Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy

Concepts

BE ABLE TO ANSWER THESE OR YOUR FREAKING COOKED.

  • Why did the Articles of Confederation fail?

  • What was the immediate impact of Shay’s Rebellion

  • What motivated the farmers of the Constitution? Were they elitists or pragmatist?

  • Why did framers create a republican form of government

  • Why did framers create a federal system of government?
    What is the purpose of checks and balances and the separation of powers?

  • Why are plurality systems democratic but unstable (SMP).

Enlightenment Philosophies

Enlightenment was a period of time where prevalent ideas were shared constantly by many of the greatest minds of that time. The Enlightenment favored democracy over absolute monarchy, with a primary focus on ideas of liberty, natural rights, and revolutions.

Major Enlightenment Philosophers

Thomas Hobbes

  • Known for Leviathan; argued that if humans were left alone chaos would ensue.

  • Man can’t be trusted to rule

  • believed citizens sacrificed some freedom to be protected by federal government; Social Contract

John Locke

  • Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690); protection of life

  • life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness/property; natural rights given by god

    • ALL people are born with equal footing and a clean slate; tabula rasa

    • everything an individual does is shaped by his environment; empiricism

  • duty of the government to respect and protect these rights; if not—citizens had the right to revolt.

Charles De Montesquie

  • French philosopher; critic of monarchy and advocate for democracy.

  • De l’Espirit de Lois (Spirit of the law, 1748) advocated for separation of power into three branches of the government

    • checks and balances

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • believed that humans are naturally born good—corrupted by society.

    • “man is born free and everywhere he is chained”

  • individuals should act in the best interests of the greater good.

  • The Social Contract: the only good government was one that was freely formed with the consent of the people.

    • gave meaning to the word; government.

Volatire

  • Famous for Candide, a satirical novel that reflected his aversion to Christian Power regimes.

  • fierce advocate for freedom of speech and thought.

Denis Diderot

  • producer and editor of the first every encyclopedia

  • intended to sways people minds using his own philosophy

  • advocated for freedom of expression and education for all

Representative Democracy

Participatory Democracy: emphasizes broad participation in politics and civil society by citizens at various levels of socioeconomic status

Pluralist Democracy: implies organized group-based activism by citizens with common interests

Elite Democracy: would discourage participation by majority and cede power to the educated/wealthy.

The American founding fathers primary promoted Republicanism.

  • Republicanism: espouses individual liberty and God-given rights, asserts that all government power is derived from the people. (Representee Democracy)

    • Elections, voting etc.

Many of these Enlightenment philosophers promoted the idea of popular sovereignty: the authority of a government is created and sustained by the people

(ITS ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE)

Declaration of Independence

Although the American colonies and Great Britain had already been in conflict for more than a year. the Delectation of Independence was meant to be a formal declaration of war between the two, which eventually spiraled into Thomas Jefferson outlining why the colonies are declaring independence. VERY IMPORTANT

The Articles of Confederation

the first government of the Untied States; was really bad. A bunch of weakness plagued the early government. They weren’t able to manage their own affairs. By 1787, trades between the states in the union were grossly declining. everything was going to shit nothing was going good.

    1776-1781

despite its many, many—many flaws. notable topics did come out of the articles

  • set the precedent for federalism (states and central government shared responsibilities)

  • negotiated the treaty that ended the revolutionary war.

  • established the Northwest Ordinance (methods in which states could enter the union)

but the articles were still horrible enough to warrant Shay’s Rebellion

  • Six month rebellion; more than 1,000 armed farmers attacked federal arsenal to protest foreclosure of farms in the western part of the state. This was a MAJOR concern at Constitutional Conventions (meetings).

  • Shays rebellion caused change to be done to the Articles since it exposed its very obvious weaknesses.

here all the articles weaknesses (bolded ones are super DUPER important ones)

  • could not draft soliders

  • completely dependent on state legislators for revenue

  • federal government was not allowed to impose taxes

  • no control over interstate trading

  • no Supreme Court

  • no branch to enforce law

  • no national currency

  • no control over imports and exports

  • unaminty was needed to amend the Articles

  • needed 9/13 approval to get anything done

  • could not raise a national army

  • no way to see if states were cooperating with the laws

  • lacked enforcement in general

  • shit

all of this led to the creation of the constitution.

The Constitutional Convention