Expert: Dean Gade - 8/29/2008

Question
Thank you for your time. Did our founding Fathers really believe in democracy as an effort form of government or wether they provided a government structure that was nominally responsive to population but really considered by a narrower elite.

Answer
Our founding fathers believed that a democracy would be the best alternative to all other forms of government and would serve the general population.

Their thinking was based on many factors but primarily on the knowledge of what the personality of man was all about.   From God's Word, and the confirmation of that Word empirically, they knew that man needed freedom from oppressive governments that set themselves up as gods over the people and  that all people were led by their own selfishness....the leaders as well as the population.

They tried to make a limited framework where people could seek to elevate themselves according to their desires, but without overriding the rights of others.

Our democracy declared that we have certain rights from God, not from the government.  It says that people have the right to seek to enrich themselves (as all natural humans desire).  It says that there are also basic governmental structures need to be put in place to promote peace and enforce the rights given to man.