Quiz 1 Review - Politics and Government Process/Issues

Page 1: Quiz 1 Review

• Topic: Politics and Government Process/Issues (POL 290-01)
• Focus on foundational concepts of government structure, institutional design, collective action, and historical constitutional development.

Page 2: Mixed Government, Structures, and Legislature

• Mixed Government concepts feature combinations of different elements: Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy.
• Specific forms listed:
  • Monarchy
  • Constitutional Monarchy
  • President (Republic) / Aristocracy / Democracy
• Institutions and bodies:
  • House of Lords
  • House of Commons
  • Senate
  • House of Representatives
• Legislative structures:
  • Bicameral Legislature
• Electoral aspects:
  • Executive elected by Electoral College
  • Legislative bodies elected by Popular Vote (in contexts where applicable)

Page 3: Congressional Districts and Key Voting Rights Cases

• Congressional districts and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 context.
• Wesberry v. Sanders (1964): Georgia districts should have approximately equal populations.
• Thornburg v. Gingles (1986): North Carolina; districts cannot dilute minority representation, but race cannot be the predominant consideration (racial gerrymandering).
• Davis v. Bandemer (1986): Indiana; gerrymandering unconstitutional if strongly biased against a political party’s candidates.
• Note: “Gerrymander 1812” indicates historical ties to Gerry (Gerrymander) origins in 1812.

Page 4: Review Terms & Concepts

• Referenda
• Apportionment & redistricting
• Census
• Congressional districts
• Direct democracy
• Gerrymander
• Partisan

Page 5: Institutional Design and the Politics Process

• Core idea: Politics as a Process
• Preferences: Philosophies, Ideologies, Ideas, Givens
• Bargaining & Compromise, Negotiation, Concessions
• Goal: Collective Decisions

Page 6: Government Institutions and Durability

• Institutional Durability: Institutions persist beyond individuals (succession processes).
• Examples: Social Security (expectation of continuity).
• Lack of alternatives: Affordable Care Act (as a policy example).
• Political System Logic: Common core values in elective offices; Majority rule.

Page 7: Institutions—Framework, Rules, Enforcement

• Institutions provide the framework for decision-making (Constitution, bylaws, charters).
• Process for enforcement.
• Institutions tend to be stable and slow to change.
• Key ideas: Preferences, Bargaining & Compromise, Collective Action.

Page 8: Costs of Collective Action — Transaction Costs

• Definition: Time, effort, and resources devoted to collective decision making.
• Lower costs = expedient decisions (e.g., established budget via income taxes).
• Higher costs = slower decisions (e.g., constitutional amendments require 2/3 of Congress and 3/4 of the states for ratification).
• Large groups tend to be slower to reach consensus.
• Illustrative formula-like idea: larger groups increase transaction costs, reducing speed of agreement.

Page 9: Costs of Collective Action — Conformity Costs

• Conformity costs: obligating the group to a common behavior; negotiating toward agreement.
• Examples: Paying taxes; Prisoner’s Dilemma dynamics; compromise.
• High conformity costs = expedience; extreme conformity costs = dictatorship.
• Low conformity costs = slow decisions; negotiation maximizes accommodation.
• Very low conformity costs can lead to government by consensus but with high transaction costs (e.g., Articles of Confederation).
• The U.S. Constitution minimizes conformity costs relative to alternative arrangements.

Page 10: Collective Action Problems

• Coordination problems: orchestrating behavior in large vs. small groups.
• Political coordination: establishing a focal point.
• Prisoner’s Dilemma: individual good vs. collective good.
• Free-rider problem vs. personal responsibility.
• Tragedy of the Commons: overuse of public lands.
• Regulation vs. privatization of public goods; collective good vs. private good.

Page 11: Work of Government — Public, Private, and Hybrid Goods

• Public goods = Public Policy (universal contributions: taxes, fees, mandates).
• Collective goods = military, highway systems, entitlements (debated).
• Private goods = goods & services produced by private enterprise (private benefits).
• Private ↔ Public hybrids: municipal fire departments, public toll roads, privatization.
• Public ↔ Private hybrids: privatization of certain services.
• Historical and contemporary examples: William Bradford and the Mayflower colony; Bush proposal for privatizing Social Security.
• Mixed, public/collective & private goods; Public education as a public good with private benefits.

Page 12: Work of Government — Intervention, Incentives, Mandates

• Government intrusion aimed at reducing transaction costs and controlling behavior.
• Subsidies versus free-market approaches (e.g., healthcare, education loans).
• Using incentives to affect behavior: tax deductions, rebates, abatements to encourage charitable contributions, etc.
• Mandates to achieve public policy goals.
• Emphasis: Collective goods align with public policy goals.

Page 13: Review — Agency Delegation

• Principals = decision-making authority, citizens.
• Agents = elected representatives.
• Congress delegates specialized commissions (authorities) to perform tasks.
• Risks of delegation: loss of agency (tyranny of the agents).
• Coercive authority can turn against the principal.

Page 14: America’s First Constitution — The Articles of Confederation

• Confederation structure: weak executive, no national judiciary.
• Decentralized state representation vs. popular vote in offices.
• Existed primarily during Congress; voluntary “league of friendship”; “united states.”
• Free riding in commerce and defense.
• Assembly vs. legislature: concerns about collective action and transaction costs.
• Supermajority requirements for bill passage.
• Emphasis on national identity and states’ sovereignty; states had veto power (unanimous consent).
• Possible reference to Prisoner’s Dilemma in practice.

Page 15: The Confederation at War

• American society at war: choosing sides (Tories/Loyalists ~20% of population).
• Attitudes of Anglicans, Blacks, and Native Americans?
• Military structure: Militia (home guard) vs. Continental Army (often poorer soldiers, indentured servants).
• Enlistment challenges: desertions; bounty incentives (e.g., $20, land offers).
• Finance problems: Congress lacked power to tax or fund bonds; slow contributions from state assemblies; enforcement difficulties (free-riding).
• Coercive pressures on states to comply; unanimous consent required, with RI often vetoing taxation.
• Foreign support: France funded the American cause (1778); victory at Yorktown (1781) and Treaty of Paris (1783).

Page 16: Postwar Confederation and the Economy

• Decentralization persisted; lack of enforcement authority (prisoner’s dilemma).
• War-torn economy: debt to veterans and creditors (domestic and foreign, including England).
• Trade barriers: states entered into separate trade agreements; export tariffs; state currencies.
• Popular discontent; Shay’s Rebellion as a focal point.
• James Madison’s concern about tyranny of the majority; self-preservation.
• Nationalists: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington.

Page 17: Articles of Confederation Recap and Review Prompts

• Recap prompts include:
  • How decisions were made under the Articles and what decisions were not made.
  • How the system affected the war effort and postwar governance.
  • Distinctions between principals and agents and their relevance to political processes.

Page 18: Constitutional Foundations — Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, Great Compromise

• Reference to Figure 2.2 showing competing plans and their merger in the Great Compromise.
• Source: Kernell, The Logic of American Politics, 11th Edition (2024).

Page 19: The Great Compromise and Key Provisions

• States lose veto power; Congress passes legislation.
• Article I, Section 8: Enumerated powers.
• Commerce Clause: national trade policies, foreign and domestic.
• Regulating interstate commerce, interstate crime, and racial discrimination.
• Necessary and Proper Clause: grants Congress implied powers for national public policy (both material and non-material public goods).
• Checks and balances: separation of powers; each branch can limit others.

Page 20: Separation of Powers and Checks & Balances by Branch

• Article I: Congress
  • Makes laws (statutes).
  • Confirms nominations and treaties.
  • Declares war.
  • Controls the purse (budget and spending).
• Article III: Judiciary
  • Establishes Supreme Court; Congress can establish lower courts.
  • Judicial review.
• Article II: Executive
  • Executes laws; conducts diplomacy (ambassadors, treaties).
  • Nominates federal judiciary; controls the sword (military force).

Page 21: Substantive Issues Addressing Collective Action Dilemmas

• Foreign policy: national defense and security under national government (Article I).
• Duties and tariffs fall under the U.S. Treasury.
• Treaties and interstate commerce regulation.
• National government powers over domestic trade, tariffs, port fees, money.
• National debt assumption of outstanding state debts.
• Republican governance across states (dual federalism).
• Enforcement of contracts, bankruptcy, and patent laws.

Page 22: Slavery and Constitutional Compromises

• Slavery protected by the Constitution; the South’s peculiar institution.
• Tension between inalienable rights and human bondage; constitutional compromises.
• Apportionment: rac{3}{5} of a person.
• Legacy of apportioned state taxes under the Articles.
• 20-year compromise: slave importation could not be banned until 1808.
• Runaway slave protection clause (Article IV).
• Logroll bargains; Southern concessions for Northern majorities on tax/import and commerce matters.
• Quotation from George Washington (First Inaugural Address) reflecting anti-slavery sentiment in part of the drafting era.

Page 23: Ratification Debates and Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist Positions

• Federalist (nationalism) vs. Antifederalists (states’ rights).
• Economic issues, slavery in the South, and concerns of small farmers (postwar demand, taxation).
• Compromise: Bill of Rights to protect individuals.
• Nullification ideas: states rejecting federal legislation; related to later historical episodes (Nullification Crisis 1832, Civil War, ACA 2010).
• Federalist Papers: No. 85 essays by Publius (Hamilton, Madison, Jay).
• Anti-Federalists: writings by Cato (and others like Clinton).

Page 24: Federalist No. 10 — Factions and the Union

• Madison’s argument for a large republic to mitigate factionalism vs. a small republic.
• Large commercial republic supports pluralism of competing interests.
• Factions as a potential source of insurrection (Shay’s Rebellion) and the worry of an overbearing majority.
• Ways to remove the causes of factions (not practical) vs. controlling effects:
  • Authoritarian suppression of factions: “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.”
  • Conformity of goals: risk of tyranny if opinions converge too easily.

Page 25: Federalist No. 51 — Checks, Balances, and Fragmentation

• Structure: government must provide proper checks and balances across departments.
• Premise: unitary forms of government can lead to corruption; institutional fragmentation can mitigate this.
• Dual federalism (national and state governments) to reduce corruption.
• Design features: bicameral legislature, executive, and judiciary; separation of offices; each branch can check others.
• Ideal: popular election for all offices; but practical design includes various methods and qualifications.
• Key idea: legitimacy through popular election; but power is distributed to prevent tyranny.
• Higher transaction costs associated with a bicameral legislature, slowing action.
• Unique authorities: e.g., Taxation (House), Advise & Consent (Senate).
• Staggered terms, institutional fragmentation, and a defense of each branch’s prerogatives.

Page 26: Federalist Recap — Factions and Fragmentation

• Federalist No. 10 recap: factions as a central concern; pluralism as a cure; preventing tyranny of the majority.
• Federalist No. 51 recap: why government must separate powers; ambition must counteract ambition; justice as the end of government.
• Questions to consider: what are factions, how they threaten governance, how to mitigate their effects, and why fragmentation matters.

Page 27: The Framer’s Toolkit — Institutions for Collective Action (Part I)

• President as commander-in-chief of the military.
• Executive orders as a tool to reduce collective action costs.
• Mechanisms: presidential action, legislative checks on the executive, and judicial review.
• Advise and Consent: confirmation process.
• Negative power (veto) to block proposals and preserve status quo.
• Senate vs. House coordination: Senate generally lower coordination costs; House committees incur higher costs.
• Agenda control in the legislature.

Page 28: The Framer’s Toolkit — Institutions and Delegation

• Tools to mitigate tyranny of the majority:
  • Plurality, simple majority, super majorities (2/3, 3/4).
  • Veto overrides and the evolution of voting rules.
• Actors: Principals (citizens, popular sovereignty) and Agents (elected representatives).
• Congress delegates specialized commissions; the bureaucracy implements policy.
• Risks of delegation: loss of agency, tyranny of the delegated; coercive authority may turn against the principal.
• Whistleblower laws and congressional oversight as accountability mechanisms.
• Delegation and its role in governance.

Page 29: Great Seal of the United States

• Visual: Great Seal components and mottos (EMURIBUS UNUM, ANNUIT COEPTIS, NOVUS ORD SECLORUM, E Pluribus Unum).

• Brief note: representation of foundational symbolism at the close of the transcript.

• Cross-cutting connections to exam preparation:

  • Understand how federalism and checks-and-balances shape policy outcomes.
  • Be able to explain major constitutional compromises (Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise) and their implications for representation and federal authority.
  • Distinguish between costs of collective action (transaction vs. conformity) and how they influence the design of political institutions.
  • Recall key Federalist papers (No. 10, No. 51) and their central claims about factions and institutional design.
  • Recognize historical episodes (Articles of Confederation weaknesses, war finance, ratification debates, Nullification, etc.) and their relevance to modern governance.