AP US goverment and politics
topics:
foundations of american democracy
interactions among branches of government
civil liberties and civil rights
american political ideologies and beliefs
political participation
exam strategies
about the course
foundations of american democracy:
without a government, we have so many rights, like free speech and taxing others, something we typically don’t have
without a government however, it would be a world full of chaos
it can cause conflicts and imprisonment because of the rights that everyone would have
political philosophy
Thomas Hobbes
¨as long as men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in the condition known as ´war’; and it is a war of every man against every man. …In the war the two chief virtues are force and fraud. …A further fact about the state of war of every man against every man: in it there is no such thing as ownership, no legal control, no distinction between mine and thine. Rather, anything that a man can get is his for as long as he can keep it. …in such a condition every man has a right to everything- even to someone else’s body. As long as this continues, therefore - that is, as long as every man continues to have this natural right to everything - no time however strong or clever he may be, can be sure of living out the time that nature ordinarily allows a man to live.”
-Thomas Hobbes
if everyone has a right to everything, they can infrindge on everything.
even with most people not wanting the violence, there are still people who would cause this chaos in the world.
this was written near the end of the English civil war
person vs person
social contract
“when a man thinks that peace and self-dense require it, he should be willing (when others are too) to lay down his right to everything, and should be contented with as much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself.”
in order to keep some specific rights, a person has to give up other rights to the government to protect the peace, and make it less man against man.
using rights to protect other rights
“i give up these rights to the government to protect the ones that matter most”
“how does this government govern?”
“what are the contraints?’
“how are leaders elected?'“
natural rights - life, liberty, property.
john lockes theory (maybe) influencing some writing from thomas jefferson in the decloration of independence
life, liberty, and property are what the world sees as rights people should be born with, and they are never taken away.
in order to protect these basic rights, the government takes away some rights that arent fully neccessary?
giving up certain rights to the government makes it so the basic human rights are protected.
most countries are monarchies, meaning one person such as a queen, king, or emperor, while america decided to be a democracy
oligarchys are where a small group rules
popular sovereginty = democracy'
limited government (the consitution) can help the people have power, but not so much to the point of having so much power where they can take away the basic human rights
bill of rights is a check on the government
The ideas at the heart of the US government
the us government is based on ideas of limited government, including natural rights, popular soverignty, republicanism, and social contract
limited government is the belief that the government should have certain restrictions in order to protecct the individual rights and civil liberties of citizens.
when the USA seperated from the UK, they had the questions of “if not a monarchary, what type of government was the US going to have?'“ and “what kind of government was going to protect the people without violating their individual liberties?”
the framers decided to create a limited government based on ideas of natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and the social contract.
to avoid being like the british monarchy, the framers wanted to create a limited government.
with this, they would agree to let the citizens have the basic human rights (life, liberty, proptery/pursuit of happiness), but have some restrictions of what they can and cannot do
they created a social contract to protect the unalienable rights, but to also have citizens give up those other righst they dont need to have the government protect the unalienable rights.
but to make sure that the government wont turn into another government like britians monarchy, they created the popular sovereignty, which helps the people keep the government at bay from becoming too powerful
it gave the people freedom to choose who they want to represent them as a whole, and who the people believed would keep america’s government strong, while helping and benefittinf the country overall.
The unanimas decloration of the thirteen united states of america
in the declaration of independence, thomas jefferson talks repeatedly on how the king was refusing to listen to his citizens
In the writing, thomas jefferson states out what britian has done in which they dont agree with, basically saying why they are leaving and becoming independent.
Thomas jefferson also makes a reference on how he has “utterly neglected to attend to them” when referring to how he has “forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance”, showing how the king would almost procastinate important needs, and refuse to pass laws that would benefit the state of the people.
Thomas jefferson also references how he would bring political matters to “places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records” and he also says that he would do this so whoever he was discussing things with would get uncomfortable to the point of solely agreeing with his terms, basically forcing them physcologically to agree with something they dont agree with.
thomas jefferson mentions a lot of flaws, but he mentions how he would pursue with invasions, even when the people disagreed and tried to fight back.
One main thing i noticed was that in the USA’s government today, we have the third ammendment, stating that a solidier cannot enter our houses without permission. This connects directly to something thomas jefferson said was a flaw in Britian, mentioning how they would “quater large bodies of armed troops amoungst them”.
quiz 1:
profiecent
4/5
review questions:
which model of democracy does Federalist No.10 describe? How do you know?
which model of democracy does Brutus No.1 describe? How do you know?
Based on what you’ve learned, construct an argument for which type of democracy you think creates the most stable form of government that is run by the people.
personally, i think that pluralist democracy is the most effective because with it, they can have people focusing on multiple important topics at once, and with those discussions, we can get America more improved within a more reasonable amount of time, without fully having to rely on the government to take their time worrying about the topics. people who are more passionate about the topic should focus on it, and the politicians can just approve it.
practice:
proficent
4/4
quiz 2:
5/5
the articles of confederation
the articles of confederations comprised the united states first consitution, lasting from 1776 until 1789.
the articles established a weak central government and placed most powers in the hands of the states
under the articles, the us economy faltered, since the central government lacked power to enforce tax laws or regulate commerce.
shayys rebellion, an uprising revolutionary war veterans in massachusetts that both the state and national governments struggled to address due to a lack of centralized military power, illustrated the need to create a stronger governing system.
the articles of confederation bound the states together in a loose “league of friendship” that permitted the states to retain nearly all government power.
once the revolutionary war was over, the league of friends quickly became a league of impoverished quibblers.
the founders had been so concerned with making sure the central government couldn’t become too powerful that they neglected to make it powerful enough to solve issues facing a new nation.
during the revolution, the colonies learned to find common cause with each other, but they hardly saw themselves as a unified nation.
confederacy, in which states considered themselves independent entities linked together for limited purposes, such as national defense.
the government for the country didn’t have many rights, meaning it could only coin money, direct the post office, and negotiate with foreign powers, including native american tribes.
they could only request that the states provide what was needed to raise money or get soldiers.
in the beginning, it only had one branch, and that was the confederation congress, where each state had one vote.
with this, each state had no more power than one another, making them all equal in regards to voting.
because of one of the reasons for leaving Britain being taxes, the US wanted to make sure they wouldn’t have too many taxes, but they only allowed state governments to levy taxes.
therefore, the national government had to request money from the state governments
with the only being able to have the right to request money, most states didn’t give them much money, wanting to keep it for themselves.
with the lack of money, they were in a ton of debt with the revolution ending and now having to pay for the damages.
types of democracy:
participatory democracy - a model of democracy in which citizens have the power to decide directly on policy and polticians are responsible for implementing those policy decisions
pluralist democracy - a model of democracy in which no one group dominates politics and organized groups compete with each other to influence policy.
elite democracy - a model of democracy in which a small number of people, usually those who are wealthy and well-educated, influence political decision making.
democratic republic - a system of government in which the power to govern comes from the people, but elected officials represent their interests
participatory democracy is not a direct democracy
direct democracy - a model of democracy in which citizens are directly responsible for making policy decisions
an example of participatroy democracy includes town hall meetings, which are a way for local and national politicians to meet with constituents to hear their opinions
initiative - a process that allows citizens to bypass their state legislature by placing proposed laws on the ballot.
in a pluralost democracy, many groups form, each filled with people who have a passion for each issue being solved, creating support groups for each topic. then, a politician can support the group, making it easier for them to help the cause theyre working towards.
an example of pluralist democracy in todays world is interest groups, which are groups of people who attempt to influence policymakers ro support their position on a particular common interest or concern.
with these groups, they each tackle a problem in todays world and our nation, which helps us focus on multiple tasks at once, seperating each category into groups of each their own.
for elite democracy, this is one that Alexander hamilton seemed to support given many evidence.
in the presidental electons, even if the citizens all vote for one person, the electoral college can influence the vote, changing the overall to be the other person.
federalist No.10 - an essay written by james madison, in which he argued that a strong representitive government would be able to control the effects of fractions
Brutus No.1 - an anti-fderalist essay which argued against a strong central government based on belief that it would not be able to meet the needs of all US citizens
Constitution (1787) - the fundamental laws and principles that govern the united states. the document was the result of several compromises between federalists and anti-federalists surrounding the ratification of the constitution.