The creation and implementation of the Untied States Constitution was a great experiment.  The Constitution expressed the ideal that people could govern themselves.  The United States Founding Fathers believed they were changing the future of the world's governments.  The Founding Fathers knew that some other countries might even try similar experiments.  Today the results of that experiment can be seen world wide. 

From the earliest days of the Republic, this nation's Founders believed that the United States had a special mission in the world. George Washington spoke of it saying, "The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people." The success of their experiment, these early Americans hoped, would hasten the spread of liberty around the globe. 

Countries began to follow the United States' example.  In the first century following the Declaration of Independence, movements in France, Belgium, Poland, Norway, and Switzerland drew both inspiration and practical lessons from the American Revolution and its landmark documents. Rebellions against existing monarchies or dictatorships often became violent, but the idea of liberty could not be extinguished.  The belief that people could and should govern themselves grew slowly at first, then with increasing strength.

In 1917, there were approximately a dozen democracies in the world. Today, there are more than one hundred, and most of them have written constitutions. While the charters of many of these nations vary greatly from the U.S. Constitution, its endurance and stability has surely lent encouragement and credibility to the cause of freedom-loving people everywhere.

What began as a great experiment in self government in 1787 in the small, new nation of the United States has grown to a world-wide reality.  Today people in many countries participate in  their own country's government thanks to the foresight of the authors of the U.S. Constitution.