Early U.S. class structures were different in form but very similar in function to those we see today. In the 1780s, political rights were tied directly to property ownership, meaning only wealthy men could participate in government. Enslavement meant only white men could participate, and women, regardless of class, had no political standing at all. Yet despite these legal differences, Parenti argues that the basic economic hierarchy has remained familiar: a small wealthy class continues to dominate political institutions. corporations, lobbyists, and high\u2011income donors hold a heavier influence, and economic inequality still shapes who has access to education, housing, and political power. Beard and Parenti both explain that the framers feared democracy because they feared the lower classes. They worried that ordinary people, especially debtors, small farmers, and laborers, would demand debt relief, challenge property rights, redistribute land, and elect leaders who favored the poor over the wealthy. To protect elite economic interests, the framers built institutions like the Electoral College, the originally unelected Senate, lifetime Supreme Court appointments, and multiple political sectors designed to slow or block popular demands. In this way, the Constitution was intentionally structured to keep political power in the hands of the elite founders and limit the influence of the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who wrote the Constitution?<\/strong> Wealthy property\u2011owning elites: merchants, creditors, bondholders, land speculators, and slaveholding planters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who was excluded?<\/strong> Poor farmers, laborers, non\u2011property\u2011holding men, enslaved people, and all women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is class structure the same today?<\/strong> Legally different, but economically similar\u2014political power still concentrates among the wealthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why did the framers fear democracy?<\/strong> Because democracy meant giving political power to the lower classes, who might challenge elite economic interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early U.S. class structures were different in form but very similar in function to those we see today. In the 1780s, political rights were tied directly to property ownership, meaning only wealthy men could participate in government. Enslavement meant only white men could participate, and women, regardless of class, had no political standing at all.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12060,"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-13718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-6-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13720,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718\/revisions\/13720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2026-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}