AP Gov 1.1-1.3

Republicanism

• Citizens elect temporary reps to make/execute laws to serve public interest

Thomas Hobbes (The Leviathan)

• Claimed in a State of Nature, humans are prone to anarchy and war, so ppl should agree to give up some rights to a powerful sovereign in exchange for peace & stability

John Locke (The Second Treatise of Civil Government)

• Argued under Natural Law that ppl were born free & equal (against Hobbes) w/ inalienable rights (life, liberty, property) comes from God

• Government comes from consent of the governed and we must rebel if ruler’s don’t respect this consent

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract)

• Wrote the Social Contract: agreeing to give up some natural rights to protect society and advocated for 1 body of gov’t created through PS

Baron de Montesqieu (The Spirit of the Laws)

• Created the Separation of Powers to distribute and limit the power of the people running the government

Limited Government

• Limited government is a political philosophy that advocates for restricting the power and scope of governmental authority via federalism, checks & balances, & separation of powers

Declaration of Independence

• Based on Enlightenment ideas: popular sovereignty, limited government, natural law, republicanism, & social contract created the basis of the Declaration of Independence

• Provided a moral & legal justification for separation from GB bc of the violation of natural rights

Popular Sovereignty

Gov’t legitimacy comes from the ppl

Grand Committee

• Special group of delegates that amended the Articles of Confederation, established the House of Representatives (rep based on pop) & Senate (equal rep 2 per state)

Representative Republic

• Collection of sovereign states gathered for national interest, needs, & defense

Representative Democracy

• A government in which the ppl entrust elected officials to rep their concerns

U.S Constitution

• Establishes the structure, separation of pwrs, & limitations of the fed gov’t and the relationship between fed gov’t & state gov’t

• Guarantees certain individual rights via Bill of Rights

• Compromise between Anti and Federalists

3 Types of Democracy

• Participatory, pluralist, and elite

• Strong Central government reflects elite model of democracy bc elected reps (HoR & Senate until Senate is now rep by ppl in 1913, so participatory.

• Representatives & senators from each state represent a wide variety of views that negotiate agreements 2 pass laws (finding agreement in pluralism)

Participatory Democracy

• Direct participation of citizens in politics

• Doesn’t work well on lrg scale (hard to get everyone involved equally)

• Done effectively via town halls, school districts, & initiatives (direct popular vote to propose laws on a local ballot via petition) & referendum (popular vote to defeat a law)

Pluralist Democracy

• Interst groups who compete for influence to persuade policymakers to rep their interests

• Interest groups (political parties, businesses, environmentalists, NRA)

• Bc we are divided by districts with diff views/opinions leads makes it hard 1 interest to dominate

Interest Groups

• Group that shares a goal to try and influence politicans

• Need to compromise

Elite Democracy

• Elected representatives who are wealthy or well-educated that influence political decisionmaking to rep the ppl who elected them

• Prevents popular but possibly harmful movements from becoming policy

• The most democratic elite position: House of Representatives

Federalists

• Supported a strong central gov’t w/ reps to lead the nation

• Believed checks & balances, sep of pwrs, & federalism would prevent tyranny to protect the rights of states & individuals

• Argued a large republic was best for controlling factions

• Emphasized pluralism and unity; rejected pure democracy as unstable.

Anti-Federalists

• Didn’t want strong fed gov’t bc a lrg republic risks State oppression & wanted no filtered representation by democratic elite

• Believes a bill of rights was needed to protect state sovereignty & liberty

• Worried fed gov too much pwr

  • Supremacy Clause: Constituion is supreme law of land

  • N&P Clause: Congress has pwr to make all laws

Faction

• Group that could threaten others’ rights unless diluted by representation in Congress

James Madison

• Author of the federalist papers

Federalist No. 10

• Madison argues that factions are inevitable, but a solution is a lrg republic to control effects by dispersing power across a representative gov to prevent tyranny by advocating for pluralism

• This makes it difficult for any single faction to dominate = ensures balances governance

Brutus No. 1

• Argues that factions are dangerous in a large republic because its too diverse, w/ lrger gov’t fewer ppl know how it works, & hard to rep all interests so advocated for small republics and small state govs

• Says N&P Clause & Supremacy Clause gives fed gov’t unlimited pwr, risking personal liberty

Debates Affect on Ratification on Constitution

• Brutus Position: Led to creation of Bill of Rights to protect individual liberties = ratification by Anti-Feds

• Publius Position: Led to reinforcement of strong central gov’t w/ checks and balances to prevent tyranny

Natural Law

• A doctrine that society should be governed by certain ethical principles that are part of nature, and as such, can be understood by reason.