The ideas of the enlightenment were exponential to the ideas we have today regarding politics. Great philosophers like John Locke set forth ideas like the invisible hand and the social contract.
Thoughts like these led to the fall of one of the most common forms of government at the time - a monarch. This led to nations changing to form a true system of government, where not one individual has too much power.
The ideas set forth by great thinkers like Locke helped put power in the hands of the people, not one individual at the top. The ideologies developed during this time are still in place today.
People conjured up the idea of splitting the government up into branches, as a way to prevent one person from having all the power. Our government still follows this set of ideas, by being split up into three different branches.
The public education movement emphasized that civil responsibility and morality needed to be taught in order to have an effective democracy.
Horace Mann, who started the common school movement in Massachusetts, believed that universal public education was the best way to turn the nation's children into judicious republican citizens.
