alist model which itself replaced a more elitist model. The shifts in power at the governmental level can be seen in the videos from The Power Game, just as the power of specific groups can be seen in Entertainment or Entertainment News? and Who Owns the Government? Any one of these programs serves primarily as a snapshot of a point in time, though, while shifts in power push certain groups out of their power position while allowing others to take their place.
When the nation was founded, it was more an elitist system than it is today. Originally, voting rights were given only to white males, and even then only to white males who owned property. The Constitution allowed states to impose property qualifications on those who could vote:
The Founders generally believed that only men of property had a sufficient "stake in society" to exercise their vote in a "responsible" fashion (Dye 149).
Property qualifications were eliminated by most of the states by 1840.
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