The legal tradition, which is often skeptical of public participation, was
maintained in the writing of the U.S. Constitution. Consistently with the
tradition of legalism and jurisprudence, the founding fathers created a government
with careful attention to the balance, or one might say the dilution
of power, in order to protect the public from governmental tyranny. At the
same time, however, the framers were extremely suspicious of rule by the
masses. For this reason, suffrage was severely limited. The concept of “citizen”
pertained only to white male landowners, who were believed to have
enough at stake, and presumably enough knowledge, to participate through
voting and public service.