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下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- American puritanism，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了美国的清教主义。个人主义作为美国国民性格的突出特征，是清教对西方文化的巨大贡献。清教主义确立了美国个人主义的基本内涵，个人主义则源自清教主义的理性原则和对个人自主的追求。

Individualism is a prominent characteristic of American national character. The origin of individualism, Chinese and foreign academic circles have made different explanations. Louis Hartz, an American political thinker, believed that "individualism is a great contribution of puritanism to western culture", and its origin is the mayflower convention made by the separatists puritans. This conclusion coincides with the view of the American historian Karl degler. Degler made it clear: "individualism was at the heart of the Puritan legacy... If Americans are individualists today, puritanism is the primary source of individualism. On the other hand, from the perspective of American constitutional tradition, jurist roscoe pound highly appraised the great role of puritanism in promoting the concept of individualism.

Seymour m.leipset, a sociology professor at Harvard University's center for international affairs, takes a different view of the Puritan origins of American individualism. Mr Lipset is a staunch defender of "American exceptionalism". In 1963, he published TheFirst New Nation, a socio-logical exploration of the American value system, or American Creed. In his opinion, "unique values such as American individualism originated in the American revolution, during which people generally accepted the ideas and concepts of individualism." This theory was very popular after it came into being and provided an important reference for sociologists to study Canadian culture.

Most Chinese scholars agree with and even praise the great influence of European religious reform movement on the formation of modern American individualism. For example, wei xiaohong and li qingyuan put forward in "from puritanism to American culture" that "puritanism established the basic connotation of American individualism... Individualism comes from the rational principle of puritanism and the pursuit of individual autonomy. Some scholars denied the internal connection between puritanism and American individualism, believing that American individualism originated in the American war of independence and that "the people in the north American colonies had no obvious tendency of individualism".

On the basis of reading the original materials of the New England colonies, this paper investigates the relationship between puritanism and individualism.

In spite of the puritans "great migration", by John Winthrop represented by the Puritan leaders warned all immigrants to "willingly obey," and in "the Puritan community" to create and operate process, through legislation and other forms of citizenship and the stringent restrictions on the right, but, in the New England Puritan contain factors of individualism is flourishing, unstoppable, it not only drive the British puritans travelled moved to the new world, establish practice their faith "of liberty", has become a Puritan colonists inexhaustible driving force for and defend their political rights. To take just two examples, on October 19, 1630, at the general meeting of the shareholders of the Massachusetts bay company, 109 settlers petitioned to be "freeman" and to have all the political rights of a freeman. In 1632, the assistants were forced to agree to direct elections by freemen for governor and deputy governor. In 1634, the citizens of the village of wa-tertown, led by Reverend George Philip, refused to pay the taxes collected by local officials on the fortifications of Newtown buildings to defend them against the British threat, sparking a dispute over "legislative power". Shocked by the villagers' action, Winthrop suggested that a committee of representatives from each village and town be formed to refer the matter to the assistants, while the villagers demanded that Winthrop "make the charter public". After reading the charters, the villagers thought that they had been deprived of the legislative power as free citizens and insisted on enjoying the legislative power. At the insistence of the villagers, the colonial government authorized the freemen of each town and village to elect three representatives to represent them at the shareholders' meeting. On the 14th of may, after a careful study of the charter at the general meeting of the shareholders, by the representatives of the twenty-four freedmen elected by the towns and villages, and by eight officers, it was pointed out that, according to the charter, laws should be made by the general meeting of the shareholders, including the freedmen, and not by the assistants alone. Under great pressure from the freeman's representatives, the grand council restored many of the provisions of the charter concerning the rights of the freeman. These provisions included that the governor should convene four times a year the general assembly of the colonies, and that it should not be dissolved without a majority of the general assembly; Before each general assembly, the free citizens of each town and village shall, in accordance with the law, select two or three representatives to discuss and prepare such public affairs as they deem fit for discussion in the general assembly; The representative of the freeman shall have full power and authority over the public affairs of the community on behalf of the freeman, and shall have the power to make laws, to allocate land, and to deal with all other affairs of the community in which the freeman is a member; The selection of local officials and other officials requires the participation of all freemen. This resolution clearly stated the basic principles of the representative system, marking the formal establishment of the representative system in the colonies. The representative system was perfected in the following years. In 1635, the Massachusetts general assembly decreed the use of paper ballots, and the colonial elections were held by secret ballot. In September of the following year, the general assembly again decreed that, "from this day forward, there shall be no eligible representatives for the general assembly if there are less than ten free men in the colonial towns and villages; In towns and villages where the number of freemen is between 20 and 40, the number of representatives to be selected shall not exceed 2; Towns and villages with more than 40 freemen may elect three representatives, but not more than three. This system, in which governors, vice-governors, and all local officials were regularly elected by freemen, had an important influence on the other British colonies in North America, and was emulated by the colonies. It became an essential part of the state constitutions of the states from 1776 to 1782.

In the same year, representatives of the freedmen and local officials, such as Winthrop, sparred over the "veto" over the newtown town's request to settle in the fertile Connecticut valley. The freedmen's representatives granted the newtown villagers' request, while Winthrop and others argued the opposite and claimed veto power over any resolution. The two sides deadlocked and asked the priest to "arbitrate". So the rev. John cotton preached a sermon defending the "veto power" of local officials, and the dissent of the freedmen's representatives was temporarily silenced. However, disputes between the two sides over the issue have occasionally occurred since then. In 1636, the "veto power" dispute between the representatives of the freedmen and the local officials flared up again with "Rich -- ard Sherman v. Robert Keayne". Using the case as an opportunity, the freeman representative sought to abolish the "veto power" of local officials. In 1642, representatives of freemen Richard Bellingham and local officials spokesman John ? Winthrop launched a fierce war of pen and ink, the two sides have local officials "veto" legal basis, the validity and necessity of Massachusetts colonial government's fundamental principle, freemen represents permissions issues, conducted tit-for-tat argument. As the situation grew, the church had to step in and act as a mediator. In 1643, the rev. John cotton wrote an article in which he publicly stated that the church supported the position of local officials. In this case, the freeman representative had to agree that the local officials should retain the "veto power", and the latter agreed to the former's proposal to determine the respective competence of both parties in legal form. On March 7, 1644, the Massachusetts colony held grand council, said on behalf of the "long experience proved that local officials to freemen meet caused much trouble together", so the decision: "to local officials, handle affairs meeting, independent drafting it deems appropriate and agreed on law and order, on behalf of the review, and then submitted to freemen on the degree of these laws is suitable for community put forward positive or negative opinions; The representatives of the freemen met in the same way to discuss the decrees and decrees that they determined in accordance with their own judgment and experience were in line with the common interests and agreed upon by all, and then submitted to local officials for deliberation. Any law shall come into force only when it has been unanimously approved by local officials and representatives of the free people, and has been carefully read and fully approved by the great council on the last day. This compromise resolution established the bicameral legislature of the Massachusetts colony, "a principle of great, if not fundamental, significance in defining the representative and consultative rather than purely democratic character of the Massachusetts colony government." It had a great influence on the construction of American constitutional system in the future. By the time of the American revolution, each colony had its own parliament, and with the exception of Pennsylvania, the other colonies had a bicameral parliament.

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