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Thomas Jefferson, who died in 1826, looms ever larger as a figure of special significance. Americans, of course, are familiar with Jefferson as an early statesman, author of the Declaration of Independence, and a high-ranking presidential Founding Father. But there is another Jefferson less well known. This is the Jefferson who, as the outstanding American philosopher of democracy, has an increasing appeal to the world’s newly emerging peoples.
There is no other man in history who formulated the ideas of democracy with such fullness, persuasiveness, and logic. Those interested in democracy as a poetical philosophy and system—even those who do not accept his postulates or are critical of his solutions—must reckon with his thought.
What, then, is his thought, and how much of it is still relevant under modern conditions
Of all the ideas and beliefs that make up the political philosophy known as Jefferson democracy, perhaps three are paramount. These are the idea of equality, the idea of freedom, and the idea of the people’s control over government. Underlying the whole, and serving as a major premise, is confidence in man.
To Jefferson; it was virtually axiomatic that the human being was essentially good, that he was capable of constant improvement through education and reason. He believed that "no definite limit could be assigned" to man’s continued progress from ignorance and superstition to enlightenment and happiness. Unless this kept in mind, Jefferson cannot be understood properly.
What did he mean by the concept of equality, which he stated as a "serf-evident" truth Obviously, he was not foolish enough to believe that all men are equal in size or intelligence or talents or moral development. He never said that men are equal, but only that they come into the world with "equal rights". He believed that equality was a political rather than a biological or psychological or economic conception. It was a gift that man acquired automatically by coming into the world as a member of the human community.
Intertwined with equality was the concept of freedom, also viewed by Jefferson as a "natural right." In the Declaration of Independence he stated it as "self-evident" that liberty was one of the "inherent" and "unalienable rights" with which the Creator endowed man. "Freedom", he summed up at one lime, "is the girl of Nature."
What did Jefferson mean by freedom and why was it necessary for him to claim it as an "inherent" or "natural" right In Jefferson thought there are two main elements in the idea of freedom. There is, first, man’s liberty to organize his own political institutions and to select periodically the individuals to run them. The other freedom is personal. Foremost in the area of individual liberty, Jefferson believed, was the untrammeled fight to say, think, write, and believe whatever the citizen wishes m provided, of course, he does not directly injure his neighbors.
It is because political and personal freedom are potentially in conflict that Jefferson, in order to make both secure, felt the need to found them on "natural fight". If each liberty derives from an "inherent" fight, then neither could justly undermine the other. Experience of the past, when governments, were neither too strong for the ruled or too weak to rule them, convinced Jefferson of the desirability of establishing a delicate natural balance between political power and personal fights.
This brings us to the third basic element in the Jeffersonian idea: the people’s control over government. It is paradoxical that Jefferson, Who spent most of his adult years in politics, had an ingrained distrust of government as such. For the then-existing governments of Europe, virtually all of them hereditary monarchies, he had antipathy mixed with contempt. His mistrust of strong and unchecked government was inveterate. "I am not," he said, "a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive."
Government being a necessity for civilized existence: the question was how it could be prevented from following its tendency to swallow the rights of the people. Jefferson’s answer to this ancient dilemma was at variance with much traditional thinking. He began with the postulate that government existed for the people, and not vice versa; that it had no independent being except as an instrument of the people; and that it had no legitimate justifications for existence except to serve the people.
From this it followed, in Jefferson’s view that only the people, and not their rulers or the privileged classes, could and should be relied upon as the "safe depositories" of political liberty. This key idea in the Jeffersonian political universe rested on the monumental assumption that the people at large had the wisdom, the capability, and the knowledge exclusively to carry the burden of political power and responsibility. The assumption was, of course, widely challenged and vigorously denied in Jefferson’s day, but he always asserted his confidence in it.
Confidence in the people, however, was not enough, by itself, to serve as a safeguard against the potential dangers inherent in political power. The people might become corrupted or demoralized or indifferent. Jefferson believed that the best practice for the avoidance of tyranny and the preservation of freedom was to follow two main policies. One was designed to limit power, and the other to control power.
In order to put limits on power, Jefferson felt, it was best to divide it by scattering its functions among as many entities as possible—among states, countries, and municipalities. In order to keep it in check, it was to be impartially balanced among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Thus, no group, agency, or entity would be able legitimately to acquire power for abuse. This is, of course, the theory that is embedded in the Constitution and that underlies the American federal system with its "check and balance".
For the control of power or, more specifically, the governmental apparatus itself, other devices had to be brought into play. Of these, two are of special importance: suffrage and elections.
Unlike many contemporaries, Jefferson believed in virtually universal suffrage. His opinion was that the universal right to vote was the only "rational and peaceable instrument" of free government.
Next to the fight to vote, the system of free elections was the foremost instrument for control over government. This involved, first, the election by the people of practically all high government officials, and, secondly, fixed and regular periods of polling, established by law.
To make doubly sure that this mechanism would work as an effective control over power, Jefferson advocated frequent elections and short terms of office, so that the citizens would be enabled to express their "approbation or rejection" as soon as possible.
This, in substance, is the Jeffersonian philosophy faith in the idea of equality, of freedom, and in the fight to and need for popular control over government.
What, in ail this, is relevant to peoples without a democratic tradition, especially those who have recently emerged in Asia and Africa The rejection of democratic procedures by some of these peoples has been disheartening to believers in freedom and democracy. But it is noteworthy that democratic and parliamentary government has been displaced in are as where the people had no background in freedom or self-rule, and where illiteracy is generally high. Even there it is significant that the new dictatorships are usually proclaimed in the name of the people.
The Jeffersonian assumption that men crave equality and freedom has not been denied by events. Special conditions and traditions may explain non-democratic political methods for the achievement of certain purposes, but these remain unstable wherever the notion of liberty has begun to gain ground. "The disease of liberty", Jefferson said, "is catching."
The proof of this is to be found even in such societies as the Spanish and the Islamic, with their ancient traditions of chieftainships where popular eruptions against dictatorial rule have had an almost tidal constancy.
But it is a slow process, as Jefferson well knew, "The ground of liberty", he said, "is to be gained by inches; we must be contented to secure what we can get, from time to time. and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good."
Does Jefferson survive Indeed he does.
What are the three most paramount ideas in Jeffersonian democracy