The Founding Fathers aimed to create a weak central government under the Articles of Confederation, which can be best described as a system that leaned toward a form of democracy but lacked a strong authoritative structure. However, none of the given options perfectly describe their intent. If you have to choose one, the closest would be "a democracy," as they wanted to allow states a significant degree of autonomy.
So, the best choice from the options provided is: • a democracy