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America’s First Constitutions and Declarations of Rights
Negroes, the exclusive power of the States to determine voter qualifications began to fade. This amendment was followed by the Nineteenth
Amendment (1920) granting women the right to vote, and more recently
by the Twenty-Fourth (1964) and Twenty-Sixth (1971) amendments eliminating the poll tax and extending the franchise to persons eighteen years
of age.
As a result of these amendments and various decisions of the Supreme
Court, the principle of republicanism that originated in England and was
carried across the Atlantic to the American colonies has changed substantially over the years, and representative government today is considerably different from what it was two hundred years ago. The basis of
representation in State and Federal legislative assemblies has changed as
a result of the ‘‘one person, one vote’’ decisions of the Supreme Court,
and the main standards for voter qualification in elections, whether Federal, State, or local, are now set by the Federal government instead of the
States.
The degree to which these changes have contributed to the growth of
liberty, order, and justice is a complex question. Although there is more
political freedom in the United States than possibly any other country in
the world, at least a third of the American electorate—and often as much
as half—refuses to participate in the political process or exercise the right
to vote. Ironically, political apathy seems to have increased with the expansion of the suffrage.
The price of liberty, it has been said, is eternal vigilance. Can democratic government promote and protect liberty, order, and justice if half
the population is failing to hold public officials accountable for their actions? Is there a lesson to be learned from the history of ancient Rome?
Once a thriving republic, it fell to tyranny because the people had become
more interested in ‘‘bread and circuses’’ than in safeguarding their political institutions. And how informed is the American electorate? Polls taken
in recent years reveal an alarming degree of ignorance among the American people about the Constitution, national and international affairs, the
record and achievements of their representatives, and of the political and
economic forces that are actually controlling their lives and the destiny
of the country. The greatest ѡɕ