The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was largely motivated by a need to cure the problems that had arisen from, as Massachusetts statesman Elbridge Gerry put it, “an excess of democracy.” Under the loose framework of the Articles of Confederation, the states—with legislatures elected annually (in Rhode Island, every six months)—allowed local majorities to infringe the rights of unpopular minorities, such as creditors. The Constitution’s partial answer to this problem was to create a structure of government in which power would be divided between the state and central governments, and among branches of government, making it difficult for political entities to restrict individual liberty. But at the root of this system is the unspoken assumption that all government power is derived from the sovereign people.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/rights-first-government-second-14587.html
