The Preamble to the US Constitution reflects the principle of representative democracy by asserting that "We, the People," are the ones establishing this constitution of government. The founding fathers of the United States based their ideas of government in the political philosophy of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke. Locke argued for the idea that the people are utlimately the source of authority in governing, and that decisions made by the majority of people are to determine what the laws are. Locke wrote: "When any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority."
