How the Hell Did the Constitution Subvert Democracy?

In this episode, John sets up the circumstances the Washington Administration and the first Congress inherited as it formed the new national government under the Constitution. John talks about the expanding democratic rights Americans during and after the Revolution and how this dynamic affected the evolution of American government at the local, state and national levels in the 1770s, 80s and 90s. John also discusses the demands that newly empowered citizens were making of the their governments and how these demands made the governing and economic elite nervous, which resulted in the “conservative backlash” of the Constitution.Finally, John explains the major challenges facing the United States as the new government under the Constitution takes over. He discusses the threats from foreign powers, the conflict emerging between Native Americans all over the new country and European-descended settlers increasingly encroaching upon their ancestral lands and the difficulties of operating without governmental precedents in a new federal system.