On Thomas Jefferson's Political Philosophy

Thomas Jefferson is a great statesman and philosopher in American history. He is a great founder of American democracy in thought, system and practice. To this day, his democratic theory still produces important and profound influences on later generations. The soul of his thought is his democratic theory.Thomas Jefferson uses the natural rights theory to justify the people's right of self-government. He thinks that natural law endows people with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and these rights are natural and inalienable. The purpose of government is to protect people's natural rights. As a enlightener, Jefferson thinks that people also have inherent reason and moral instinct, and they can tell clearly right from wrong, and discriminate the good and the evil. Therefore, they have the ability to govern themselves and government.Thomas Jefferson believes that government is based upon the people's consent, and the people have right to elect and to dismiss government officials in order to control government. Firstly, on a basis of the majority rule and general election system, he advocates the separation of powers and check and balance to prevent the corruption of government power. In addition, he endows people with the right of revolution to resist the abuse of government power. Secondly, Jefferson looks upon the people's liberty as the foundationstone of democracy. Therefore, he advocates a popular education and liberty of speech, press and freedom of religion in order to help the people to improve the ability of self-government. At the same time, Jefferson unites harmoniously democracy and liberty, and put them in practice, consequently, establish and develop American democracy.Among the American founding father, Thomas Jefferson made great contribution to the establishment of American democratic system. He not only established the theoretic foundation for American democracy, but also offered the spirit and faith for the championship of American civil rights. As a portion of precious culture legacy, Jefferson's political philosophy is worthy of research and reference.