Historical Context of the Constitution

The Enlightenment

• European intellectual movement, 17th and 18th centuries

• Political philosophy stressed: Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Montesquieu

• The greatest American thinkers around the Revolution-era were heavily influenced by the teachings.

• Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, George Washington perhaps the biggest thinkers

  • America became the center of enlightenment political action

Political Philosophers

1. Thomas Hobbes

   • Leviathan (1651)

   • Believed government should be very strong.

   • “Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

2. John Locke

   • Second treatise of Government (1689)

     • From two treaties of government

       • First treaty : attacked monarchy

       • Second treaty : Natural rights philosophy and social contract theory

3. Baron de Montesquieu

   • “In the state of nature… all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.”

   • Ambition vs. Ambition

   • “If the legislative and executive authorities are one institution, there will be no freedom.”

   • Sprits of laws (1748)

State Constitution

1. Popular Sovereignty

   • Each state has some system of voting

2. Limited government

   • All states limited the power of their government

3. Civil Liberties

   • Seven/13 states had bills of rights

4. Separation of powers

   • All states have a separation of power

Constitution Convention

• Independence hall Philadelphia,

• Was supposed to be a “meeting” to revise and amend the articles of confederation

• Sworn to secrecy

• People gathered daily to find out what was going on

The Delegates

• 55 total

  • 41 had been members of the continental congress

  • 8 had signed the declaration

  • 6 had signed the articles of confederation

• Jonathan Dayton, NJ delegate youngest at 26

• Benjamin Franklin, host delegate oldest at 81

  • Known for getting states compromise at key movement of critical debate

• James Madison, father of the constitution

  • Author of the Virginia Plans

    1. National principle : national government had to be confident and superior the states

       • Limit State power from irresponsible policy instead of competing and contradictory state policy.

       • National Policy instead of competing and contradictory state policy.

    2. Limit the power of the majority

       • Place as much government as possible beyond the direct control of the majority

         • separation of powers, checks and balances

    3. Suspicion of power

       • decentralize power in central government

       • creates an “extended republic”

       • indirectly elected officials

• George Washington, president of the constitutional convention

  • First the sign the new constitution

  • Only president in american history to receive every electoral vote

• Alexander Hamilton, lone NY delegate

  • young (32) and arrogant

  • favored a strong central government

  • Co - author of the federalist papers

• Roger Sherman, CT ( connecticut ) - author of the great compromise

• Gouverneur Morris, PA delegate- eloquent speaker, gave the most speeches; 173!

  • Wrote the preamble in the constitution (We the People…)

• Edmund Randolph, VA delegate - also governor of VA.

  • Introduced the Virginia Plan

  • Madison’s voice

• William Paterson, NJ delegate, the lone author of the New jersey Plan

  • Countered plan to the virigina plan wanted equal representation in congress

United states Congress

The Senate follows the “Trustee” model of representation.

• Elected officials are entrusted to make decisions that will benefit their constituents, not based on the direct views of the constituents

The house of Representatives follows the “Delegate” model of representation

• Decisions are made to mirror the constituents views, represent constituent’s views, ord o voters tell them to do.

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Types of democracy

K ( What you know ) :

Participatory : A model of democracy in which citizens have the power to decide directly on policy and politicians are responsible for implementing those policy decisions.

• example : voting, initiative, referendum, freedom of speech, assembly, petition

Pluralist : A model of democracy in which no one group dominates politics and organized groups compete with each other to influence policy

• example: democratic vs. republican, special interest groups

Elite : A model of democracy in which a small number of people, usually those who are wealth and well-educated, influence political decision making.

• example : all on the supreme court have ivy league educations, takes money to run for office

W ( What you want to know ) :

• What are some examples of each type of democracy?

• Which foundational documents support each type of democracy?

L ( What you learned ) :

• Participatory examples : First amendment 15, 17, 19, suffrage laws

  • line of reasoning reasoning: Americans vote more in elections than about anywhere else in the world. Americans have expanded democracy to the people and creating more offices

• Pluralist examples : ( democratic and republicans ) ( SIGS; BLM, NAACP, NRA (national rifle association) sierra club ( environmental )

  • Line of reasoning : over 60 percent of American identity at republican or democrat

  • Line of reasoning : billions of dollars are given to campaigns from SIGs

• Elites examples : the million era club

  • line of reasoning : almost all presidents ,and supreme court judges in recent history have ivy league or ivy league equivalent degrees

  • line of reasoning : only 1 part of government original directly elected by the people (House), today an entire branch has no elections (judicial supreme court)

Line of reasoning is after the because in the thesis statement.

Thesis:

The type of democracy that best represents the US today is participatory because Americans vote more in elections that about anywhere else in the world and they have also expanded democracy to those who were once excluded.