1.According to Michael Parenti in “Class Power in Early America”, the Constitution was primarily written by members of the wealthy elite landowners, merchants, and creditors-who wanted to create a strong central government that would protect their property and economic interests. Parenti argues that these elites were wary of popular influence and democracy, believing that the government should serve to protect the rich against the poor. Similarly, Charles Beard, in “An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States”, reinforces this by analyzing the economic interests of those who crafted the Constitution. He describes how those without property, the working class, and the disenfranchised were excluded from the process. These individuals had no say in the new system because voting and participation were often tied to property ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2.While the exact forms of social classes have changed, the core structure of inequality remains similar. In both early U.S. society and today, those with economic power and property often have more political influence and access to decision making institutions. Then, power was concentrated in the hands of a few elite white men with land and wealth. Today, while there is more legal equality, wealth and influence are still disproportionately held by a small upper class, and systemic barriers continue to limit political and economic opportunities for lower-income groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3.The Founding Fathers, according to both Parenti and Beard, feared democracy because it threatened their economic interests and social status. True democratic participation by the broader population-especially the poor and propertyless-could lead to redistribution of wealth or policies that challenged elite power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1.According to Michael Parenti in “Class Power in Early America”, the Constitution was primarily written by members of the wealthy elite landowners, merchants, and creditors-who wanted to create a strong central government that would protect their property and economic interests. Parenti argues that these elites were wary of popular influence and democracy, believing that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10709,"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-6627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-6-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6628,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions\/6628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-a050-american-government-summer-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}