American Gov 201
.WellsThe importance of The Declaration of Independece | 2 The purpose of the Declaration of Independence was to inform government has certain responsibilities to those being governed, and that the British government was not adhering to its responsibilities to its citizens in the colonies. So the colonists had the right to leave and form a government that would adhere to its responsibilities. | 3Popular sovereignty is the idea that the people are the source of authority and power in government. In a republic, or representative democracy, people place the power of daily government decision making in the hands of elected leaders. However, the people could take that consent back and give it to new leaders“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” | 4The Social Contract:The colonists believed King George III failed in his duty to protect the people and their natural rights. The grievances list the specific actions that demonstrate his failure. The introduction to the Declaration of Independence restates the purpose of government in terms of social contract theory, that people create government in order to secure their rights. Government only exists because the people have willed it or given their consent to certain leaders to rule"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ..." | 5the job of government is to protect its people and their rights. John Locke described the natural rights as those of "life, liberty, and estate." All individuals hold these natural rights simply because they are