Ask not what your soil can do for you, ask what you can do ...
III. Necessary Conditions for Democracy. Who Said it? “Ask not what your country can do for you;...
-
Upload
laura-sutton -
Category
Documents
-
view
222 -
download
1
Transcript of III. Necessary Conditions for Democracy. Who Said it? “Ask not what your country can do for you;...
III. Necessary III. Necessary Conditions for Conditions for
DemocracyDemocracy
III. Necessary III. Necessary Conditions for Conditions for
DemocracyDemocracy
Who Said it? • “Ask not what your country can do for
you; ask what you can do for your country.”
• “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
• “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.”
Kennedy Video
A. Consent of the Governed
• People must freely agree to have a government
• One of the most important ideas found in the Constitution
• Found in the Preamble • “We the people”
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Enlightenment philosopher
• The Social Contract (1762) – All citizens have the same innate rights
• Only legitimate governments are those that protect individual rights
• King receives powers from the “general will” [of the people] and not God
B. Political Equality• Equality of opportunity • Equality before the law• “One person, one vote” – Equal
political unit• Everyone must have an equal
right to participate
• Question: Does everyone have to participate to make democracies successful?
• Need not be universal • Must be roughly representive – “reflective”
C. Majority Rule – Minority Rights
• Majority Rule – Decisions made by more than half of the people must be accepted by all – Really seen in the House of Representatives– All Americans must accept election results
• Minority Rights – Respected and given an opportunity to voice their opinions – Really seen in the Senate
Primary Source – James Madison– June 8, 1789
• “The greatest danger lies, namely that which possesses the highest prerogative of power. But this is not found in either the executive or legislative departments of Government, but in
the body of the people, operating by the
majority against the minority.”
Endo v. United States• During WWII 100,000 Japanese
Americans were sent to relocation camps
• Caused by fear and racist beliefs• Found that it was against the law
to fire and relocate Japanese Americans
Japanese Interment Camps
Civil War and Majority Rule
• Secession was illegal according to Lincoln
• Would lead to an endless splintering of authority
• Disgruntled minorities could chose to seceded all the time
Primary Source – Abraham Lincoln – 1861
•“Plainly, the central idea
of secession, is the essence of anarchy.”
D. Need for Compromise
• Compromise – Blending and adjusting competing views of interest
• Each side is forced to give up something
• Essential part of democratic process• Most U.S. laws are a product of
compromise
E. Inclusion•Government should include equal rights to all citizens
•Right to act and express yourself as long as you do not violate other’s rights
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins”