Constitution
The United States Constitution is based on the self-interest view of human nature. It was created to provide people with a large number of freedoms. When the Founding Fathers sat down to write it, they carefully considered all the issues that they and their fellow countrymen had faced when they were still in England, before they came to America to have the freedoms they wanted (Billias, 2009). Because they knew what it was like to be oppressed, they also knew they could not operate the United States that way and have the people accept it. If they tried to turn the New World into what they had just left behind, it would be of no benefit to anyone involved (Pritchett, 1959). With that in mind, the Constitution was written to show that all men were created equal and that they had certain rights that were given to them simply because they were human beings (Maier, 2010). Because of that, those rights were not something to be controlled or taken from the people, and could not be controlled or taken by the government (Maier, 2010). The government, in short, did not have that right or ability, and was not designed to control the masses.
The self-interest view of human nature deeply influenced the structure of the original government (Billias, 2009). To some extent it still influences it today, but times have certainly changed when it comes to the rights people have and how they are provided to the American public. When people are focused on their own self-interest, they do not spend as much time interested...
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