ABSTRACT
Democracy took root early in America. Because of the tremendous distance from the British Empire and the rough-and-tumble character of frontier existence, early colonial settlers were forced to devise their own form of self-government. A system of government that allows indirect representation of the popular will. Characteristics of the British government also strongly influenced America’s political arrangement. Britain’s Magna Carta, formulated in 1215, limited the exercise of power by the monarch; the notion of limited government accompanied the early colonists to North America. The bicameral colonial legislatures had an upper house, whose members were appointed by the Crown, and a lower house, whose members were elected based on the traditional English suffrage requirement of a “forty-shilling freehold,” meaning that to vote, one had to own at least 40 shillings’ worth of land. The colonial legislatures claimed the right to control local legislation, taxes, and expenditures, as well as to fix the qualifications for and judge the eligibility of house members.
