AP Gov - Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy

State of Nature

Without government being involved, the ‘State of Nature’ is when people do whatever they want with no regulation from others.

Social Contract

People allow for government to have authority over them to promote an orderly and functioning society

Mayflower Compact

A list of rules by the pilgrims on the Mayflower to ensure equality once they land on American soil.

Hobbes’ Social Contract & State of Nature

Hobbes believed that the state of nature is what causes man to be solitary and violent. In order to appease these urges, he states that in the social contract, the authority of the government is absolute, but not all-encompassing.

Locke’s Social Contract & State of Nature

Locke believed that the state of nature allowed for individuals to innately have independence, peace, and liberty and not savagery. Under the Social Contract Theory, humans will nevertheless agree to a government and leave the state of nature behind.

Rousseau’s Social Contract & State of Nature

Rousseau believed the state of nature is in neutral and peaceful conditions, with individuals acting according to their basic urges. With the social contract theory, these individuals start to become increasingly dependent on one another.

Liberty and Order

A balance between governmental power and individual rights has been a hallmark of American political development

What idea(s) is the U.S. government based on?

Limited Government: natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and social contract

Declaration of Independence

Drafted by Jefferson with help from Adams and Franklin, provides a foundation for popular sovereignty.

Natural Rights

Rights that are inherent, you have them automatically and they can not be taken away

Popular Sovereignty

Government’s right to rule comes from the people

Republicanism

Government’s authority comes from the people, the government is a reflection of the people

Declaration of Independence

Telling King George that we don’t want to be ruled over by him

Provides a foundation for popular soverignty

What does Jefferson have to say about the State of Nature?

He argues that inherent and inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are derived from this equal creation. Thus, governments are established to protect these rights by deriving their power from the consent of the governed. 

For what reason does Jefferson state that ‘governments are instituted among men’?

to secure the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He explains that when a government fails to protect these fundamental rights, it is the people's right and duty to alter or abolish it and establish a new government that will better ensure their safety and happiness. 

Where does John Locke show up in the Declaration of Independence?

"...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"

What are America’s natural rights?

fundamental, inalienable rights that people possess by nature and cannot be taken away by any government; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

What happened to the Social Contract between England and its American colonists?

Because King George:

-got rid of representative houses for opposing him

-sent officers to harass the colonies

obstructed administration of justice

What is the responsibility of the people when the government threatens their natural rights?

to alter or abolish them

From where will power come in the newly independent United States?

the people

how is the resolution of independence an example of republicanism?

authority comes from the people.

A System of Limited Government

• A system of LIMITED GOVERNMENT was designed to keep power closest to the people

  • Articles of Confederation

  • US Constitution

Goals of limited government

• Natural Rights

• Social Contract

• Popular Sovereignty

• Republicanism

What is the root of government?

• Government is rooted in a fundamental tension between the State of Nature and the Social Contract

  • Desire for Liberty versus the need for Order

… whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to ALTER or abolish it…

Representative Democracies

• Representative Democracies can take several forms along this scale:

  • Participatory: broad participation

  • Pluralist: group-based activism

  • Elite: limited participation

What aspects do the U.S. constitution and the debates between Fed #10 & Brutus #1 represent?

They reflect the tension between the broad participatory model and the more filtered participation of the pluralist and elite models

The 3 Models of representative democracy continue to be?

reflected in contemporary institutions and political behavior

Democracy

[Demos: People; Kratos: Power] – system of government where power is held by the people

PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

widespread political participation is essential for a democratic government

PLURALIST DEMOCRACY

groups (rather than individuals) are key to the policymaking process

ELITIST DEMOCRACY

elite members of society have the majority of influence on the policymaking process

Federalist Papers

• Penned by ‘Publius’

  • Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

• Collection of 85 essays to support ratification of the Constitution

• Supported strong national government

• Worried about ‘tyranny of the majority’

Anti-Federalist Papers

• Penned by ‘Brutus’

• Collection of 16 essays to raise concerns about the Constitution

• Supported strong state governments

• Worried about oppression of individual/state rights by central authority

Fear and Government

Federalists and Anti-Federalists each feared the new government may fail

TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY

• Fear that the majority (poor) could overwhelm a smaller ruling class (wealthy)

  • Mostly held by the Federalists – wanted to design systems that favored an elite ruling class against ‘mob rule’

    • Elite

  • The best way to protect the rights of the people from dangerous factions is to encourage a large republic of competing groups.

    • Pluralist

TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY

• Fear that an unpopular minority could use centralized power to crush a majority

  • Mostly held by the Anti-Federalists – wanted to provide protections and safeguards that placed limits on the power of an elite ruling class

  • Advocates for broad citizen involvement in the political process, as opposed to pluralist or elitist models where power is concentrated in specific groups.

  • Participatory Democracy

The federalists belief on big or small government.

The federalists believed that the greatest threats to a republic was a faction. The key to controlling factions was to have a big government.

The anti-federalists belief on big or small government.

The anti-federalists believed a large government wouldn’t be able to effectively represent the people’s interests and would limit the representations of the people. They also feared a big national government and military.

Which of the following is an example of the pluralist theory in American democracy?

Weakness of participatory model

untrained or uneducated people may significantly influence decision-making

Weakness of pluralist model

Groups may possess advantages over others on the basis of race, gender, class, money, etc. that allows some groups to have more representation than others

Weakness of elitist model

limits opportunity to only select members of society 

Constitutionalism

The Constitution emerged from the debate about the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation as a blueprint for limited government

Fed #10

the superiority of a large republic in controlling the “mischiefs of faction,” delegating authority to elected representatives and dispersing power between the states and national government

Brutus #1

adhered to popular democratic theory that emphasized the benefits of a small, decentralized republic while warning of the dangers to personal liberty from a large centralized government

Treaty of Paris 1783

 granted the US independence, specifically mentioned each of the 13 states separately as becoming independent

The Bill of Rights (1791)

• Ratification for the Constitution became dependent on the Bill of Rights

  • Without explicit protection of individual rights, the Constitution likely would have failed to meet the threshold for ratification

Bill of Rights (First 10 Amendments) outlined individual rights that could not be infringed on (taken away) by the national government

(national) Gov’t Power

• Chief Executive (President)

• National judges appointed (not elected)

• Electoral College

• Senators elected by state legislatures (not the people)

  • 6 year terms

  • Upper Chamber

• Preservation of property rights

Individual Rights

• Lower Chamber (House of Reps.)

• Bill of Rights; Amendments 1-10

  • (9) protection of individual rights not listed in the Constitution

  • (10) powers not given to federal government reserved to the states or people

• Impeachment of elected officials

What does Madison believe is the proper role of Government?

Madison believes that the proper role of the government is to help solve the problems created by factions.

What does Brutus believe is the proper role of Government?

Brutus believes that there should be stronger state governments and a central government that’s weaker and doesn’t oppress individual rights.

What does Madison believe about the appropriate size and power of a national government?

Madison believes in a strong national government, but he also believes that state governments should have legislative power as well, hence the idea of representatives from each state.

What does Brutus believe about the appropriate size and power of a national government?

Brutus believes in a weaker, smaller national government and doesn’t believe in the federalists idea of state representatives because of how vast the opinions of the states and overall nation are and a representative won’t know what’s in the best interest of the people they’re supposed to represent. 

Articles of Confederation

• Formed in 1777 as an emergency to govern the United States during the Revolutionary War

  • Formally ratified in 1781

• Sovereignty (power) with the STATES, not the national government (Confederation Congress)

The government under the Articles of Confederation?

One-House Legislature

No Chief Executive, No Judicial Branch

How many votes did the states have?

One-vote

How many states to pass a law?

9/13

How many states to ratify/change an amendment?

13/13

The purpose of the Articles of Confederation

• Americans fighting against oppression of central government

  • Less powerful central government = more individual liberty – that’s the whole point of what they are doing in the Revolution

Weakness of the Articles of Confederation

• No power to tax – request states to send funds to pay for national interests

  • Also = no money for a national army (but they could have one if they wanted)

• Foreign policy and internal domestic policy (interstate trade) were complicated by a lack of national sovereignty

Competing Self-Interests

• Citizens had greater affinity toward their own state, than a national body

  • Didn’t trust other states nearly as much as their own

• States had competing self-interest over land/territory, economics, trade, representation, etc.

  • Each State had 1 Vote in the Confederation Congress – population or territorial size did not matter

• An independent nation won’t long last if the states collapse into internal rebellions and violent squabbles

Annapolis Convention – Fall 1786

A Meeting to Restructure the Gov’t from the Articles of Confederation

• Only 5 states showed up – no important business can be accomplished

• Bitterly disappointed delegates passed a resolution to meet the following spring (1787) in Philadelphia to try again

Why they didn’t want a government reform:

• Fear of the overturning of protections to own slaves

• Small states feared a loss of power to the bigger states

• Remaining fear of centralized power

Shays’ Rebellion

• Winter 1786-1787

• Daniel Shays – Common Farmer – leads popular uprising against the state government of Massachusetts over taxes

Why Shays rebelled?

• In order to pay off Revolutionary War debts to wealthy citizens and officials, the state of Massachusetts raised taxes which common people could not afford to pay

  • Angry citizens revolted echoing cries of ‘no taxation without representation’ heard during the war against England

Compromises deemed necessary for adoption and ratification of the Constitution are represented by the:

• Great (Connecticut) Compromise

• Electoral College

• Three-Fifths Compromise

• Compromise on importation of slaves

The compromises necessary to secure ratification of the Constitution left:

some matters unresolved that continue to generate discussion and debate today

What remains at the heart of present-day constitutional issues about democracy and governmental power?

The debate over the role of the central government, the powers of state governments, and the rights of individuals

Examples:

• Debates about government surveillance resulting from the federal government’s response to the 9/11 attacks

• The debate about the role of the federal government in public school education

Constitutional Convention

• The meeting in Philadelphia (Spring 1787) led to the creation of a new government – The US Constitution

  • 55 delegates from 12 of 13 states attended (No Rhode Island)

  • Madison, Washington, Franklin, Hamilton – all members of elite society

The first vote of the constitutional convention was to:

maintain total secrecy over their deliberations

The second vote of the constitutional convention was to:

create an entirely new system of government rather than to revise the original Articles of Confederation

The national government’s power was now:

Expanded

What was the legislature under the constitution?

2 house legislature (lower: people; upper: state legislatures)

Other branches under the constitution:

• Executive Branch

• National court system with enforceable powers (Judicial Branch)

What was the U.S. constitution the product of?

Many political compromises

Great (Connecticut) Compromise

resolved disputes between big (Virginia Plan)  and small (New Jersey Plan)  states over representation (Article 1)

Lower house representation based on population, upper house each state equal

Three-Fifths Compromise

1. slaves will count for population but only as 3/5 of a person
   (Article 1 Section 2)

   • Southern states will hold disproportionate power for a long time (preserve slavery)

Importation of Slaves

Congress will not restrict the “importation of such Persons” until 1808 (Article 1 Section 9)

Electoral College

People will vote, but the Electors will determine the election outcome for President (Article 2 Section 1)

Virginia Plan

New Jersey Plan

Great Compromise

Individual Rights

Individual Rights are not a primary feature of the US Constitution

Article 6

No religious test for holding office

Article 1 Section 9 

Government must explain why someone accused of a crime is being held (Habeas Corpus)

Article 1 Section 9 (P2)

Legislature can not declare someone guilty without a trial

Article 1 Section 9 (P3)

Can not be charged for a crime, that was not a crime at the time an act was committed

Article 3 Section 2

Right to a jury trial in criminal cases

National Gov’t Power (Constitution)

• Chief Executive (President)

• National judges appointed (not elected)

• Electoral College

• Senators elected by state legislatures (not the people)

  • 6 year terms

  • Upper Chamber

• Preservation of property rights

Individual Rights

• Lower Chamber (House of Reps.)

• Bill of Rights; Amendments 1-10

  • (9) protection of individual rights not listed in the Constitution

  • (10) powers not given to federal government reserved to the states or people

• Impeachment of elected officials

Making Changes to the Constitution

By establishing an Amendment process, the Founders ensured that the gov’t would endure into the future

An Amendment must be supported by:

 2/3 of BOTH chambers (House and Senate) OR 2/3 of all the state legislatures

An Amendment must be ratified by:

3/4 of state legislatures OR ratification conventions in 3/4 of all the states

How many total amendments?

• There are 27 amendments (First 10 of which are the Bill of Rights)

  • Amendment 18 is canceled by Amendment 21 (Prohibition)

Whiskey Rebellion

• Corn Farmers in Pennsylvania protest tax on whiskey

  • threat to their economic interests

• Attempt to mount a revolution similar to Shays’s Rebellion

• Washington mounts a horse and rides out to put down rebellion

• Gov’t exercises coercive power to squash popular sovereignty

Policy-Making Interests

The Constitution created a competitive policy-making process to ensure the people’s will is represented and that freedom is preserved

The powers allocated to Congress, the president, and the courts demonstrate:

the separation of powers and checks and balances features of the Constitution

Federalist No. 51

explains how constitutional provisions of separation of powers and checks and balances control abuses by majorities

Multiple access points for stakeholders and institutions to influence public policy flows from:

the separation of powers and checks and balances

Impeachment, removal, and other legal actions taken against public officials deemed to have abused their power reflect the purpose of:

checks and balances