PSCI 2.1 -2.3 Lecture

Quiz review

• Civic engagement does not involve joining a group

• Older, wealthier, and more educated are more active in politics (more experience/ context)

• Youth are more involved in community service (instant gratification)

Chapter 2 2.1-2.3

The U.S. Constitution is a living document written in 1787. When you compare the US constitution to other republics then you will see the U.S. constitution is older.

• John Locke - “Life, Liberty, and Property”

  • The Declaration of Independence thoroughly references Locke’s works

  • thought/idea of natural rights

U.S. Constitution

• created 1787

• drafted during ineffective national government

  • Articles of Confederation

• Created a series of significant compromises among factions that favored a strong federal government over strong state governments, states that had different and often competing economic interests, and those concerned that more fed power would reside in more populous states at the expense of smaller states.

  • could the national governments tell the state their boundaries or what to do

  • the size of states had implications on representations

  • would slaves count? (3/5th compromise)

    John Locke

  • 17th-century English political philosophers greatly influenced political thought in the American colonies.

  • asserted that people possess natural rights (life, liberty, and property), which led people to join together through a social contract to form a govt to protect their common interests

  • Ideas of natural rights conflicted with the long-held belief in England and most of Europe that god had granted temporal power to a hereditary monarchy

    • This idea of a govt can resolve interpersonal conflicts

    • moderate rights (make sure no one infringes on each other’s rights)

  • authority isn’t a gift from God is, a gift from the people

    • The people allow themselves to be ruled over and respect the authority and collectively agree to have a common power among them

  • inspired by the manga Carta

Causes of revolution

• After Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) between Britain and France. Britain had gained ownership of all American land east of the Mississippi River and that angered the citizens

Tea Party (political group) - protests against what they perceive as government interference with people’s rights.

• The American colonies were denied elected representation in Parliament, which led many colonists to view increased taxation as a violation of their individual rights and the social contract

• Following the threat of. a boycott of British goods by the Massachusetts legislature, Britain sent additional troops to Boston, where, in March 1770, British troops fired on colonists outside of the Custom House, killing three

  • Custom House is referenced in the Scarlett letter

• Boston Massacre exacerbated tension between colonists and Britain

• Following further unrest in the colonies, including the Boston Tea Party of 1773, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts of 1774, which essentially denied self-rule to Massachusetts.

• Enraged colonists formed the First Continental Congress to oppose British rule

Declaration of Independence Discussion

• written in 1776

• unanimous declaration

• Reference to the colony (colonists) as an independent people

• Laws of Nature and Nature’s God

  • Laws of Nature - natural rights, we don’t create it and neither does the government, framework, or naturally existing rules of right and wrong. The assumption is Lockian in the sense there is an assumption of right and wrong

    • existence of laws of nature requires govt to protect natural rights

  • Nature’s God - the creator or orchestrator of natural rights

    • undescribed

    • intentional wording

    • Existential threat

    • law and lawmakers assumed relationship

    • Maybe its a creator that makes something and then leaves it alone

      • Deism (in a textbook somewhere)

    • God is always a character intervening in human life and Nature’s God isn’t that

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.” - Declaration

• There is a need for a third power so there is a cry to heaven

• A judge or third party

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(reference recording to finish notes)