Representative governments are the cornerstone of democratic political systems because they allow citizens to decide who will speak and act on their behalf in the larger government.
8.3C Describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies. Religious freedom was a main cause for the establishment of the American colonies. Religious groups (Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, etc.) created communities that were self-governed.
Representatives to the federal government were elected by state legislatures and not by the people directly. During this period, the people were governed by their states, and thus the distance between them and their laws was not as large as it would later be under the U.S. Constitution.Representative governments are the cornerstone of democratic political systems because they allow citizens to decide who will speak and act on their behalf in the larger government.
