American leaders sought to draft the constitution as a new plan of government. what had the previous plan failed?

The Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation failed for one simple reason; weakness. The first "constitution" failed was due to the following reasons:

Eventually, all these reasons created a very difficult and poorly designed government. Shay's Rebellion in 1786-1787 ultimately marked the end of the Articles Of Confederation, as it showed how weak the central government truly was. The U.S. could not protect a perpetual union, and Founders of the AOC pushed to create an entirely new and more effective document to lay the law of the land. And so, the U.S. Constitution was born in 1787, and it continues to be a flexible document to this day.

rosevelt. 1973. "slaves everywhere"

social contract theory basically says that all individuals are born equal, and provided a god given right to consent to be governed. american government is based of this

thomas hobbes and john locke said that we are selfish, individualistic, and constantly at war with each other, therefore we need to be controlled. 

government is defined as the legitimate use of force to control human behavior within territorial boundaries, here comes in hobbes and locke.

hobbes takes the part about controlling human behavior. while locke takes the part of legitimate use of force, since force is not legitimate unless there is consent of the people. 

there are basically 3 goals of the government: 1) maintain order by protecting life and property. 2) providing public goods, those which are typically not provided by the public sector, such as roads and education. 3) promote equality be it political, opportunist or outcome equality.