policy Making: Political Interactions   a. Foreign Policy: What Now?   b. Defense Policy   c. Economic Policy   d. Social and Regulatory Policy 12. State and Local Governments   a. State and Local Governments: Democracy at Work?   b. Financing State and Local Government   c. Who Pays for Education? 13. Comparative Political and Economic Systems   a. Comparing Governments   b. Comparing Economic Systems   c. A Small, Small, World?

2a. The Colonial Experience

They created and nurtured them. Like children, the American colonies grew and flourished under British supervision. Like many adolescents, the colonies rebelled against their parent country by declaring independence. But the American democratic experiment did not begin in 1776. The colonies had been practicing limited forms of self-government since the early 1600s.

The great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean created a safe distance for American colonists to develop skills to govern themselves. Despite its efforts to control American trade, England could not possibly oversee the entire American coastline. Colonial merchants soon learned to operate outside British law. Finally, those who escaped religious persecution in England demanded the freedom to worship according to their faiths.

Colonial Governments

Each of the thirteen colonies had a charter, or written agreement between the colony and the king of England or Parliament. Charters of royal colonies provided for direct rule by the king. A colonial legislature was elected by property holding males. But governors were appointed by the king and had almost complete authority — in theory. The legislatures controlled the salary of the governor and often used this influence to keep the governors in line with colonial wishes. The first colonial legislature was the Virginia House of Burgesses, established in 1619.

When the first Pilgrims voyaged to the New World, a bizarre twist of fate created a spirit of self-government. These Pilgrims of the Mayflower were bound for Virginia in 1620, but they got lost and instead landed at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. Since Plymouth did not lie within the boundaries of the Virginia colony, the Pilgrims had no official charter to govern them. So they drafted the Mayflower Compact, which in essence declared that they would rule themselves. Although Massachusetts eventually became a royal colony, the Pilgrims at Plymouth set a powerful precedent of making their own rules that later reflected itself in the town meetings that were held across colonial New England.

Trade and Taxation

Colonial economies operated under mercantilism, a system based on the belief that colonies existed in order to increase the mother country's wealth. England tried to regulate trade, and forbid colonies from trading with other European countries. England also maintained the right to tax the colonies. Both trade and taxation were difficult for England to control, and so an informal agreement emerged. England regulated trade but allowed colonists the right to levy their own taxes. Smugglers soon exploited the English inability to guard every port by secretly trading against Parliament's wishes.

This delicate agreement was put to test by the French and Indian War. The war was expensive, and from the British point of view, colonists should help pay for it, especially considering that England believed it was protecting the colonists from French and Indian threats. The new taxes levied by the Crown nevertheless horrified the colonists. British naval measures to arrest smugglers further incited American shippers. These actions served as stepping stones to the Revolution.

Religious Freedom

Religious freedom served as a major motivation for Europeans to venture to the American colonies. Puritans and Pilgrims in Massachusetts, Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Catholics in Maryland represented the growing religious diversity in the colonies. Rhode Island was founded as a colony of religious freedom in reaction to zealous Puritans. As a result, many different faiths coexisted in the colonies. This variety required an insistence on freedom of religion since the earliest days of British settlement.

So the colonial experience was one of absorbing British models of government, the economy, and religion. Over the course of about 150 years, American colonists practiced these rudimentary forms of self-government that eventually led to their decision to revolt against British rule. The democratic experiment of American self-rule was therefore not a sudden change brought about by the Declaration of Independence. By 1776, Americans had plenty of practice.