PS 1 – Introduction to American Politics

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Course Information

• Matt Grossmann, InstructorEmail: matthewg@berkeley.edu

• Michael Salamone, Graduate Student InstructorEmail: salamone@berkeley.edu

• Course: Mon-Thurs 2-4pm in 60 Evans HallDiscussion Sections: Friday 12-2pm and 2-4pm in 54 Barrows Hall

• Office Hours: Mon-Thurs directly after class

• Web site: http://www.mattg.org/ps1

Review From Monday

• Logistics: enroll, textbook, reader, website• Goals: general education, civics, Intro to poli sci• Assignments: short tests and essays,

simulations and group work, final• Course Outline: institutions, intermediation,

public behavior, policy, approaches to poli sci• A Central Theme: public disinterest and

understanding life inside the beltway• Empirical focus with normative skepticism• Scope: politics as governance or competition

over power; multiple approaches to poli sci• Study skills, reading tips

Today: American Democracy in Theory and Practice

• Textbook types of government• American political culture and values• Declaration of independence• Constitutional structure• Constitutional amendments• Separation of powers / checks and balances • Federalism• The Federalist Papers• Readings for next time• Questions/Comments

Textbook Types of Government

government

the institutions and procedures through which a territory and its people are ruled.

Low Inclusiveness High Inclusiveness

AUTOCRACY OLIGARCHY DEMOCRACY

Types of Government: Inclusiveness

Governments can be categorized in ascending levels of inclusiveness

Autocracies: governments controlled by one person – a king, a queen, or dictator.

Oligarchies: governments in which a small group – landowners, military officers, or wealth merchants – control most of the government decisions.

Democracies: governments in which citizens play a significant part in the governmental process.

Textbook Types of GovernmentWho Rules?

Types of Government: Recognition of LimitsGovernments can also be categorized in descending order of the limits they recognize on their own authority.

Few Limits Broad Limits

TOTALITARIAN AUTHORITARIAN CONSTITUTIONAL

Textbook Types of Government

Totalitarian governments: governments that recognize little or no limits on their authority and those that seek to absorb or eliminate potential challengers to their authority.

Authoritarian governments: governments that recognize no formal limits on their authority but are, often reluctantly, constrained by the power of other social institutions.

Constitutional governments: governments that recognize and often codify effective limits on their authority.

Textbook Types of Government: How Much Power?

• To protect life, liberty and property

• To aspire to a meaningful, moral community

• To achieve compromise, cooperation, and coexistence among individuals with conflicting goals and interests

• To enable the coordination on problems requiring collective action, such as the provision of public goods

• To manage common resources, prevent negative externalities, subsidize positive externalities

• To shelter us in uncertain futures and from unforeseen crises

Typical Justifications for Government:

• The topic of political philosophy: Aristotle, Arendt, Hobbes, Habermas, Rousseau, Rawls

• Philosophers have different views on:– The moral capacity of humans– The cognitive capacity of humans– The unity or diversity of human desires and interests– The benefits and costs of social interdependence and

organization

• Philosophers propose different goals for government:– Justice or Equality– Liberty or Freedom– Protection of Life or Property– Equal Participation

Which Form of Government?

• Difficult to Assess:– Our current view may not match the view of the

founders– The founders were trying to advance multiple, often

contradictory, values– Different founders had different goals in mind

• Methods to Assess:1. Investigate American political culture: what political

values are widely shared and used to justify government action?

2. Analyze founding documents: what values are advanced by the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers?

Which Values Were Advanced by American Government?

American Political CulturePolitical culture: “Broadly shared, characteristic, and deep-seated values, beliefs, and attitudes about how the government should function.”

“Consensus” Political Values(from We The People):

1. Liberty2. Equality3. Democracy

Often added:4. Individualism5. Limited Government

“Consensus” Political Values?

Liberty: Historically, Americans have valued both personal freedom and economic freedom.

Equality: Americans have a long-standing commitment to the “self-evident” ideal that “all men are created equal.”

Democracy: Americans’ commitment to democracy is marked by three principles to which most citizens adhere:– popular sovereignty– majority rule– minority rights

“Consensus” on Equality?

American Political Culture

• Equality, Liberty, and Democracy widely agreed to in principle

• People disagree on:– Their relative importance– How to put principles into practice

• These values animate our political debates; they are often referenced in modern politics

• Few want to admit that they are endangering equality, liberty, or democracy

The Declaration of Independence: A Statement of Values?

• Politically, the Declaration sought to unify the disparate interests of colonial society around core principles and in opposition to the British crown.

• The Declaration has be seen as a statement of the values animating the new government.

• The Declaration asserts the “self evident” and “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Declaration of Independence

• Justification for Independence:Natural rights: “the separate and equal station to which the

Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”

• Declaration to the World

• Justification for Government:

“To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving the just powers from the consent of the governed”

• Charges Against the King:– “quartering large bodies of troops among us”– “imposing taxes upon us without our consent”– “depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.”

Founding Documents: The Articles of Confederation

• The first American constitution: 1781-1789• A weak national union of independent states

“a firm league of friendship”• Not read as a statement of American values,

but conceived as one• Replaced at Constitutional Convention –

convened to amend the articles

The Articles of Confederation

Limited Powers– No independent judiciary or executive branch, only

Congress– States retained sovereignty / executed laws– Each state had one vote in Congress– Congressmen chosen by the state legislatures

Problems under the Articles of Confederation:1. America’s weak international standing2. Internal unrest such as Shay’s Rebellion3. Lack of financial stability from regular revenue

The Constitutional Convention

• Fifty-five delegates from twelve states; to “amend” Articles

• Elites from each state, but divided:– Federalists and Anti-Federalists– Large states and small states– “the slavery question”

• Overlapping goals:– promote commerce- protect property- disempower radicals

• Compromises:- The great compromise (House and Senate)- Three-fifths compromise (count 3/5 of slaves for Congressional apportionment)

The Constitution

• Compared to the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution increased the power of the central government:

– Commerce and finance– National judicial supremacy– Stronger executive branch

• Sought to curb “excessive democracy”– Checks and balances – Electoral College

• Limited the potential for government abuse– Bill of Rights (added)– Separation of powers– Federalism

Box 2.2 top

Box 2.2 bottom

Article I: Legislative Branch

Article I sets forth the powers and structure of the Legislative Branch:

• Bicameralism (House and Senate)• Expressed powers of government• “Necessary and proper” clause provides for

the potential expansion of congressional and national government power

Article II sought to provide a strong and “energetic” executive branch.

– The President was to be independent of the legislative branch;

– The President was to be the country’s “Commander in Chief” and its chief diplomat;

– Other powers include appointment of executive and judicial officials and the veto of congressional acts.

Article 2: Executive Branch

Article 3: Judiciary Branch

Article III deals with the selection and powers of the federal judiciary.

– Justices and judges to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

– Lifetime terms.– Established judicial supremacy.

Articles 4 and 6: National Powers

Key elements of Article IV promote national unity and power.

– Reciprocity among states that must give “full faith and credit” to acts of other states;

– Guarantees citizens of any state the “privileges and immunities” of every other state.

Article VI’s “supremacy clause” states that laws of the national government and treaties are the supreme law of the land.

Article 5: Amendments

Article V sets forth the procedures for amending the Constitution.

Proposing Amendments:Constitutional Amendments can be proposed either:

(a) by passage in the House and Senate by 2/3 vote; or (b) by passage in a national convention

called by Congress in response to petitions by 2/3 of the states.

The Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution constitute the Bill of Rights

– Added to help generate agreement among the states on the Constitution

– These amendments were designed to protect the basic freedoms of American citizens

– The meanings and applications of these rights have changed over time as judicial interpretations of these freedoms has changed

The Bill of Rights: A Charter of Liberties

CIVIL LIBERTIES are protections of citizens from unwarranted government action.

CIVIL RIGHTS describe government’s responsibility to protect citizens.

The Bill of Rights’ emphasis on limiting the powers of the national government makes it arguably more a “bill of liberties.”

14th Amendment: Extending the Bill of Rights to the States

“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

• Passed after the Civil War• Whether or not intended, extended the Bill of

Rights to prevent state action and to protect corporations

Table 2.3

Some Later Amendments: Extending Voting Rights

The Constitution: Important Features

• Separation of Powers

• Checks and Balances

• Federalism

• Missing:– Political Parties– Judicial Review– Delegated Powers

Separation of Powers

• Different powers for legislative, executive, and judiciary branches

• “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition” (Madison: Federalist 51)

• Attempts to prevent power accumulation in one branch

Checks and Balances

• Each branch has ways to counteract the actions of the other branches

• If power is concentrated in one branch, other branches can react

• Makes it more difficult for government (or one faction) to act

Fig. 2.2

Federalism

federalismdefined: a system of government in which power is divided, by a constitution,

between a central government and regional governments.

Governments can organize the balance of power between the central and regional governments in a variety of ways:

– Confederations (like the Articles of Confederation)

– Federal systems(like the constitution)

– Unitary systems

Federalism in the Constitution

Consistent with the Framers’ desire to divide the powers of government, the Constitution’s federal division of power can be understood as an attempt to limit the power of the national government.

With expressed powers, the Constitution grants specific powers to the national government and reserves the rest for the states.

Over time, however, the powers of the federal government have expanded through Constitutional interpretation

Federalism: Division of Powers

National Government Powers• Expressed powers

– collect taxes– coin money – declare war

• Implied powers– The “necessary and

proper” powers the national government from their implication in the Constitution

State Government Powers• Reserved powers

– “police powers” (the powers to regulate the health, safety, and morals of its citizens)

• 10th Amendment:“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The Ideas Behind the Constitution? The Federalist Papers

• Written to convince the smallest states to accept the Constitution

• Published under the pseudonym “Publius” in New York newspapers

• Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

• Helped create coalitions around the new Constitution

• Should they be read as statements of values or public relations documents?

Federalist 10:The Problem of Factions

• What is a faction? “By faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community” (Federalist 10).

• What is The Problem? “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man… A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government… an attachment to different leaders… have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good… The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.” (Federalist 10).

• “There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes, the other, by controlling its effects.”

• We cannot control the causes; they are human nature and liberty. We cannot destroy liberty or give everyone the same opinions and interests.

• The only alternative is to control their effects:– Majority rule– Representative government– Form a large and diverse nation

Federalist 10:The Problem of Factions

Federalist 10: A Republic, Not a Democracy?

• Madison does not endorse “a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction.”

• Madison endorses “A Republic, by which I mean a Government in which a scheme of representation takes place”

• The benefit of a Republic: “to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.”

• “Democracy” does not appear in the constitution

Federalist 51

• Provides justification for separation of powers, checks and balances, and House and Senate

• “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary”

• “you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

Federalist 51

• Separation of Powers:“Each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of members of the others.”

• Checks and Balances:“But the greatest security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and motives to resist encroachments of the others”

• House and Senate:Different constituencies (states and people), different terms of office

Are these still the principles of American government?

• A lot has changed since the founding:– Government has expanded dramatically– The American role in the world has expanded– Movements have altered our core principles

• A lot has remained the same:– The longest surviving constitutional structure– The problem of factions remains– The founding documents are still referenced

The Progressive Era: One effort to frame a new set of values

• 1890s – 1920s reform period

• Influenced by scientific expertise, populism, pragmatism, and moral values

• Credited, in part, with women’s suffrage, alcohol prohibition, direct election of Senators, income tax, business regulation, civil service administration, and the initiative process

Review: American Democracy in Theory and Practice

• Types of government: who rules and limits• Political culture: consensus values?• Declaration: justification and political values• Constitution: branches, powers• Amendments: process, Bill of Rights• Separation of powers / checks and balances • Federalism: division of powers• The Federalist Papers: The problem of factions,

Republican government, justification for constitutional structure

Questions or Comments?

You can ask questions or comment about:• The readings• Logistics• Relevant current events• Announcements

Discussion: Founding Principles

Founding Questions of American Political Theory (Madison):

Which threatens government more:

Tyranny of the minority or tyranny of the majority?

Which is more important in government structure:

Enabling government action or preventing action?

Discussion: Progressive Principles

Modern Questions of American Political Theory (Dewey vs. Lippmann):

Which is more important:

1. The Fairness of the Political Process

2. The Justice of Political Outcomes

Which is better:

1. Rule by the Experts

2. Rule by the People

Readings for Thursday

• We The People 468-490• House and Senate overview• District representation• Congressional elections• Organization of Congressional parties• The committee system• Staff and agencies

• Schickler, “Institutional Development of Congress”

• History of the committee system• History of Congressional party leadership• Attempts at Congressional reform