Kansas-Nebraska Act Theme of Philosophical Viewpoints: American Democracy

The United States is unique for a number of reasons, from our super varied climates and landscapes to our one-of-a-kind national history to our undying love for truly horrible reality TV shows.

But the one thing that makes us the uniquest of all the uniques is that our country was founded by a bunch of doomsday preppers.

No, not Doomsday Preppers, the reality TV show. (See? We really do love reality TV.)

We're talking 1776-style doomsday preppers who believed that, if they didn't set up the future United States correctly, it could turn into another England, where laws could be changed by whichever member of royalty was in power and entire groups of people could be persecuted because of things like their religious beliefs or their ancestry.

So what did they do? They prepped against the doom by establishing a balanced government where power and responsibility are separated into three distinct branches: the executive branch (the POTUS and entourage), the legislative branch (the House and Senate and their squad), and the judicial branch (the Supreme Court and its posse).

The point was to make sure that no one branch would ever have too much power over the goings-on in the country. We call this the separation of powers.

Maybe today, this fear of dictators and despots rushing into the country and turning it into some horrible authoritarian cesspool of unfreedom seems a little extreme. But maybe the reason that it seems so extreme is because our statespeople had the foresight to separate, balance, and limit government everywhere they set it up, making it a lot harder for wannabe tyrants to get their tyranny on.

1. What does each branch of a state's government do? Is there any overlap?
2. How does the American model of the separation of powers compare with that of other democracies around the world? Pick one or two and get specific on the differences.
3. If you had to pick one branch of the 1854 Kansas or Nebraska territorial governments to work for, which would you choose and why?
4. What is "legislating from the bench?" Do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing? Why? Would the authors of the U.S. Constitution agree with you?

There was no need to get so down in the weeds with how each branch of government should operate; Kansas and Nebraska would've done fine creating their own anti-tyrannical system with just a rough outline.

Thank goodness this act was so detailed about each branch of the territorial governments; this definitely helped prevent the new territories from turning into undemocratic dictatorships.