The social class that wrote the Constitution was the wealthy and affluent class, often referred to as the “gentlemen” or the “Founding Fathers.” \u200b They were motivated by their own class interests and the desire to protect their wealth and property. \u200b They wanted to establish a strong central government that would serve their financial and commercial interests, protect their possessions, and ensure the payment of debts to wealthy private creditors. \u200b
The class that was excluded and not allowed to participate in the process of writing the Constitution included slaves, indentured servants, men who did not meet the property qualifications for voting, and women.
<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Based on the readings, I would say that the social class structure of early United States society was different from ours today, though this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that I think our current system is egalitarian. Here are a couple of reasons why it\u2019s different:
In early America, only white males with sufficient property ownership were able to vote and participate in politics which accounted for less than 10 percent of the total adult population. Not only did this made them have greater control and influence but caused a lack of social mobility for the rest, making it even more difficult for individuals from lower classes to move up the social ladder than now.
In contrast, today’s social class structure in the United States is more fluid, with greater opportunities for social mobility and a broader distribution of wealth and power. While income inequality and disparities still exist, there are now mechanisms in place to promote equal opportunities and social mobility, such as education, employment laws, and social welfare programs aimed to benefit the majority unlike in the past.
<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The people who wrote the Constitution were afraid of democracy because they were primarily concerned with protecting the interests of their own wealth and socioeconomic status, not the majority of the population. According to the reading, they believed that democracy, ruled by the common people, was the “worst of all political evils” and that the propertyless majority posed a threat to the established social order. \u200b They wanted to construct a government that would maintain the appearance of a popular government while minimizing the power and influence of the majority so they could continue to enjoy their privileged status without being threatened.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":8869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-6-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8096,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092\/revisions\/8096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0501-fall-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}