Baylor PSC 1387 - Unit 1

Professor Bridge

Philosophy of Government and Human Nature

Rousseau - Enlightenment philosopher

• Believed the natural state of man is a ungoverned “savage man”

  • No long-term planning

  • Not evil, (too stupid to be evil) but have no need to cooperate with others/follow through on promises

  • Purely selfish, don’t follow the game theory matrix due to lack of long-term planning

• Civil society does not exist naturally

• Social Development: Crude huts → small villages → private property/civil society

• Government becomes necessary once private property is created

• Social Contract

  • Citizens consent to “give up” some rights in return for protection/assistance created by the government (ex: right to steal)

  • Requires/incentivizes people to follow through on promises, unlike the savage man

• Constitutionalism

  • “Ground rules” for governing procedures

  • Makes society more predictable

  • Alternatives: Anarchy, Authoritarianism

Law - a body of rules enacted by the government and backed by the power of the government

Rule of Law - the expectation that legal disputes will be resolved according to preexisting rules and procedures, regardless of the status of individual litigates; expectation of a equal judicial process.

Social Contract-ionists

• Hobbes

  • Believes the State of Nature: nasty, brutish, short (short lifespan)

  • Key principal (desire in society): Protection

  • Best government system: Leviathan monarch

    • All-powerful monarch that enforced laws so brutally that everyone is terrified of breaking them

• Locke

  • State of Nature: Okay

  • Key principal: Rights (life, liberty, property)

  • Best government system: separation of powers

• Rawls

  • State of Nature: Theoretical (aka the “original position”)

  • Key principal: Maximin (maximize the minimum life)

    • Identify the least advantaged group (LAG) and improve their lives until the LAG is better off than any other LAG in any other society.

    • ex: triage in ERs, help the most sick first

    • If theres two options that both improve the LAG the same amount, choose the option that gives people (even if its its not the LAG) the best life

  • Best Government System: Veil of ignorance

    • When setting up the government, no one knows who is the LAG/if they’re the LAG, so they don’t fight for their group, they fight for the LAG in case they are the LAG.

    • True VOI is impossible

Rawls in action:

Red = LAG

Rawls choice: C, since the greatest LAG is 300, which is C and D. For a tiebreaker, go with the higher total happiness, and since 300<500 choose C. It does not matter that B has the highest total, the only best LAG.

The Declaration of Independence

• Colonists felt their rights were being repeatedly violated

  • Nature Rights: God-given rights

  • Legal Rights: Equality, justice

Colony government

Governor → Council → Assembly → local officers

Appointed by England → Appointed by governor → elected → elected

• Colonies had real power

• They were chartered for different reasons

  • Farming, shipping, finding gold

• Due to the different reasons for chartering, each colony was independent from the others

Coming of the Declaration (short-term)

• French and Indian War (1763)

  • England gets Canada, but they don’t know what to do with it and they didn’t know how to repay the war debt

  • To repay war debt, they taxed the colonists (Navigation Acts)

• The Sugar Act (1764) - Tax on sugar, wine, textiles, etc

  • Violators were tried by a British tribunal, not a jury like previous taxes

• Quartering Act (1765) - Colonists must house/feed British soldiers

  • Many of these soldiers were convicted violent criminals who agreed to fight to get out of jail.

• Stamp Act (1765) - tax on legal documents

• Due to these taxes, colonists felt like lesser citizens

• “No taxation w/o representation”

• Colonists committed small-scale terrorist (petty crimes towards the gov)

• England repealed the Stamp Act in response, but put in the Declaratory Act (1766)

  • The declaratory act wasn’t a tax, it was a declaration that they could tax

• Townshend Act (1767) - Tax on lead, paint, etc

• England sends over tax collectors and soldiers to replace potentially “un-loyal” colonial collectors

• Boston Massacre (1770)

  • In response, England backs off for a bit for things to calm down

• Tea Act (1773) - gave the East India Trade Company a monopoly on tea, requiring colonists to only buy tea from them (kinda like Baylor mandatory dining plans)

• Boston Tea Party

  • Outrage by tea destruction, England decides to punish Boston with the…

• The Intolerable/Coercive Acts (1774)

  • Closed the Boston port

  • Massachusetts Governing Act - No more elected officials

  • Administration of Justice Act - All violent crimes must be heard in England

  • Quartering Act (again) (but worse this time)

  • Quebec Act - opens trans-appalachia (west of Appalachia) for colonists to settle, but…

    • No representative assemblies

    • No trial by jury

    • Took away all previous land claims

    • Tolerance for french-catholics (Colonists HATED French people and Catholics, so together?)

    • Also you’re in Canada w/o heating so thats just as bad

• The intolerable acts hurt colonial feeling so much that independence was essentially inevitable at this point (intolerable acts)

• First Continental Congress (1774)

• Lexington (shot heard around the world)

  • Peaceful protestors are shot by soldiers

• Second Contention Congress (1775)

  • Decided to gather an army lead by Washington

  • Gather money

  • Discuss foreign affairs

  • Declare Independence w/ DOI

Points of the DOI (1776)

• Colonists had no choice

  • “When it becomes necessary for…”

• They felt repeatedly oppressed

  • “…a long train of abuses”

• Tried to work it out

• Felt disrespected

• Natural and Legal Rights violated

  • “Imposing taxes on us w/o our consent”

  • “We hold these truths to be self evidence… inalienable rights”

Articles of Confederation (1781-1789)

The Articles of Confederation were the very first governing document for America. It focuses highly on state rights— the power was concentrated in state legislatures. They only lasted 7 years.

Problems

• Each state had their own currency, which was worthless in other states

• States imposed tariffs on each other

• No executive/president

• No army/navy/defense

• The federal government had one branch

• To change/amendment the articles required all 13 states to agree, which was basically impossible

• 9/13 states had to agree for a law to be passed

• Federal government couldn’t tax, so they were broke

Shay’s Rebellion

• Rebellion of indebted farmers

• There was no federally controlled army, so it took time for a militia to gather to take it down

• Showed the need for a strong national government.

Legacy of the AOC

• Got us through the “critical period" right after the DOI

• Some AOC Provisions were incorporated into the constitution

• Showed the need for change and for a stronger federal government

Substantive law establishes the rights and obligations that govern people and organizations; it includes all laws of general and specific applicability.

Procedural law establishes the legal rules or “procedures” by which substantive law is created, applied and enforced.

The US Constitution

Creating the Constitution

• The Great Compromise combined the Virginia and New Jersey plans at the constitutional convention

  • The Virginia plan argues states should have representation based on population, favored larger states

    • People would elect a lower house (like House of reps) based on representation

    • The lower house would elect the upper house (like senate)

    • Both houses would appoint/elect executives and judges

    • Since everything flows from the lower house, where larger sates have more control, they have more control throughout everything

  • The New Jersey plan wanted equal representation for each state, favored small states

    • State legislatures → Congress (all equal rep.) → President → Judges

• The 3/5ths compromise allowed slaves to be counted for population as 3/5ths of a person.

The US Constitution was an effective replacement for the AOC & created a complex government.

The US Constitution

Large - Legislative, Article I

Elephants - Executive, Article II

Jump - Judicial, Article III

Far - Federalism, Article IV

And - Amendments, Article V

Sleep - States, Article VI,

Regularly - Ratification, Article VII

Article 1 - Legislative

Congress

• 6 year terms

• Congressional enumerated powers -

  • Make, collect, and spend taxes (federal budget control)

  • Create/print money

  • Pass appropriations

  • Oversight (investigate issues)

  • Declare war

  • Raise and maintain the armed forces (do not direct)

• Implied powers (necessary and proper clause)

  • Pass laws

• Congressional Powers were expanded by McCulloch vs Madison

  • McCulloch vs Madison

    • Federal trumps state

    • A state cannot tax a federal bank

    • “Elastic Clause” & “Supremacy Clause”

House of Representatives

• Each state is represented by population

  • More populous states have more representative

• Each state is guaranteed at least one representative

• Representatives must be 25 years old minimum

• 2 year terms

• The number of representatives is capped at 435

• Every 10 years, a census occurs to count the population in every state and adjust representative numbers

Article II - Executive Branch

• Executive Branch = president

• Elected every 4 years

• Nominations

• Diplomats

• Commander-in-Chief

Article III - Judicial Branch

• Supreme Court

• Lifetime appointments

• Congress can create other federal courts

Article IV - Federalism

• “Full faith and credit” - license/marriages are valid in all states

• States cannot discriminate against citizens of other states

• Republican Government (elections) must be in every state

• Federal Government enforces these

Article V - Amendment

• Both Senate and House pass amendment by 2/3

• OR state conventions (don’t really happen anymore) bypass either senate or house by passing by 3/4ths

Article VI - States, Supremacy Clause

• Federal trumps state, but all powers not given to the federal gov is reserved for the states

Article VII - Ratification

• The US Constitution would go into effect if 9/13 states approved

• State legislatures didn’t ratify the amendment, specific conventions did.

• “People are sovereign”