Unit 1: Foundations of American democracy

Ideals of Democracy

• In 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, outlining grievances with the British monarchy and declaring intent to form a separate government.
• The Framers established a limited government founded on natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and social contract principles.
  • These principles are evident in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
• Limited government restricts governmental power to protect individual rights and civil liberties.
• Natural rights are inherent, inalienable rights that governments must protect.
  • John Locke's ideas (life, liberty, and property) influenced Thomas Jefferson's (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness).
• Social contract: Citizens give up some freedoms in exchange for government protection of their natural rights.
• Popular sovereignty: Government power originates from the consent of the governed.
• Republicanism: Elected leaders represent the people's interests in government.
• The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are the foundations of American democracy.

The Declaration of Independence

• John Locke's ideas of natural rights and social contract influenced the Declaration.
• Authored by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
• It lists grievances against the British Crown to gain international support and inspire American democratic values. Key excerpts include:
  • “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
  • “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
  • “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”
• The Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, by the colonial representatives.

The Constitution of the United States

• The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, which was a weak system that favored state governments.
• In 1787, state representatives at the Constitutional Convention aimed to balance individual liberty with public order.
• George Washington led the creation of the Constitution, influenced by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Key excerpts include:
  • “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
• The Constitution was adopted in 1788 after New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify it.
  • The Federalist Papers supported ratification, requiring approval from all states for seamless adoption.
• The Constitution has been amended 27 times, with the first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights.
  • These amendments were crucial for persuading Anti-Federalist states to adopt the Constitution by ensuring the possibility of change.

Types of Democracy

• The U.S. is a democratic republic, blending popular sovereignty with elected officials representing the people.
• Various models exist regarding how U.S. citizens can influence government actions:
• A democracy vests governmental power in the people, who rule directly or through elected representatives.
• Participatory democracy: Citizens directly decide on policies which politicians then implement.
  • It is different from direct democracy, where citizens are directly responsible for policy decisions.
  • Participatory democracy can be seen at local and state levels through:
    • Town hall meetings.
    • Initiatives: Citizens propose laws via ballot measures.
    • Popular referendums: Voters approve or repeal state legislature acts.
• Pluralist democracy: Multiple groups compete to influence policy, with no single group dominating.
  • Pluralist democracy is seen at state and federal levels.
  • Individuals work through groups formed around common causes.
  • Interest groups: These groups influence policymakers to support their positions on specific interests.
    • Examples include the NRA, influencing politicians via donations, lobbying, and congressional testimony.
• Elite democracy: Wealthy, well-educated individuals influence political decision-making.
  • The Electoral College exemplifies elite democracy, entrusting major political decisions to a small group, even against popular will.

Challenges to the Articles of Confederation

• The Articles of Confederation was the first U.S. constitution, from 1776 to 1789.
• It established a weak central government, granting most powers to the states.
  • Post-Revolutionary War, the U.S. desired a government unlike Great Britain's, resulting in a weak central government.
  • The U.S. was a confederacy of sovereign states linked for limited purposes like national defense. The national government had limited powers such as coining money, managing the post office, and negotiating with foreign powers.
  • The Confederation Congress, a legislative branch, was the only branch of the government where each state had one vote; passing measures required 9/13 states, and amending the Articles required 13/13 states.
• The U.S. economy struggled due to the central government's inability to enforce tax laws or regulate commerce.
  • Only state governments could levy taxes, preventing “taxation without representation.” The national government requested funds from states, but these were often ignored, making it difficult to pay war debts or secure new funds. Foreign countries hesitated to lend to the U.S. due to its poor financial standing, and the currency was devalued.
  • The government couldn’t impose tariffs on foreign imports or regulate interstate commerce, harming American producers facing foreign competition.
• Shays’s Rebellion highlighted the need for a stronger governing system.
  • Shays' Rebellion was an uprising of Revolutionary War veterans in Massachusetts. Both the state and national governments struggled to address the uprising due to the lack of centralized military power.
  • The national government couldn't raise an army/navy (though able to declare war/peace) and depended on states for soldiers.
  • Revolutionary War veterans in debt demanded payment from the Confederation Congress, which had been promised for their service. The government didn’t have the money, and Daniel Shays led others to a courthouse demanding relief. The MA militia sided with them, so the governor requested help from the national government, but none was available.
  • It revealed the weaknesses of the Articles because the U.S. was unable to pay its vets and raise a militia. The right to impose taxes, regulate commerce, and raise an army was imperative.

Government Power and Individual Rights

• Federalists and Anti-Federalists debated the type of government needed to enforce order without infringing on personal liberties.
• Federalist 10
  • Written by James Madison in 1787.
  • Critics argued that the proposed federal government was too large and unresponsive.
  • Madison argued that liberty would be safest in a large republic because factions and diversity would avoid tyranny.
    • According to Madison, factions are inevitable and a large government could control them. Diversity makes tyranny more difficult since ruling coalitions would always be unstable.
    • Groups would negotiate/compromise, solutions would respect minority rights.
    • A Large size of country would make it difficult for factions to gain control
  • Explores minority v. majority rule.
• Brutus 1
  • Under pen name, encouraged NY to reject the Constitution.
  • Argued that states should not ratify the Constitution because condensing 13 into one republic would give the federal government “absolute and uncontrollable power” as shown under the Necessary and Proper clause and Supremacy Clause.
  • State governments would be powerless.
  • The federal government had too much power even before the Constitution, and the country won’t survive now because it is too big.

Ratification of the U.S. Constitution

• The Constitutional Convention of 1787 sought a central government effective enough without promoting tyranny.
  • The Virginia Plan suggested a bicameral legislature with representation based on population, favoring larger states.
  • The New Jersey Plan proposed a unicameral legislature with one vote per state, favoring smaller states.
  • The Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise) created a bicameral legislature:
    • The lower house (House of Representatives) is based on population.
    • The upper house (Senate) has two Senators per state, initially appointed by state legislatures but now popularly elected.
• The Electoral College is a body of representatives from every state in the United States who formally cast votes to elect the president and vice president.
  • Article II establishes the executive branch and discusses how presidential elections work.
  • Each state is assigned electors, equal to their number of representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and these electors cast votes for the winner of the popular vote in that state. Whichever candidate received the most electoral votes wins.
  • This system moves from direct to indirect democracy because the Founders didn’t trust the will of everyday people.
• The Three-Fifths Compromise counted each enslaved person as three-fifths of a white person for House representation.
  • The Constitution outlawed international slave trade as per 1808.
• Article I of the Constitution:
  • Legislative Branch
  • Bill of Attainder Clause - Congress cannot pass a law that singles out a person for punishment without trial.
  • Commerce clause - Congress can regulate trade between nations, between states, and among Indian tribes. (Art 1 Sec 8)
  • Contracts clause - No state can interfere with the execution of contracts.
  • Ex Post Facto Clause - Congress cannot pass a law that punishes a person retroactively, i.e., after the fact. In other words, a person cannot be punished for something he/she did that was not a crime when committed.
  • Necessary and Proper Clause aka Elastic Clause- Congress can exercise powers not specifically stated in the Constitution if those powers are "necessary and proper" for carrying out its expressed powers that are specifically stated (Art 1 sec 8)
• Article II of the Constitution:
  • Executive Branch
• Article III of the Constitution:
  • Judicial Branch
• Article V of the Constitution:
  • Describes the process for amending the Constitution; the federal government could add amendments which had to be ratified by three-fourths of states.
  • The congressional proposal method is a means to amend the Constitution in which two-thirds of both chambers of Congress must propose an amendment which then must be ratified by three-fourths of state conventions or state legislatures.
  • The convention method is a means to amend the Constitution in which two-thirds of states ask Congress to organize a convention in which an amendment is proposed that must be ratified by three-fourths of state conventions or state legislatures.
• Article VI of the Constitution:
  • Debts would be paid:
    • The US borrowed money to pay for the Revolutionary War and wanted to establish that this new nation would pay the debts of the old. It was important to establish themselves as accountable and trustworthy.
  • No religious tests for office:
    • Connected to idea of separation of Church and State
    • Wanted to avoid system of Test Acts in England
  • Establishes the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land, Supremacy Clause:
    • The Constitution prevails over any other kind of law in a conflict, including state and federal law. It is the pinnacle of American democracy.
    • Resistance occurs when states argue that their actions don’t violate the Constitution because the justices exercise incorrect interpretation
• Article VII of the Constitution:
  • In order for the conditions of the Constitution to become law, 9 states must ratify it.
  • Bill of Right promised to ensure ratification
  • Anti-feds said this was illegal; full consent needed to amend articles
  • Constitution wanted conventions > legislatures to ratify
  • The Federalists were pro-Constitution:
    • Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote essays called The Federalist Papers encouraging states to adopt the Constitution
    • Believed that the Articles weren't working and the federal government lacked power
  • The Anti-Federalists were anti-Constitution:
    • Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams
    • Believed that repairing the Articles wasn’t urgent, the Constitution puts too much power in the nation government, it was too elitist, and the federal government would use the vague phrases in the Constitution to seize more power

Principles of American Government

• Separation of Powers: The three branches of government - legislative, executive, and judicial - have separate powers. The branches must both cooperate and compete to enact policy.
  • Legislative branch: pass laws, declare war, impeach president and judges, approve presidential appointments, ratify treaties, levy taxes, establish the number of Supreme Court justices, regulate the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction
  • Executive branch: veto legislation, command armed forces, grant pardons, appoints judges, ambassadors, and department heads, conduct foreign affairs and negotiate treaties
  • Judicial branch: declare laws unconstitutional, hear cases on federal law, preside over impeachment trials, declare presidential acts unconstitutional
• Checks and balances: Each branch can check the other two, ensuring no single branch becomes too powerful and that government overall is constrained.
  • The President can veto legislation, but Congress can impeach the President.
  • The President can nominate judges, but the Supreme Court can declare presidential acts unconstitutional.
  • The Supreme Court can declare laws unconstitutional, but Congress can impeach judges.
• Federalist 51
  • James Madison, 1787
  • Defends system of checks and balances in the Constitution and advocates for separation of powers:
    • The power of each branch of government checks that of the other two and depends on the people
  • Reflection on human nature: “if men were angels, no government would be necessary”
  • Government must first control the governed, then itself
  • Republican government can check power of factions and tyranny of the majority
    • Authority derived from diverse society
  • Checks and balances preserve liberty by ensuring justice
• This structure ensures that the people’s will is represented by allowing citizens multiple access points to influence public policy, and permitting the removal of officials who abuse their power.
  • Government officials who commit crimes or abuse the power of their office may face impeachment, indictment as determined by a majority vote of the House of Representative. The Senate then decides conviction and removal from office by a 2/3 supermajority, or acquit them.
  • A stakeholder is a person with an interest or a concern in a political issue.

The Relationship Between States and the Federal Government

• Federalism describes the system of shared governance between national and state governments.
  • The federalist system emerged because the states evolved from separate colonies, which had diverse populations and different needs. The Framers envisioned that the state governments would be responsible for the day-to-day operation of citizens.
  • Layer or Dual Federalism:
    • Views the Constitution as giving a limited list of powers - primarily foreign policy and national defense - to the national government, leaving the rest to the sovereign states. Each level of government is dominant within its own sphere. The Supreme Court serves as the umpire between the national government and the states in disputes over which level of government has responsibility for a particular activity.
  • Marble or Cooperative Federalism:
    • Developed during the New Deal and characterized by the federal government becoming more intrusive in what was traditionally states' powers.
  • Fiscal Federalism:
    • Through different grant programs, slices up the marble cake into many different pieces, making it even more difficult to differentiate the functions of the levels of government.
  • New Federalism or Devolution:
    • The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states
• Article IV of the Constitution:
  • Establishes the responsibilities of the states to each other and the responsibilities of the federal government toward the states.
  • Section 1: states must honor each other’s decisions and legal judgments (“full faith and credit clause” → a marriage in one state is valid in another)
  • Section 2: states can’t treat newcomers worse than their own citizens (“privileges and immunities clause”)
  • Also promises states the protection of the federal government. It does this by promising to defend states against invasion, guaranteeing them a republican form of government, and barring the federal government from splitting up a state without the consent of its legislature and Congress.
• The states and the federal government have both exclusive and concurrent powers, which help to explain the negotiation over the balance of power between them.
  • Exclusive powers are those powers reserved to the federal government or the states.
    • Delegated powers - powers of federal government
    • Reserved powers - powers for the states and people
  • Concurrent powers are powers shared by the federal government and the states.
  • Exclusive federal powers - coining money, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, regulating the mail, declaring war, raising armies, conducting foreign affairs, establishing inferior courts, establishing rules of naturalization
  • Concurrent powers - taxation, lawmaking and enforcement, chartering banks and corporations, taking land for public use (eminent domain), establishing courts, borrowing money
  • Exclusive state powers - conducting elections, establishing local governments, providing for public safety, health, and welfare, maintaining militia, ratifying Constitutional amendments
• The federal government can encourage the adoption of policies at the state-level through federal aid programs.
  • Since the Civil War in the 1860s, the federal government’s powers have overlapped and intertwined with state powers (Great Depression). But states have also pushed back (US v. Lopez)
  • Categorical grants from the federal government can only be used for specific purposes, and frequently include nondiscrimination provisions.
  • Mandates are unfunded federal requirements that states or local governments meet a specific condition in order to receive federal aid.
    • For example, the National Minimum Drinking Act of 1984 stipulated that states must have a minimum drinking age of 21 in order to receive full federal highway funding.
  • Block grants are federal grants given to states or localities for broad purposes. The state or local governments can then disburse those funds as they see fit.
  • Federal revenue sharing is the practice of sharing federal income tax revenue with state and local governments.

Constitutional Interpretations of Federalism

• The commerce clause is in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce (buying and selling of goods across state lines).
• The necessary and proper clause also known as the Elastic Clause is in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and gives Congress the power to create laws that they find “necessary and proper” for performing their constitutional responsibilities/enumerated powers.
• Enumerated powers (also called expressed powers, explicit powers or delegated powers) are powers of the federal government that are explicitly named in the Constitution.
• Implied powers are powers of the federal government that are not explicitly named in the Constitution but are implied so that the federal government can carry out its enumerated powers.
• The 9th Amendment states that rights not enumerated in the Constitution belong to the people.
• The 10th Amendment stipulates that all powers not delegated to the federal government or prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.
  • Reserved Powers Clause
• The 14th Amendment grants citizenship, equal protection, and due process under the law to all people born in the United States.
  • Due Process Clause: “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” is applicable to STATES
  • Equal Protection Clause: “not shall any state … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
  • Confirmed the supremacy of the national government over the state government.
    • Supremacy clause
  • In 1818, Maryland taxed the Second Bank of the United States
  • The Baltimore Branch Cashier McCulloch refused to pay
  • McCulloch brought to case to the Supreme Court, which 1) overturned the ruling of a lower Court claiming the Bank was unconstitutional by citing the necessary and proper clause (art 1, sec 8) and 2) said that Maryland couldn’t interfere with congressional powers
• US v. Lopez (1995)
  • Limited national power in favor of state power; Congress may not use the commerce clause to make possession of a gun in a school zone a federal crime
  • First case since 1937 in which the Court maintained that Congress had exceeded its power under the commerce clause
  • High school student Lopez carried concealed weapon on school grounds and was charged under federal law, the Gun Free Schools Zones Act of 1990
  • The Court ruled this act was unconstitutional because it exceeded the powers of the commerce clause

Federalism in Action

• Public Policy
  • Agenda setting (i.e. identifying issues)
  • Policy formulation
  • Policy adoption/legitimization
  • Policy implementation
  • Policy assessment