【正文】 that, whenever any form of government bees destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.If these ideas seem familiar to you, it is because they were derived from part of Locke’s theories that the power to govern was obtained from the permission of the people and that were incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson. The language of natural law, of inherent freedoms, of selfdetermination that seeped so deeply into the American traits was the very language of the Enlightenment. Hence, the characters of liberty, equality and democracy were carved in the Americans’ bones from the very beginning.3 Democracy, Freedom, and Order the Enlightened philosophy embodied in the Constitution We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. a prefaceFormulated in 1787, the Constitution of the . is the first contemporary written constitution. The Constitution with the federal system set up by it was a significant milestone in the history of human civilization. The pursuit for rational political activities, for the first time since Renaissance, sublimated to institutional practice. Other European countries began to frame their own constitutions after the . model. Whereas the constitutions of many countries have taken various forms over time, such as the case in France, the American Constitution has had no change except for a few amendments added to it during the past more than two hundred years, and it is still working today. The longevity of the . Constitution can be well called a miracle. If the Constitution may be pared to a cultural organism, then its genes can be traced back to the origin of its birth, namely, the Enlightenment. The Tripartite Federal SystemThe Constitution set up a federal system with a strong central government. A federal system is one in which power is shared between a central authority and its constituent parts, with some rights reserved to each. , , P22 Besides, legislative powers, executive powers, and judicial powers of the nation are separately vested in a Congress of the ., which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives, the President and a Supreme Court. Each branch has a way of counteracting and limiting any wrong action by other branch. This is a system that is usually called Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances. As previously introduced, it was originally proposed by Locke and later formally set down by French Enlightened thinker Montesquieu. As a judicial official, Montesquieu was among the earliest critics of absolute monarchy. He once wrote: “In republican governments, men are all equal。(討論稿) The Enlightenment and Its Heritage to American Culture↘(times new Roman 三號)Introduction↘(times new Roman 小三號)In the long history of human civilization, it is really a miracle that America, a fairly young nation, has evolved from a colony of Britain to a superpower today in merely more than two hundred years. Large quantities of immigrants are drawn to America every year in hope of realizing their “American dream”, among the essence of which are the familiar values such as liberty, democracy and justice, etc... Meanwhile, the spirit of American culture spread all over the world are exerting great influence on the established culture and customs of other nations, which is well justified by the term “Americanization”. To understand why American culture has bee so influential in the current times, it is important to go back in time to explore its roots. The Enlightenment in the 18th century with its flourishing natural science and brilliant new ideas about human rights may shed some light on the question. ↘(times new Roman 小四 號