Untitled Flashcards Set

 LECTURE: 

Hirschman & Smith 

Adam Smith

• Father of modern economics 

• Credited for inventing capitalism 

Albert Hirschman

• Economist and economic historian 

Saint Augustine’s Deadly Sins 

• Avarice → Love of Money or you could say GREED

  • Violates moral norms based on fairness

  • If you love money you will pick up on other terrible sins such as wrath, envy, ambition, lust. 

  • Godly virtue: Generosity 

• Ambition → Love of Power

  • Godly virtue: obedient 

• Lust → Love of… 

  • Godly virtue: Chastity

For the western history, they said reason vs passion (thought of as a bad thing!) of what is good vs bad. 

Passion = emotional, selfish, 

What if we start with an appetite that is bad, and use passion to create a society on that… 

EX: Hobbes says we are all born with the desire to live, but it's universal and an effort to found society that is basic and true among everyone. 

• Hisrchman uses Locke's idea of PROPERTY  to use passion to drive us to a place of property. 

• Hobbes helped redefine reason as a human faculty that simply helps us get what we want

Step 1: Find a passion that is predictable; 

• Turns out that avarice is more predictable, because if you can predict how someone is going to behave you can manipulate it. 

• Avarice we can change the word to interest or self-interest and because we have that interest to have money, we gain virtues like generosity, wisdom, judgement, etc 

Adam Smith: 

• We can’t just rely on the good will of other people to survive

• New moral paradigm: The great improvement is that we divide labor, or we “force me to major smt” 

• Smith’s point is that specializing is not only economically important, but morally significant. 

• Smith talks about the invisible hand: fancy way of saying that supply and demand is the way that society should decided how much you should get paid, how hard you should be working, and why people select to specialize what they need to. 

• Another word for it: our wallets are determining the price 

• More wealth = more peace , more peace bc the division of labor implies cooperation

• You get more order with less authority 

• By creating ever greater interdependence among nations and people, we are more invested in success 

• We call their ideas CAPITALISM: the fantastic economic system. 

• Historically speaking, both slavery and capitalism came out the same time. 

Lecture Wednesday, February 5

Declaration of Independence

Gordon Wood: from The American Revolution 

• Salutary neglect

• British learned that sometimes winning a war causes as many problems as losing  

  • They had to pay an enormous det

  • The colonies had changed- much more populous and wealthy: you actually have the money for this, but why won’t you start paying now?   

  • Already straining against traditional authority 

• In the 1760s, The British decided to regulate colonial commerce to gain more tax revenue. They decided to enforce the navigation acts: trading only with english ships 

• The British realized they needed to reform their imperial administration to get hold of the situation (even though the colonies was already pretty much on their own)

• But, every effort to better control the colonists backfired. The Stamp Act proved particularly ineffective. 

• What they really start to do is who is parliamentary authority (who is the alpha) 

• Most of us learned that the ensuing debate centered on this claim by the colonists: No taxation without representation. 

• What does it mean to be represented? What counts? Virtually represented meant they were working for the common good of the majority

• American colonials rejected the British view 

  • They asserted that parliament could not pass laws for them

• If the king is the only thing tying us together, then the nation could not have two sovereigns. 

• THis insistence then forced the colonists into the once unthinkable- they should declare what they already believed

• Breaking with the King as well and becoming independent. 

• Gordon Wood described the colonies to be in a state of nature like Locke stated

• Jefferson: 

  • Natural rights “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (But we think this has got to be something like property)

  • Social contract theory to secure our rights (just like locke! 

  • Right of Rebellion: Whenever someone tries to destroy our rights… just like Locke 

• If the colonists were already in a state of nature and therefore free to form their own government

• The declaration is rather a saying that the british had a war on us and now we are in self defense 

• “Romer’s Rule” is a way to understand the Revolution, we were getting back in a time of life instead of creating necessarily a new one

• Revolutionaries were in 3 groups: abolitionists: who wanted immediate emancipation

• Moderates who has some confidence of eventual emancipation 

Monday, February 10, (My Birthday!) 

The Constitution: 

James Madison: “The Virginia Plan” 

The Constitution of the United States 

Federalist #10 

Federalist #51 

Fairfax County: “Federal State and Local Government Responsibilities” 

• James Madison wrote the first draft of the constitution 

• What is this class about? Government itself is about the greatest of all reflections on human nature

• Let's get into some HISTORY! 

• Having won the war, the colonists wanted to return to life as if nothing had changed 

• But of course, everything had changed; there was no king and no clear rules for working together, and no clear sense of how to apply the ideals of the Revolution moving forward 

• They then had this question; how does one create a government that protects life, liberty, property, and promote self-determination? 

• Once freed from monarchy, the states could effectively go back to their liberal ways. 

• It seemed obvious that the states needed some system of coordination. So the first thing that they tried was the Articles of Confederation which came into effect in 1781

• THe founders worried so much about a powerful government, but we found out you need a government to do a few things like control crime, enforce treaties, collect taxes, and pay debts. 

• By 1787 everyone knew that the Articles were not working. So the states called for a “grand” convention to make recommendations for amending the Articles. 

• I'm rich, smart, and patriotic is what James Madison’s speech to run was like 

• The taberon owner WON bc yk who doesn’t want free beer. 

• Madison thought that if we were gonna die for self-determination we can’t just vote for free beer. 

• All the trade disputes and taxes were state government fails

• The core problem: How to give people maximum freedom & A strong voice in their government, but at the same time keep them from using their freedom to become their worst selves. 

• Most quoted part from federalist papers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government…”

• He basically said government needs to control the governed and oblige it to control itself. 

• First part: HOBBES (we want a leviathan, we need to keep them under control) & Second part: (LOCKE!) 

• Madison thought if he could come up with the right “structural” solution; aca institutional design (Everything talked about from Naiome Braine) then the american government could have balance 

• His solution was a whole new constitution! 

  • A new federal government with 3 branches 

  • A system of checks and balances within government 

  • An enlarged republic 

  • And a compound republic 

• Madison had to compromise on several points, what makes the constitution work: 

• 1. Checks & Balances: 

  • Judicial Branch: settles disputes about laws 

  • Legislative Branch: Makes laws, provides funding 

  • Executive Branch: executes the law  

• Maddison wants to release ambition and design a system that creates a love of POWER 

• “Ambition must be made to encounter passion” 

• They want to make sure the structure actually works! 

• The Key insight: It’s not that we just need to get people elected, we have to come up with some sort of design where they think in that branch. There are rules for how you can get into each branch! 

• Legislative Branch: 2 years (house) or 6 years (senate) 

• Executive (4 years) 

• Judicial: appointed for life 

• These differences create distinct institutional norms and commitments. They connect the interest of the man to the branch of government 

• Main Point: By creating distinct ways of getting into office… 

• What about the state government? 

• Madison sees “factions” as responsible for the troubles within state governments 

• Factions were the popular people that you call the click. They use their popularity to get what they want. 

• They will use popularity to gain power enrich themselves, or oppress others. 

• Madison said you don’t want to seem smaller, but bigger 

• You might get the same faction in different states, but you might not. 

• Well who should sit in judge? 

• Madision said that people won't care are the bets solution. Give me a big enough country with a vary of interest then there will always be a good enough group full of possible judges. 

• 3. How to maximize individual freedom through federalism: This is the idea we are going to preserve self government and individual liberty. It is a kind of dual sovereignty. 

• The most important section of the constitution is article 1 section 8; the powers of congress or enumerated 

• Federalism: we have many levels of government that do many different things: country, towneship, this is also where our input is heard best and counts for the most 

• The idea is that the unit of government which has the most power (the federal) had a limited number of responsibilities and the most clearly defined checks and balances. 

• So the federal gov was designed to not get a lot accomplished.

February 12, 2025 

Bill of Rights; Akhil Amar

Terminology (Cases are significance) lowercase

liberalism: 

• The main advocates of liberalism are (not today’s democratic party) rather, John Locket, Adam smith… 

• liberalism cares most about FREEDOM and not a ton about social cohesion or the structure of the government. 

• It thinks something like the invisible hand will guarantee social harmony. (*Youre not the boss of me, unless a social contract). 

• Might be compatible with democracy and reubliciasm 

democracy: 

• Democracy comes from two Greek words: Demos = people kratia = power or to rule. The people are in charge 

• Individuals can express there ideas 

• Democracy can work against liberalism → At the time of the Founding, this was called “mod rule”                    

• Theme song: Were all in this together. In short whatever the group decides, goes for everyone in the group 

republicanism: 

• seeks to use some kind of structure (or institutional design) to get the best of liberalism and democracy. 

• This means that rights are protected (eventually) and The People get their way (eventually) 

• Part of what this structure does is slow it down in order to take emotion out of our disagreements 

• James Madison!! We should have a representative government!  

Bill of Rights: 

• A key Anti-Federalist complaint center on a Bill of Rights 

• The bill of rights for the federalists wasn’t gonna do anything or harm anything for them so they easily signed it. 

• James Madision wrote the Bill of Rights which are the amendments 

• Amar’s goal is to help us understand how the Bill of Rights works as a combination of liberalism, democracy, and republicanism. 

• Rights are liberal, they say we have the right to ___ and we have the right to that

• But Amar says is defends democratic input and republican design 

• Madison argument in Fed 10 connects to Amars term “skimming” to explain how a large republic will more likely end up with better lawmakers in the federal government 

• Anti-Fed rejected Madison’s logic (In fed 10( bc they fear it went too far 

• They worried that the national elected officials would be too disconnected 

• Anti-Feds (More taberan owners)

• *** NOTICe that the proposed Amandment was only proposed to the house, 

• It turned out that for small states wanted as small a legislature as possible. 

• The OG second Amendment (27th now) is focused on preventing congress members from enriching themselves. 

• OUR first Amendment: Freedom of speech. But Amar wants to tell us that the right of freedom of speech should allow us all to be members of congress. He wants us to see the First Amendment as making us all “members of Congress”. It is a way to empower democracy 

• “Our” First Amendment: Again Amar wants us to see this these rights as protecting The People as much or more than individuals. These rights allow us to revise the social contact. 

• Finally, freedom of religion. Amar wants to let us know that we have generally misunderstood this part of the first amendment. 

• Lots of states had established religions that had rules like you cant run for rules unless you are christian 

• Originally the First Amendment meant that congress could not force states to give up their already established religions. 

• We read Amar bc the bill of rights is about individual liberty it is about a mechanism to protect my individual rights and preferences and a way to impower us to be good citizens. This was the hope of federalist. 

Tuesday February 18, 2025 

Ball

Government if it doesn’t do anything else, it should protect you from violence: Hobbes and Locke  

But it should also protect rights: Locket, Dec of Independence, Adam Smith 

Follows the rule of law 

And one that promotes self-determination (that gives us a voice in this): constitution and amaur  

Corruption can affect the people as government leaders

Ball tells us that the debate over the Constitution rested on a more fundamental question of republicanism 

Our first solution can from a virtuous society from James Madison which involved: an extended republic, checks and balances, a compound republic. 

But the key questions is Representation! We must ask what it means to represent someone. 

Ball comes up with two theories: 

• Mandate View (Like the tavern owner): I want people in congress who think like me and act like me, they don’t need to be better than me, just think like me. They would vote like you. Think of your congressman as your attorney 

• Today we would say representation of group identities 

• The Independence View: The federalist are in essence what this is. The members of congress don’t need to be identical to those they represent, they need to have the idea of the whole. We still have to vote for them, but it is in the sense we don’t want/need a 1 to 1 representation. In this view we just want good leaders. (Romney video) 

Madison argued that the mandate theory would simply bring faction into the federal government. 

By contrast, the Antifederalists argued that the new Constitution kept out faction by making the federal government distinctly anti-democratic. Or more likely, it have the rich faction a monopoly on the government. 

The antifederalists they wanted the people to stay virtuous and keep corruption out 

The Federalists answered by going back to something we have talked about already: Institutional design. If we can’t trust people, we have to trust the system. Checks and Balances!! 

The Federalists would have agreed with me, we cannot always trust the people to do the right thing. 

We are not angels, and the republic should reflect this fact and create systemic ways to produce good governments 

If you can't always trust government officials… or people… therefore, trust the system! 

But the Antifederalists made a counterargument to this point as well: It’s one thing to say the people aren’t perfect, but must worse to give up on them entirely. 

Ball said that the bill of rights is the summary of the constitution in the first place and what characteristics our government as a whole. 

The Antifederalists argued that the constitution itself should serve an educative role 

The bill of rights should express the values of the national and tell citizens on what basis to judge our leaders. 

THE HISTORY: 

• Sep 18, 1787, the draft Constitution was published. 

• Sep 28, 1787 , the first opinion piece ran opposing the new Constitution 

• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and JOhn Jay responded to the Antifederalists under the penname publius. We call their writings the federalist papers. 

• Massachusetts represented a major hurdle, though! A lot depended off of them. 

We read Ball because Madison was undoubtedly right that men are not angels, and no amount of education, prayer, etc.. is likely to make them angels in a reliable way for the duration of the nation. 

Antifederalist also right: because people have flaws, we must empower and protect them so they will not be manipulated or taken advantage of by corrupt and powerful government leaders. 

A lot of what Ball is saying is what Pippin is saying. The ability to have freedom is to articulate and argue them into existence. If you want to know America as its root, you have to argue and know they argued. 

Our constitution blends two approaches to be something than both a systemic or design approach but also a right and responsibilities approach in the bill of rights. 

Wednesday February 19, 2025 

Anderson

What does it mean to belong to a nation and make sense of an identity?

The constitution created the nation, but does a good government alone create a united people? 

HOW DO WE BECOME AMERICAN? 

The question Anderson is talking about is how do we make loyalty in a national community, since a revolution wiped it out. 

• Political liberty argue that all social relations come down to my choice

• I choose my: career, spouse, religion, hometowne, but everyone else can also choose or NOT CHOOSE ME!

• Anderson wants to see how we can conceive the nation when we have freedom but also anxiety we might not get chosen

• We have to imagine a nation, its a imagined political community 

• The nation does speak to a fundamental human need to belong. In order to feel a sense of belonging we will often invent what we belong to. 

• He calls nations “limited” 

• The nation assumes the role of authority in a society that has destroyed the Great Chain of Begin 

• The nation, not the government, commands my loyalty 

• Think of this in the context of military service. You might say, my brother died fighting for donald trump. But we are more likely to say they died fighting for our country. 

• But national identity triggers our moral commitment to the community we imagine that we belong to

• Once we imagine our community we get in a habit of defending and being loyal to it and. 

• Morality returns to do what Hight said all along; it was to bind us together and in this case our need to belong creates loyalty to people who fit our abstract conception of “American” 

Randall Collins 

• Helps explain how cultural norms become moral norms 

• Collins also wants to understand what holds society together

• He says we have emotions and we have to look at those to understand what is going on around morals. 

• If there is a conflict, we will go ahead with what the group is doing rather than letting our beliefs go forward 

• We follow norms so we don’t have to put a situation into doubt… pragmatism! 

• The claim is we treat the mundane as “sacred” 

• We tend to react to violations of even trivial normas as a sacrilege 

• The point he is making is we single our loyalty to the group by treating violations of even trivial norms as sacrilegious. Pure/impure ot loyal/disloyal and a continuous loop 

• We are all in a sense sheriffs in a culture, in other words if you don’t act appropriately we get angry 

• When they violate trivial norms we get angry. They are making the community impure in a way

February 24, 2025 

Tocqueville and America 

• Equality can make people self-absorbed and ignorant 

• Things get worse when we add freedom to equality ; if we are free and equal what stops ppl from becoming isolated

• Isolation is especially dangerous in a democracy bc it opens the door to despotism ( a fancy word for tyranny or dictatorship) 

• Connection to Ball and corruption: to be selfish 

• Only threat to a despot come from his own people but only if they can organize and see a shared interest in his overthrow

• “Despotism, which is dangerous in all times, is therefore particularly to be feared in democratic centuries” 

• When Tocqueville arrived in America he expected to see a society on the brink of collapse. 

• Instead, he found a nation thriving-economically, socially, and patriotically 

• Tocqueville then says that equality can be dangerous, but the cure to the problem are the things that freedom does. 

• In an aristocratic society, most are weak but some command the rest. 

• In democratic society, people come together (Like a relief society as he said) 

• Organically: we mean that is happened organically persuasive, (Think about the foreign exchange student story) 

• Put another way, the solution to the problems of freedom lay in letting freedom do its work in creating spontaneous friendships, associations, 

• Tocqueville argues that: our need to get things done, combined with our freedom to assemble, created a cooperative also friendly society in which the democratic spirit pervades every aspect of society 

• Civic associations include: church, rec center leagues, PTA, book clubs, volunteer work, bowling leagues 

• He was more focused on using our freedom to create the associations

• He worries about freedom, capitalism, and equality to have the potential to sever social bonds and push society towards chaos 

•  1. Economy How many things can you do because a friend showed you? 

• 2. Politics He means not simply political parties bring people together. EX: movements, The act of being politically connected you are reaching out, making friendship, creating bonds within the society that prevents one person from becoming too powerful. 

• He has one warning; he says civic associations have to be organic to work. 

• If government is a risk that is a bad thing, because they have to be organic and what WE want to do on OUR own! 

• For your government knows only how to dictate precise rules. 

• The point scholars like putnam make is that loneliness is one consequence of the breakdown of civil society the kind of society Tocqueville observed. 

• He tells us that to survive a republic requires a lot of connections in non-political contexts 

• Things like churches… provide the training ground for democracy 

Wednesday February 26, 2025

How should the government mitigate conflict? 

• Locke: community resolves conflict like a trial by jury 

• The Founders tried to resolve conflict through a governmental structure that favored discussion and debate 

• What happens when the conflict runs deep? 

The Civil War

• The core issue was slavery, conflicts steamed from a country that is free, but enslaves people

• To understand the broader constitutional issues, we will think about the way defenders and opponents argued about it politically. 

• From the slave-holders perspective, the defense of slavery followed their understanding of John Locke. 

Fox & Pope

• The constitution included specific provisions protecting slavery and providing slaveholding states great influence in the federal government . (You can’t even find the word slavery in the constitution) 

• For example the infamous “three-fifths” clause. 

• 2nd; the constitution prohibited congress from banning the import of enslaved people until at least 1808 

• 3; required non slave states to return escaped slaves back into bondage 

Most founders, however, believed that slavery would eventually wither away and was a necessary evil. But instead in the 19th century it got strong and spread even more. 

• The success of slavery threatened its spread. The threat of its spread created greater opposition to it. By late 1850s it started to look like abolitionist might become the new majority. 

How did South Carolina justify secession? 

What were the main complaints? 

• We don’t like Lincoln, 

But Fox and Pope talked about the fact shared sovereignty didn’t clarify the problem of slavery. 

Is the social contract the states, or the constitution? 

The constitution was also state by state. 

• Lincoln: in response to their personal antagonism towards him, Lincoln makes a philosophical point. He said 

The whole point to republican government is to let persuasion have its day

Lincoln offers a defense of what we have called little “r” republicanism 

 Civil War: 

• Lasted 4 years, 1 month, and 2 weeks 

• More than 3 million men fought in the ward

• Toward the end of the war Lincoln won reelection 

• On March 4, 1865, he gave his second inaugural and tried to sum up what the war was about 

Midterm 2 Review Rooms: 

Thursday February 13, 

 Hirshman: Passion and Interest 

Smith: Wealth of the Nations

Hirshman: 

We have also used ambition into an interest of checks and balances and having different parties all throughout the consitution

Historically: Role of the Gout. to teach keeping passions in check 

• The deadly sins: 

  • Avarice: money 

  • Ambition: Power 

  • Lust: Sex or Things 

Enlightenmenett

• Government doesn’t enforce as many morals 

• How to make good people? 

  • Encourage AVARICE to keep the others in check (why avarice? Because its predictable) 

  • In encouraging want of money it requires you to get some education and people skills → become “gentlemany” 

  • Main focus: The evolution (or development) of how “interest” was used in language 

  • How avarice was changed from a passion to an interest 

  • He was writing economic history and intellectual history 

If people focus on making money they will take care of other people more

Adam Smith: Wealth of nations 

Economic systems: 

• Mercantilism 

  • System that smith lived under 

  • Goal of putting money in the kings coffers 

  • Form of command economy system 

• Market economy 

  • What smith was promoting 

  • Money in the people’s pockets 

  • Self-interest and motivation 

• What Happens 

  • Specialization and interdependence 

  • “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.” 

  • Wealth now=what a country can produce, not how much the government has in their vaults. 

  • Everyone's self interest is what makes jobs work and the economy create. AKA invisible hand 

  • People are specializing in what they want because it is good for themselves. 

Connections: 

If people focus on making money (avarice), then they will help provide a good for other people 

Friday 

Econ 

Mercantilism: Command Economy 

• Wealth = amount of gold 

• The whole purpose of the economy was to make the king more rich and more powerful 

• Goal: increase exports 

• 1 person or group is sovereign (KING)

Adam Smith now comes out with his paper and changes what wealth really is… the total output of what us the people. Adam Smith is the John Locke of the economy. Stop having a King control it, have the people be it. 

*Test question may be similarities between john locke and adam smith and we would say how they changed laws from king power to people. 

→ Capitalism: (Free Market Economy) 

• Wealth : amount of consumption + production 

• Goal: allow people to pursue their interest + we will be more prosperous (LOCKE!) 

• The consumer is sovereign 

• By specializing in one thing, and dividing the labor, the economy will be so much better. Letting the economy in the hand of the people will help it! 

Invisible Hand: 

• Enough buyers + sellers → competition, no 1 person/group is in charge 

• Makes us better off 

*Opportunity cost is the next best option you give up. So example: 

Elvis: A. 30,000 B. 20,000 C. 10,000. If Elvis is a singer what is his opportunity cost? 20,000 bc thats the next BEST OPTION. 

Opportunity Cost: What you give up to make a certain choice

Specialization:  Get better with repetition → more productive. Allows us to pursue our interest while still maintaining cohesion 

Law of Comparative Advantage: You should specialize in whatever you have the lower opportunity cost in 

*You could write your paper from the idea we are all dependent on each other, creates a high amount of interdependence

Role of $: eliminates
Coincidence of wants + increase # of exchanges 

Role of prices + profits: 

• Prices : adjust to equilibrium 

• Profits: signal to seller when to enter the marker 

Tuesday February 18

Declaration of Independence 

Wood: American Revolution 

• The declaration of Independence (American revolution) we think about it in term of romer’s rule 

• General: good cop, Empire: Bad cop, moral of the story is people prefer or can accept it more when you go from harsh to less harsh. Madsen related this to the revolution. Which is also known as SALUTARY NEGLECT 

  • Intolerable acts 

  • Stamp acts  

  • Navigation acts 

  • The tea act
    
    

• American revolution 

  • French & Indian War 

    • British debt 

    • Wealthy colonists 

  • The Americans are already questioning trade authority 

  • Representation! (The colonists and the ppl in Great Britain think that representation are need, but the ppl in great britain see parliament as everyone in the british empire. They don’t consider direct representation necessary.) 

  • This stems from the RULE OF LAW! Because if you follow the rule of law technically the laws will be more fair for you. 

  • Parliament → Virtual rep. Just by way of being parliament they represent. This is a step up from the king, but 

  • The way that the parliamentary districts were made were nothing like it is today, it was very uneven. 

  • Direct Representation, not happening in Britain! 

  • The reason they care so much about this, is bc no one in parliament has to pay those taxes 

Declaration of Independence: 

• Jefferson and Locke 

  • Natural Rights 

  • Liberty… 

  • Social Contract Theory 

  • Right of Rebellion 

Wednesday 

The Constitution

• Readings of last week will be at least half of the exam! SO KMS. 

• We beat Great Britain in the American Revolution 

• The articles of Confederation were terrible and didn’t really work, they had to have a unanimous vote of all 13 states, that was never going to happen

• The grand counsel of all the states and their purpose was to amend the article of confederation and the states were dragging their feet and didn’t wanna go but they all but rhodes island show up and show OUT!

• They had to work through representation, slavery, big vs small states, but they come out of it and make the constitution 

• At the start of the convention madison brought his Virgina plan which is a precursor of the constitution and we need to know SECTION 6! What didn’t make it was that the federal government could not nullify the state laws, but that did not make it. ** important 

• The constitution, the most boring parts are the most important parts. 

• Government itself is the reflection of human nature 

• All these small structures help balance out human nature 

• Ambition should check ambition 

• All the branches were designed with a specific purpose 

• All the different houses have different incentive to check each other 

• The structure of the constitution is to help us check each other 

• Lejsasr (The organization of the constitution): Legislative, Executive, Judicial, States, Amendment Process, Supremacy, Ratification

• Article 1 Section 8 MOST IMPORTANT SECTION this is the section with all the enumerated powers with the legislative branch ( you need to know that term) That means the exact powers that congress CAN GO. You can remember this by numbers is like what the word look likes and what the congress can do it number or limited 

• Federalism is this idea that there is a balance of power from the feral gov and state gov

• We left federalism in the air, the states and missouri were up against really bad state laws. 

• Fairfax County: BIG PICTURE is the government where you vote conunts the most is the government that effects you the most. Your local government counts more cause there are less people which mean that your local gov effects you the most. 

• Everyday you are interacting with your local government, driving on roads walking on sidewalks, once every year you pay taxes to federal gov but you don't interact with them everyday. 

• Practice test question: The level government that you interact with the most is LOCAL! 

Thursday Federalist Papers:

Context: 

Federalist: constitution should be the law of the land 

Anti-Federalist: Did not like the constitution 

Fed 10 and Fed 51 are both written by James Madison and he is trying to explain why we need a constitution! 

Fed 10: FACTIONS

Think of a faction of a group of people that have similar interests. And these interests can go against what society is thinking or counteract you may say. 

He is writing about this because of a fear of a large republic we are going to have a majority faction who is going to harm other people. 

He sees that factions and especially how MAJORITY factions can be bad because they can harm what the minority is believing. 

He talks about how can we deal with factions and what can the federal government can do. 

He said we could remove their causes, remove their interests and force them not to think this way. 

Another thing we could do is refine the way we think of faction. 

He also thought to diolot (expanding) the factions out small republics and large republics. The Factions are spread out and because there are so many it is hard for one to take all the power. 

Anti feds were against a large republic and madison gave the idea of factions to help them. 

Fed 10 (FACTIONS) 

History: 

Small republic = success , good representation, able to control, voices can be heard 

What Madison argued: large republic = success, brand representation, protects minority ideas, keeps factions in check 

FED 51 (SEPARATION OF POWERS & CHECKS AND BALANCES) 

Concerns being addressed: 

• How do we make sure government isn’t to powerful 

• How to make sure one branch isn’t overpowering others? 

What was explained? 

• 3 Branches with different roles 

• Each has ways to impeach actions by other branches 

• For a branch to gain power, a different branch would have to give it up. No one wants their branch to lose/give up power 

• Ambition against ambition

How can you have a government that is controlled at the same time 

Federalism: The idea there needs to be a type of balance that the federal government has and the state government has. 

The famous quote with fed 51 is we have separation of powers to have ambition encounter ambition. The branches have to agree! 

Friday February 21, 2025

Weekly Review 

• Little “l” liberalism: cares most about freedom, doesn’t worry about social cohesion or structure of Gov. Governments only job is to protect rights. If gov fails to protect rights, then we rebel. *John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Writed quoted by Hirshman 

• Little “r” republicanism: Focus on how structure of government gets the best of liberalism and democracy. Rights are protected eventually, people get their way eventually. Cares about Social cohesion. *James Madison 

• Little “d” democracy: people have the power to rule 

Gordan Wood: Salutary Neglect: The colonist were living in America and the British were leaving them alone, but then they started to attack like taxes 

• The population was growing rapidly, the economy was growing rapidly 

The declaration is a break up letter that expands little l liberalism. 

• We, the colonies, are free in our independent states

We made the articles of confederation and this was their first attempt at enforcing rules 

They were weak but then the main purpose of the constitutional convention was to revise the articles of confederation 

***For the constitution know Dr. Madsen said article 1 section 8 is the most important which is the enumeration of powers, this is where all the powers of congress are listed. Anything not listed in here congress doesn’t do. 

LEJSASR:

Legislative, exc, jud, state, amendments supr, ratification

Government is a reflection of human nature

1st Amendment: RAPPS: Religion, Assembly, Petition, Press, Speech 

There is a reason the people in the house of representative get real elected every 2 years because they need to be connected to the people. 

Fed Papers: 

Fed 10: defending the constitution establishing a large republic. 

Madsen wants lots of people with lots of views, Adam smith wants also the economy to be ruled by lots of people. Similarity Ideas! Spreading out the power! 

Fed 51: Republicanism that establishes representation, ambition must counter act ambition, separations of powers (chekcs and balances) 

Tuesday February 25, 2025 

Ball: A republic if you can keep it 

What are the achievements of a good government? 

• Prevents violence 

• Protects rights

• Follows the rule of Law 

• Promotes Self-Government 

  • Both federalists + anti-federalist (not constitution but yes to bill of rights) were worried about corruption 

  • Debated what the gov should do concerning republicanism 

  • *Self government is basically saying little “r” republicanism (Were going to focus on the structure of government and create a structure where people are gonna come together) 

FOCUSES ON 3 QUESTIONS: 

1. Size of the republic? 

Anti-Fed: Small, state-like system. This is what was really popular in Europe 

Fed: Large republic, extended republic, the more groups and factions we would have. 

2. How/Who is going to represent the republic? 

Fed tend to lean towards: Independence view: We are just gonna trust good educated people. Because we  know what is best. EX: Madison, M. Romney 

Anti-Feds lean more towards: Mandate View: We want people like us in office. If this was true we would have 50% women and 50% men and lots of culture, but this is sometimes the case but not always. EX: Taven owner. He reflects the population 

3. Where will virtue come from? 

The Anti-feds really put so much trust in the people themselves, while the feds thought trust would come from their education. 

Federalist: 

• An extended republic 

• Checks and balances 

• A “compound republic” → trust institutional design 

They don’t like Mandate View: This will insert FACTIONS into gov. 

Anti-Federalist: 

• Argued that the constitution should serve as an educative role 

• We still need to encourage trustworthy engagement for the people! 

• The constitution & BOR should express the values of a nation. It can act as a document to educate citizens. 

They don’t like Independent view: This is not democratic. THe wealthy will be a FACTION itself. THey won’t understand the common citizens 

*Connections to Pippin: 

• Constitution was argued into existence 

• America is a product discussion 

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Anderson - Imagined communities

What holds a society together? 

Clip (What makes an american an american) 

Great Chain of Being! Kings were at tops, etc, 

Andersens point is that before we were all subjects (This means we were under the authority of someone else) 

But now under this new nation we are now citizens and loyal to the decision we make to be a community. 

This idea of nation is where Andersen said is nationalism is born. (Olympics is nationalism haha)

A nation is 3 things: 

1. Imagine

• There is no way that any of us could comprehend a nation. You can’t actually grasp or know the whole nation 

2. Limited

• Nations have borders, and nations don’t seek converts. There are limits to who belongs and who doesn’t belong. There is an in group and an out group 

3. And sovereign  

• This just means in charge. We are loyal to America and the idea to america. If your family member is in the army and they go to germany to fight, they aren’t fighting for trump, they are fighting for freedom and that is what is SOVEREIGN. We are fighting for ideas, community, and nation more than anything else. 

You might see a question connecting to moral foundations. We talked about it in the idea that we are remaking the definition of loyalty and authority. 

A pragmatic would explain that this was put into the realm of doubt and now we have new definition

Collins 

Still same question of what holds a society together. 

The nation also becomes something pure and something sacred. 

When someone violates one of our norms, we are threatening the sacred nation of our nation in an emotional way. 

We as people act normal then what we act as a held belief. 

You would rather act in the realm of normal than what you believe. (The video of the person saying “don’t tell me what to do” after asking for help) 

When people violate these social norms we react with anger. 

We will be tested on this context ex: when the south succeed from the union they broke the culture norm that it takes more than a couple of lost elections to see smt and the north reacted in anger. 

*These connect to the Tocqueville reading little “l” liberalism that all the people are gonna be lonely, sad, and he found that people are here in association, no one in charge of us, and we got to convince people if we want to change something to build a society. 

All 3 of those people discuss how to build a society.

Thursday February 27, 2025

Tocqueville 

France

• Equality → Evil → Ignorant & self absorbed 

• Freedom → Evil → no need for each other 

• These are going to lead into Isolation (which is the only threat to despotism is the people) → despotism/tranny 

• THe idea is that a tyrant or despite is that head of an organization and his greatest threat is when the people can organize themselves, but isolation can be the only way to not let this happen and allow tyranny 

America 

• Expectation → Brink of collapse 

• Reality → a thriving nation 

• Democratic society → no command → weak people → need to work together 

• If you want to do anything, like build a road, we have to rely on each other 

• He actually says we have a habit and interest to work for the common good. 

Civic Associations

• Creates connection & reliance (organic and voluntary) → an imagined community 

  • Economy → discover & sharing EX: pinewood derby story and youtube (doing it bc they want to share something that they found) 

  • Politics → Shared movement & causes bring people together

Connection to Andersen and Collins 

Connection to Hirshman and Smith that the pursuit of interest is what allows us to be cohesive in a nation 

Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural 

Timeline (Leadup with slavery and federalism) 

• November 1860: L. Wins

• December 20, 1860: S.C succession 

• March 4, 1861: L

Response

• S.C reasons 

  • Fugitive slave law → lockean argument (federal government isn’t fulfilling the social contract) 

  • South lost presidential election → Lincoln won 

• Constitution = Primary contract 

• Little “r” republicanism 

• Precedent 

As soon as we are faced with a losing side, its like hirshman's economy would not work just like democracy wouldn’t work

Midterm 2 Review

Benedict Andersen/Collins

• We are answering the question about how communities come together 

Andersen

• Imagined communities

• How do we become “American”? What does it look like?

• In this democracy the community is imagined. You won't ever know everyone from everywhere in America, but yet we still relate to one another as Americans 

• Cougar nation is an imagined community. You don’t know everyone, but you are in DC and you run into someone else with a byu hat, you instantly relate to a community with them 

• The “NATION” is the sovereign in charge, and what we are loyal to. This is because you aren’t loyal to any one person. You are loyal to the nation, you go to fight for our nation.

Collins

• Stratified emotions 

• As we become a part of a nation, we become loyal to the nation

• Our loyalty and authority is now to the nation bc we are citizens and not subjects

• We defend what is normal, and when ppl do things that aren’t normal we react angrily. 

• Jon Haidt & moral foundations, our moral taste buds for loyalty shift from a king to the nation

• Basically, social norms become sacred and we take it upon ourselves to defend these social norms

Econ Principles 

• Comparative advantage: everyone can produce something at a low opportunity cost, and everyone should specialize in whatever thing they have the lowest opportunity cost in. EX:  Monica should cook, and Joey should eat because Joey has a comparative advantage in eating—he gives up way less compared to Monica.

• When we do this, we are all better off 

Gordan Wood 

• American Revolution 

• The colonies were changing and growing rapidly, both in population and wealth 

• British weren’t enforcing laws, they left the colonies do what they want, this is called “salutary neglect” 

• After 7 year war, British were in big debt, so they stopped salutary neglect and started enforcing taxes and creating new ones like the stamp act and sugar act 

• Colonists hated this, they didn’t want to pay tax

• They argued that the taxes were especially bad because they came about via “virtual representation” instead of direct representation 

• This argument went back and forth. British said you must have one sovereign, americans agreed and revolted. 

• Declaration of independence was their argument and declaration of secession from the British 

• This is the americans way of following Romers Rule!! 

• Historical background piece who there were two historians debating on speech 

Midterm 2 Review!

James Madison MOST IMPORTANT 

• Articles of Confederation (Were a total failure): Know that it had a weak central government (national and federal) and couldn’t carry out any function. EX: To tax, pay debts, carry out treaties. 

• He wanted to create a national government that was both strong enough to control (Hobbes) and protect individual rights (Locke) - focused on creating a structure that would accomplish this

  • Connects to Braine: social institutions; have roles, norms, status to help organize. The constitution also has rules, norms, and status. 

• Virginia Plan 

  • Madison came with a plan to the Const. Conv.  Const conv was meant to AMEND the Art of Confederation but Madison came with a completely new plan. 

    • 3 branches and a separation of powers (in comparison to Art of Conf 1 in congress) 

    • Legislative is bicameral (two houses) based on population

    • *Section 6 of Virginia Plan: main goal is for national govt to be able to veto state laws 

    • Very concerned over violations of local govt on rights of people 

    • What actually made it in the const: bicameral legislation but not BOTH houses by population 

    • 14th amendment actualized his plan of national govt over state govt

  • Constitution: 7 articles 

    • L - legislative branch 

      • *Section 8 - enumerated powers: a specific list of powers that Congress can only follow

    • E - executive branch 

    • J - judicial branch 

    • S- states rights (how to admit new states, specific things states can do)

    • A - Amendment process

    • S-Supremacy clause (constitution is the supreme law of the land)

    • R - ratification process

  • Federalist 10: Fact10ns 

    • How do we control for factions: first off, we can’t get rid of them, they’re a part of human nature: liberty and difference of opinion part of our nature 

      • We can control the effects of factions through institutional design

      • We need a LARGE republic to pit factions against each other

  • Federalist 51: 5epara1on of Powers

    • Ambition against ambition

    • Connect interest of officers to const rights of that office 

    • Separation of powers: each branch of govt has a certain power that it can use: leg makes laws, exec enforces laws, jud interprets laws 

    • Checks and balances: The different branches control the power of the others 

      • Presidential veto 

    • Compound republic: there are many different levels of govt which have different powers and local and state 

      • Article 1 section 8 in const talks about what enumerated powers the national govt has 

    • Skimming principle: in a large republic you are trying to find the best representatives (most virtuous, capable) and you can do that by (A concept made by madison that isn’t necessarily tied to one, but would be more appealed to 10)

Ball: A Republic if you Can Keep It 

Anti Federalist vs Federalist view 

How do you define a republic based on: 

1. Size 

1. AntiFeds: Small republic is the only kind that works ex: Roman republic got big and became an empire → small republic → people know each other 

2. Feds: madison replies with fed. 10 Large republic theory 

2. Representation: 

• Anti Fed: mandate theory: mirror → your rep. Is basically you → could only work with a small amount of people 

• Fed: Independence theory: you representatives should try to find best solution for the people 

• Hamilton → no one actually wants mandate theory b/c dumb people don’t want dumb reps. 

3. Virtue 

1. Anti Feds: large rep. Gov is too far removed will become corrupt –? People will become apathetic and reps won’t really know what the ppl need/want also → 

2. Feds: not about the virtue of the people so much but also the virtue of the system or does the system promote virtuous action → pitting ambition against ambition → no titles → concede to include a bill of rights through they were concerned that writing down rights would miss com rights hence amendment #9

Republicanism 

• “Representative govt” 

• VS direct democracy where each person gets one vote - nobody wants this 

• People represent constituents 

• Small republic theory 

• Structure of govt

Midterm 1 and Connections w/ Ball

Pippin 

• Const. Convention was an example of practicing what pippin advocates for → arguing through things → Ball → the constitution was argued into existence 

Locke

• Slavery → for and against both used Lockean rights to argue their side 

• Pro Slavery → slaves are property so govts job is to protect my right to property in the fugitive slave clause of the constitution 

• Anti Slavery → Lockean rights to life and liberty → slaves are people too and shouldn’t have their right to life or liberty through slavery

Hobbes

February 7, 2025

Define terms: 

Mercantilism: An economic theory that focuses on keeping the wealth in the hands of the rulers. Example: England!  

Market Economy: An economic system where supply and demand controls production and distribution of goods. We have wealth in the stuff we have.  

Money: Removes the coincidence of wants  

Specialization: We are better off when we specialize. We should specialize in whatever we have the lowest opportunity cost in.  

Opportunity Cost: The value of what you give up when you choose one option over another. The value of the NEXT best thing. EX: What should I do tonight? 1. Study for a midterm 2. Go to the gym 3. Go to bed early  

Economic Competition (Invisible Hand): There isn’t a central planner (someone controlling every exchange) Basically supply and demand 

The Law of Demand: As the prices of a good increase, demand will decrease and vice versa. Put yourself in the shoes of the CONSUMER.  

The Law of Supply: as the prices for a good go up, production will increase and vice versa. Put yourself in the shoes of the PRODUCER 

Equilibrium Price: The price at which the quantity supplied equals quantity demanded.  

Perfect Competition: No barriers to entry (anyone can try to produce and try to sell a good), No single company can control the prices of goods.  

Profits: A driver of economic activity in a market 

Friday February 21, 2025

Madsen & Barney 

Using early Church history as an example, what often trumped individual rights or local self governance? 

Local self governance 

How does this tie into Madison’s fear of factions?

The factions suppressed minority interests 

Did the Constitution prove effective in defending the Saints in Missouri? 

Heck no

What caused the Constitution to actually protect minority rights?

It’s a living document & the 14th amendment 

What makes a document inspired? 

GOD!

Bill of Rights: 

• Hamilton said we didn’t need a Bill of Rights because the Constitution is like a Bill of Rights

• But the Anti-Federalists REALLY wanted a Bill of Rights because they feared the Constitution wouldn’t protect specific individual freedom

• The 14th Amendment really got to the place where Joseph Smith wanted us to be! 

Friday February 28, 2025

1. The Constitution IS divinely inspired 

2. Principles underlying the Constitution matter more than the exact wording! 

1. Freedom 

2. Popular Sovereignty 

3. Federalism 

4. Checks and balances/separation of powers 

5. The rights contained in the BOR and the 14th Amendment 

3. Constitutional Amendments are divinely inspired 

1. Without freedom of religion we wouldn’t have been able to have the restoration in America 

4. Understanding that the wording comes from man helps us accept that particular readings of the Constitution (by the Supreme Court) or specific aspects of the original Constitution (⅗ compromise) that we disagree with and are morally wrong

Connection to the Joseph Smith Reading: Federalism! The constitution wasn’t fully developed in the Joseph Smith reading, but Oaks talks about how important federal vs state gov is. 

How to be a good citizen? 

• “As latter day saints we… have a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the united states constitution and principles of constitutionalism”

• Be positive about this nation's future because we trust in the lord

• We should refrain from judging one another in political matters as

• No party, platform, or individual candidature can satisfy all personal preferences meaning we will likely prioritize candidates and policies a bit differently

• Exercise our influence civilly and peacefully within the framework of our constitutions and applicable laws… on contested issues we should seek to moderate and unify 

Review:

Collins: Righteous anger: we have all these norms and when people are acting inappropriately, we have righteous anger when a trivial norm is questioned. We feel we are defending the norms.