- The Constitution was written by the wealthy/upper class and it was the working class who were excluded and not allowed to participate in the process. The wealthy class consisted of merchants, manufacturers, land and slave owners and it was this group who took part in writing the Constitution because they were invited and had the means to travel to Philadelphia. They were made sure to have an invite in order to attend to defend what was important to them and to reinforce or encourage new policy (again that would benefit them). The working class would have the opposite experience and could not attend, even if invited, because they had to work and could not afford to take the time off.
2. I would say that the social class structure of the early United states society is the same as ours today, but of course there are slight differences. For example, what makes it similar is that the wealthy citizens of America is who has the most say. It is the upper class who can afford to fund politicians and policies that favor them and it is the upper class who have the flexibility and opportunity to attend conferences, organized meetings, can take time off to vote, and have access to resources that will explain (in depth) the different policies and what they mean. On the other hand, it is the working class who may not have the flexibility to do or access half of what the wealthy can. Now, that is different is that women can now vote and slavery has been abolished and regardless of the color of your skin, you are able to run for different positions in government. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges behind that because the powers and history of this government was not built with people of color in mind.
3. The people who wrote the constitution were afraid of democracy because they did not want to give up their position of power. Democracy would mean they wouldn’t have control over the policies and that would affect their socioeconomic and wealth status.
