Why do two of the basic principles of democracy, equality and individual liberty, sometimes conflict with each other? How do civil rights laws promote one of these principles while limiting the other? Provide some concrete examples

Question

How would the Founders of the United States be likely to feel about these issues?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

An ideal response will:
1, Explain that these two basic principles can conflict when equality, which favors majority rule, leads to a majority of people wanting to deprive a minority of certain rights, thus threatening individual liberty.
2, Describe how civil rights laws, which ensure individual liberties, increase the scope and power of government, which represents limits on individual liberty in the sense that people and institutions must act in certain ways whether they want to or not; for example, restaurant owners must serve all patrons regardless of race, professional schools must admit women, and employers must accommodate people with disabilities and make an effort to hire minority workers.
3, Discuss how the effects of civil rights laws do not conform to the eighteenth-century idea of limited government that the Founders envisioned.
4, Note that although the original Constitution did not guarantee individual rights, the Declaration of Independence referred to all people being created equal and having "inalienable rights" to which they are equally entitled, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees equal protection of the laws.