US founding principles

Ideals of Democracy

• In 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, listing grievances against the British monarchy and declaring intent to form a separate government.
• The Framers established a limited government based on natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and social contract principles.
• 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 involves citizens giving up some freedoms in exchange for government protection of natural rights.
• Popular sovereignty means government power comes from the consent of the governed.
• Republicanism is a system where elected leaders represent the people's interests.
• The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights form the ideological basis of the U.S. democratic government.

The Declaration of Independence

• John Locke's ideas of natural rights and social contract influenced it.
• Thomas Jefferson wrote it, with revisions by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
• It lists grievances against the British Crown to gain international support and inspire American democratic values.
• Colonial representatives approved it on July 4, 1776.

The Constitution of the United States

• It replaced the Articles of Confederation, which had created a weak central government that favored state power.
• In 1787, state representatives at the Constitutional Convention aimed to balance individual liberty with public order.
• George Washington oversaw the creation of the Constitution, with significant influence from James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.
• The Constitution was adopted in 1788 when New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify it.
• The Federalist Papers aimed to encourage ratification, requiring approval from all states for smooth adoption.
• The Constitution has 27 amendments, the first ten being the Bill of Rights.
• These amendments were crucial in convincing Anti-Federalist states to adopt the Constitution by ensuring the possibility of change.

Types of Democracy

• The United States was established as a democratic republic, combining popular sovereignty with elected officials representing the citizens interests.
• Varying opinions exist on how citizens can influence governmental actions, leading to different models of democracy.
• A democracy is a system where government power is vested in the people, who rule directly or through elected representatives.
• Participatory democracy empowers citizens to directly decide on policies, with politicians implementing those decisions.
• This differs from direct democracy, where citizens are directly responsible for policy decisions.
• Participatory democracy is represented in local and state government through town hall meetings, initiatives (allowing citizens to propose laws), and popular referendums (allowing voters to approve or repeal laws).
• Pluralist democracy involves competing organized groups influencing policy, preventing any single group from dominating politics.
• This is evident at both state and federal levels, where individuals work through common-cause groups.
• Interest groups influence politicians through donations, lobbying, and congressional testimony.
• Elite democracy involves a small number of wealthy, well-educated people influencing political decision-making.
• The Electoral College exemplifies elite democracy, where a small group makes major political decisions, even against the popular will.

Challenges to the Articles of Confederation

• The Articles of Confederation, the first U.S. constitution, lasted from 1776 to 1789.
• It established a weak central government, granting most powers to the states.
• Post-Revolutionary War, the U.S. aimed for a government unlike Great Britain's, resulting in a weak central government that proved inadequate.
• 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 foreign negotiations.
• The government structure had only a legislative branch, the Confederation Congress, where each state had one vote; passing measures required 9/13 states approval, amending required 13/13 approval.
• 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, leading to funding issues for the national government.
• Negligent states, worthless currency, and reluctance from foreign countries to lend money further crippled the economy.
• The government's inability to impose tariffs or regulate interstate commerce left American producers vulnerable to foreign competition.
• Shays's Rebellion, an uprising of Revolutionary War veterans in Massachusetts, highlighted the need for a stronger governing system.
• The national government couldn't raise an army/navy and depended on states for soldiers.
• Revolutionary War veterans faced debt and demanded payment promised for their service, which the government couldn't provide;
• Daniel Shays led a group to a courthouse to demand relief.
• The Massachusetts militia sided with the veterans.
• Revealed weaknesses included inability to pay vets and raise a militia.
• The right to impose taxes, regulate commerce, and raise an army was imperative.

Government Power and Individual Rights

• Federalists advocated for Constitution ratification, while Anti-Federalists opposed it; both wrote essays on the balance between government power and personal liberties.
• Federalist 10 was written by James Madison in 1787.
• Critics feared the proposed federal government was too large and unresponsive.
• Madison argued a large republic would safeguard liberty due to factions and diversity preventing tyranny.
• Factions are inevitable, but a large government can control them.
• Diversity makes tyranny difficult, as ruling coalitions would be unstable, thus negotiating/compromising, solutions would respect minority rights
• The large size of the country would make it difficult for factions to gain control.
• This addresses the issue of minority versus majority rule.
• Brutus 1, written under a pen name, urged New York to reject the Constitution.
• It claimed condensing 13 states would give the federal government "absolute and uncontrollable power" through the Necessary and Proper and Supremacy Clauses.
• The power of the state government would diminish and it was argued that the federal government already had too much power, suggesting the country wouldn't survive due to its size.

Ratification of the U.S. Constitution

• The Constitutional Convention of 1787 aimed to revise the Articles of Confederation for a central government that was effective but not tyrannical.
• The Virginia Plan suggested a bicameral legislature with representation based on population, which favored larger states.
• The New Jersey Plan proposed a unicameral legislature with each state having one vote, benefiting smaller states.
• The Great Compromise, or Connecticut Compromise, created a bicameral legislative branch.
• The lower house (House of Representatives) would be determined by population.
• The upper house (Senate) assigned two Senators to each state, Initially appointed by state legislatures, now elected by popular vote.
• The Electoral College consists of representatives from each state who formally elect the president and vice president.
• Article II establishes the executive branch and its presidential election process.
• Each state has electors equal to its number of representatives in the House and Senate, who vote for the popular vote winner in that state.
• The candidate with the most electoral votes wins.
• This moves from direct to indirect democracy because the Founders distrusted everyday people's judgment.
• The Three-Fifths Compromise counted each enslaved person as three-fifths of a white person for representation in the House of Representatives.
• The Constitution made international slave trade illegal as per 1808.
• Article I pertains to the legislative branch.
• The Bill of Attainder Clause prevents Congress from singling out a person using the law for punishment without trial.
• The Commerce Clause empowers Congress to regulate trade.
• Article I, Section 8 dictates the Contracts Clause, thus restricting a state interfering with the execution of contracts.
• The Ex Post Facto Clause prohibits Congress from retroactively punishing actions.
• The Necessary and Proper Clause, or Elastic Clause, allows Congress to exercise unenumerated powers necessary to carry out its enumerated powers (Article I, Section 8).
• Article II addresses the executive branch.
• Article III addresses the judicial branch.
• Article V describes the process for amending the Constitution, requiring ratification by three-fourths of the states.
• The congressional proposal method requires two-thirds of both chambers of Congress to propose an amendment, ratified by three-fourths of state conventions or legislatures.
• The convention method requires two-thirds of states to request Congress to organize a convention where an amendment is proposed and ratified by three-fourths of state conventions or legislatures.
• Article VI addresses debts to be paid, establishing the accountability and trustworthiness of the new nation.
• No religious tests for office are permitted to adhere to the separation of Church and State.
• The Constitution is established as the Supreme Law of the Land through the Supremacy Clause, outranking any other conflict.
• Resistance occurs when states argue that their actions do not violate the Constitution through the justices incorrect interpretation.
• Article VII requires nine states to ratify the Constitution for it to become law.
• The Bill of Rights were promised to ensure ratification, however, the Anti-Federalists said this was illegal; full consent needed to amend articles
• The Federalists favored conventions over legislatures ratifying the Constitution.
• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote The Federalist Papers to encourage states to adopt the Constitution.
• They believed the lacked power and that the Articles weren't working.
• Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams were Anti-Federalists.
• They believed 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 divides government into legislative, executive, and judicial branches with separate powers that both compete and cooperate to enact policy.
• The legislative branch passes laws, declares war, impeaches officials, approves appointments/treaties, levies taxes, and regulates the Supreme Court.
• The executive branch vetoes legislation, commands the military, grants pardons, appoints officials, conducts foreign affairs, and negotiates treaties.
• The judicial branch declares laws/presidential acts unconstitutional, hears cases on federal law, and presides over impeachment trials.
• Checks and Balances ensure no single branch becomes too powerful.
• The President can veto legislation, but Congress can impeach the President.
• The President nominates judges, but the Supreme Court can declare presidential acts unconstitutional.
• The Supreme Court can declare laws unconstitutional, but Congress can impeach judges.
• Federalist 51, written by James Madison, defends the system of checks and balances and advocates for separation of powers.
• Each government branch's power checks the others' and depends on the people.
• Humans were fallible: “if men were angels, no government would be necessary”.
• The government must first control the governed, then itself
• Republican government can check power of factions and tyranny of the majority using Authority derived from diverse society
• Checks and balances preserve liberty by ensuring justice.
• The multiple access points for citizens to influence policy is in place to allows multiple access points to influence public policy, remove officials who abuse power.
• Government officials who commit crimes or abuse power may face impeachment, or indictment as determined by a majority vote of the House of Representative and 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 shares 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 slices up through different grant programs 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 is the effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.
• Article IV defines the responsibilities of the states to each other and the federal government to the states.
• Section 1 says 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 says that states can’t treat newcomers worse than their own citizens (“privileges and immunities clause”).
• Promises states the protection of the federal government 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.
• States and the federal government have exclusive and shared powers.
• Exclusive powers are reserved to the federal government or the states.
• Delegated powers are powers for the federal government.
• Reserved powers are powers for the states and people.
• Concurrent powers are shared.
• 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: taxation, lawmaking and enforcement, chartering banks and corporations, taking land for public use (eminent domain), establishing courts, borrowing money
• Exclusive State powers: conducting elections, local governments, providing public safety/health/welfare, maintaining militia, ratifying Constitutional amendments
• The federal government encourages policy adoption at the state level through federal aid programs.
• Since the Civil War in the 1860s, the federal has overlapped and intertwined with state powers (Great Depression); example US v. Lopez
• Categorical grants can only be used for specific purposes and often include nondiscrimination provisions.
• Mandates are unfunded federal requirements that states meet to receive 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 for broad purposes, allowing state or local governments to disburse funds as they see fit.
• Federal revenue sharing shares federal income tax revenue with state and local governments.

Constitutional Interpretations of Federalism

• The commerce clause (Article I, Section 8) gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.
• The necessary and proper clause (Elastic Clause) in Article I, Section 8 empowers Congress to create laws "necessary and proper" for performing its duties.
• Enumerated powers are explicitly named in the Constitution.
• Implied powers are not explicitly named but are implied to execute enumerated powers.
• The 9th Amendment states that unenumerated rights belong to the people.
• The 10th Amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government or prohibited to the states, to the states or the people.
• Reserved Powers Clause
• The 14th Amendment grants citizenship, equal protection, and due process to all people born in the U.S.
• Due Process Clause: prevents states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law
• Equal Protection Clause: Prevents states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) confirmed the national government's supremacy over state governments via the Supremacy Clause.
• In 1818, Maryland taxed the Second Bank of the United States, leading to the Baltimore Branch Cashier McCulloch refusing 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 gun possession 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 the 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

Explore the US founding principles, including popular sovereignty, social contract theory, limited government, unalienable rights, and republicanism. Understand their influence on the structure and function of the U.S. government as written in the Declaration of Independence.