ABSTRACT
The age of the divine right of kings, where the Crown claimed to govern as God's representative on earth, was an era of nearly absolute rule. The king was lawmaker, law interpreter, and law implementer. It is only in the past 150 years that democracies became established and viable political systems, and only in the past 20 years has democracy spread across the globe. The desire to establish a political democracy was not paramount in the minds of the early settlers of the Americas. They left a Europe of royal rule, rife with religious conflict and persecution, a rigid economic caste system, and a lack of political rights. In the Revolutionary era, the invention of the American presidency began with the destruction of monarchy. The Revolution against Great Britain was largely a revolution against executive authority. It is difficult to convey to the modern reader just how deep the antipathy to monarchy was in the new nation.
