Problems in American Democracy | Page 7

were the chief economic motives of colonization? (Bogart, pages 31-34.)
10. Why did the English finally prevail in the struggle for the Atlantic seaboard? (Coman, pages 19-21.)
TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT
I
1. Check up your own experience carefully in order to determine during what season of the year you work most effectively. What light does your answer throw upon Topic 5?
2. To what extent is the climate of your section favorable to an energetic life? To what extent, if to any, is it discouraging to initiative and ambition?
3. Trace the influence of the geography of your section upon the economic life of your community.
4. The nature of civilization.
II
5. Relation of civilization to climate. (Huntington, _Civilization and Climate,_ pages 148-182.)
6. The relation of cheap food to the growth of population. (Carver, _Sociology and Social Progress,_ pages 235-243.)
7. The effect of desert life upon health and spirits. (Carver, _Sociology and Social Progress,_ pages 273-275.)
8. Effect of the climate of North America upon persons of European descent. (Bullock, _Selected Readings in Economics,_ pages 1-22.)
9. The influence of the Appalachian barrier upon American colonial history. (Semple, American History and Its Geographic Conditions chapter iii.)
10. The Spanish in America. (Consult any standard history text.)
11. The French in America. (Consult any standard history text.)
12. The Dutch in America. (Consult any standard history text.)
13. The English in America. (Consult any standard history text.)
14. The qualities of an ideal people. (Carver, _Elementary Economics,_ chapter iv.)

CHAPTER II
THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
11. THE NATURE OF GOVERNMENT.--A government may be defined as an agency through which the purposes of a state or nation are formulated and carried out. This agency develops where men live in groups. One of the chief objects of government is to adjust individual interests, or, to say the same thing in slightly different words, to control members of the group in their social relations.
Where groups are small and culture is at a low level, government may consist in little more than the arbitrary rules of a self-appointed chieftain. From this stage there are numerous gradations up to the great complex governments of the leading nations of to-day. With the origin and general development of government we are not here concerned, and we may accordingly confine our attention to those types of modern government which throw light upon the development of American democracy.
12. THE ABSOULUTE MONARCHY.--An absolute monarchy may be defined as a government in which supreme power or sovereignty is lodged in one individual. This monarch holds his position for life, generally with hereditary succession. Often the absolute monarchy arose out of the ancient chieftainship, when, as the result of territorial expansion and cultural development, the chief of a group of tribes became the king of a settled and civilized people. The absolute monarchy existed in most of the countries of Europe previous to the end of the eighteenth century. In its most extreme form the absolute monarchy rested upon the claim of the monarch that he ruled by "divine right," _i.e.,_ that God had authorized him to rule. France in the era of Louis XIV is one of the best known examples of a modern nation ruled by a "divine right" monarch.
13. THE LIMITED MONARCHY.--When a monarch has been restricted in his powers a limited or constitutional monarchy is said to exist. Almost always the establishment of a limited monarchy has been preceded by a series of struggles between king and people. In many cases these struggles have been precipitated or intensified by the monarch's abuse of power. A striking example is offered by English history. As the result of his arbitrary rule, King John was in 1215 obliged to sign the Magna Charta, by which act he gave up many important powers. The limits thus set upon the kingly power were affirmed and extended by the Petition of Right of 1628 and by the Bill of Rights of 1689. A similar limiting process has gone on in other countries, either by the framing of constitutions, or by the enlargement of the powers of legislatures, or by both methods. To-day the absolute monarchy is practically unknown among civilized nations.
14. THE REPUBLIC.--The republic is a form of government in which ultimate power or sovereignty resides with the people as a whole rather than with a single individual. Instead of a monarch there is generally an elective president, with varying powers. The republic is a very old form of government, but in the republics of Greece, Rome and Venice the powers of government were exercised by a class composed of a small minority of the people. In modern republics a larger proportion of the adult population participates in government.
A republic may arise in any one of several ways, but most of the republics of modern times have grown out of monarchical conditions, either directly or indirectly. Our republic arose as