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TopPeople’S Law
Our founding fathers understood the need to establish a government based on Anglo-Saxon Common Law or “People’s Law.” A government based on balance of power and “people law” is a balance of political power (Skousen, 2009). They also understood a country could be run by anarchy or tyranny. An anarchy means no government, no law, no systematic control, and produces chaos and an out-of-control society where people's rights are not protected. Tyranny, on the other hand, is too much control, big government, and oppression, also known as, “ruler’s law.” Tyrannical law has been represented as authority by force, people are not equal, and the entire nation is considered the property of the ruling power. Government power is top down; there are more regulations, and a burden of high taxes.
Wishing to build a government with balance and based on people power, the founding fathers looked to the characteristics of “People’s Law.” Some of these characteristics are: they considered themselves free, governed by natural laws, power was dispersed throughout the people, they were organized in small manageable groups, rights of the people were foremost, and problems were handled on a community level (Lovell, 1962). Taking into consideration the characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon law, the founders created a republic based on three branches of government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. In addition, they created two wings, current day called parties, the problem solving and conservation wings. The problem-solving wing was to serve the needs of the people, while the conservation wing would focus on preserving the country’s resources and individual freedom. There was a great concern on how these two wings would operate. If wing one fails to see the problems, and wing two becomes inflexible then the people’s need will be ignored (Skousen, 2009). Our founding fathers even addressed political extremists. Jefferson referred to this as fringe elements in both wings, who would try to ruin the balanced center. This could easily take us back to anarchy or tyranny. However, Franklin warned about even having the two wings/parties, which he felt could put our democracy at risk (Lovell, 1962).
In the 5,000-year leap, W. Cleon Skousen (2009) argues that there was a model used by the founders that can be replicated and practiced, bringing about world changing results. Skousen determined the founding principles propelled us into creative thought that brought about the great inventions of technology of the last two centuries:
The American people are now two centuries away from the nation’s launching. Our ship of state is far out to sea and is being tossed about in stormy waters, which the Founding Fathers felt could be avoided if we stayed within sight of our initial moorings. They felt that each ingredient set forth in their great success formula was of the highest value. They would no doubt be alarmed to see how many of those ingredients have been abandoned, or have been lowered to become seriously eroded. (W. Cleon Skousen)
Furthermore, the 5,000 Year Leap describes the slow development of technology since the building of the great pyramids. Progress was slow in evolving until the Declaration of Independence was signed, and free-market economics began. The freedom of entrepreneurship in the United States led to amazing achievements. This spirit of freedom infected nations around the world, and the global society began producing creativity and innovation in a short period. Skousen points out, “we will lose this, if we think we have to reinvent everything, even if it is working” (Skousen, 1981).
Skousen points out 28 principles, or in his words, “28 great ideas that changed the world” Skousen (2009). These 28 principles all have the same theme, this being that good government is based on “natural law” or “true law” that maintains a government based on religion, morality, and virtuous leaders. With this comes equal rights, not to provide equal things. The founders firmly believed that liberty and freedom would naturally protect property rights. They created a free-market economy and minimum government regulations to create a spirit of freedom, creativity, and innovation. This spirit of freedom would maintain strong local governments, which in turn would produce human freedom (Skousen, 2009).