Senators Beholden to the People

Download or read book Senators Beholden to the People written by Richard Lawrence Miller and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-11-16 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Republic's founders debated whether to have a government based on direct democracy (in which the general population decided public policy questions, as in a New England town meeting) or representative democracy (in which those decisions were made by senators and congressmen on behalf of the general population). A related issue was whether the general population should have the "right of instruction" which gave citizens authority to expel from office government officials who disobeyed the desires of the population. The right of instruction is now largely forgotten but in former times was considered so important that it was routinely included in state constitutions. This book examines the competition between direct democracy and representative democracy in the United States, focusing particularly on the doctrine of instruction, through the lens of the pre-presidential career of Abraham Lincoln.