Question

How has the fear of a strong central government influenced the creation of our government, and how does that fear shape contemporary politics?

Answer 1

This fear of a strong central government influenced us greatly, in fact, the best source of evidence for this is in our Bill of Rights. The founding fathers abhorred Britain and its harsh policies and they created certain laws to protect US citizens from these things. For instance, the right against quartering soldiers was in direct response to the English Quartering Act which angered most of the colonists at the time. Another right was right to bear arms, which would protect citizens if by any chance the democratic government suddenly became authoritarian or dictator-like.
Nowadays we see how the same could be said about contemporary politics, it seems like more and more each day countries are adopting a limited form of government. THough there are still certain types of governments such as the Cuban and Venezuelan ones that are still in many ways dictatorships, many of these countries have adopted these values with the fear of misrepresenting the individual or returning to a dark past (ex. Germany). This has become especially popular due to the fact that many countries that developed in the 20th century used to be European colonies and just won their independence (creating a fear similar to that of 18th century America).