PS 1

1
PS 1 Introduction to American Politics

• Wednesday, July 5, 2006

2
Course Information

• Matt Grossmann, Instructor
• Email matthewg_at_berkeley.edu
• Michael Salamone, Graduate Student Instructor
• Email salamone_at_berkeley.edu
• Course Mon-Thurs 2-4pm in 60 Evans Hall
• Discussion Sections
• Friday 12-2pm and 2-4pm in 54 Barrows Hall
• Office Hours Mon-Thurs directly after class
• Web site http//www.mattg.org/ps1

3
Review From Monday

• Logistics enroll, textbook, reader, website
• Goals general education, civics, Intro to poli
  sci
• Assignments short tests and essays, simulations
  and group work, final
• Course Outline institutions, intermediation,
  public behavior, policy, approaches to poli sci
• A Central Theme public disinterest and
  understanding life inside the beltway
• Empirical focus with normative skepticism
• Scope politics as governance or competition over
  power multiple approaches to poli sci
• Study skills, reading tips

4
Today American Democracy in Theory and Practice

• Textbook types of government
• American political culture and values
• Declaration of independence
• Constitutional structure
• Constitutional amendments
• Separation of powers / checks and balances
• Federalism
• The Federalist Papers
• Readings for next time
• Questions/Comments

5
Textbook Types of Government

• government
• the institutions and procedures through which a
  territory and its people are ruled.

Types of Government Inclusiveness Governments
can be categorized in ascending levels of
inclusiveness
AUTOCRACY OLIGARCHY
DEMOCRACY
Low Inclusiveness
High Inclusiveness
6

Textbook Types of GovernmentWho Rules?

• Autocracies governments controlled by one
  person a king, a queen, or dictator.
• Oligarchies governments in which a small group
  landowners, military officers, or wealth
  merchants control most of the government
  decisions.
• Democracies governments in which citizens play
  a significant part in the governmental process.

7
Textbook Types of Government

• Types of Government Recognition of Limits
• Governments can also be categorized in
  descending order of the limits they recognize
  on their own authority.

Few Limits
Broad
Limits
TOTALITARIAN AUTHORITARIAN
CONSTITUTIONAL
8

Textbook Types of Government How Much Power?

• Totalitarian governments governments that
  recognize little or no limits on their authority
  and those that seek to absorb or eliminate
  potential challengers to their authority.
• Authoritarian governments governments that
  recognize no formal limits on their authority but
  are, often reluctantly, constrained by the power
  of other social institutions.
• Constitutional governments governments that
  recognize and often codify effective limits on
  their authority.

9

Typical Justifications for Government

• To protect life, liberty and property
• To aspire to a meaningful, moral community
• To achieve compromise, cooperation, and
  coexistence among individuals with conflicting
  goals and interests
• To enable the coordination on problems requiring
  collective action, such as the provision of
  public goods
• To manage common resources, prevent negative
  externalities, subsidize positive externalities
• To shelter us in uncertain futures and from
  unforeseen crises

10

Which Form of Government?

• The topic of political philosophy
• Aristotle, Arendt, Hobbes, Habermas, Rousseau,
  Rawls
• Philosophers have different views on
• The moral capacity of humans
• The cognitive capacity of humans
• The unity or diversity of human desires and
  interests
• The benefits and costs of social interdependence
  and organization
• Philosophers propose different goals for
  government
• Justice or Equality
• Liberty or Freedom
• Protection of Life or Property
• Equal Participation

11

Which Values Were Advanced by American Government?

• Difficult to Assess
• Our current view may not match the view of the
  founders
• The founders were trying to advance multiple,
  often contradictory, values
• Different founders had different goals in mind
• Methods to Assess
• Investigate American political culture what
  political values are widely shared and used to
  justify government action?
• Analyze founding documents what values are
  advanced by the Declaration, the Constitution,
  and the Federalist Papers?

12
American Political Culture
Political culture Broadly shared,
characteristic, and deep-seated values, beliefs,
and attitudes about how the government should
function. Consensus Political Values (from We
The People) 1. Liberty 2. Equality 3.
Democracy Often added 4. Individualism 5.
Limited Government
13
Consensus Political Values?

• Liberty Historically, Americans have valued
  both personal freedom and economic freedom.
• Equality Americans have a long-standing
  commitment to the self-evident ideal that all
  men are created equal.
• Democracy Americans commitment to democracy is
  marked by three principles to which most
  citizens adhere
• popular sovereignty
• majority rule
• minority rights

14
Table 1.2
Consensus on Equality?
15
American Political Culture

• Equality, Liberty, and Democracy widely agreed to
  in principle
• People disagree on
• Their relative importance
• How to put principles into practice
• These values animate our political debates they
  are often referenced in modern politics
• Few want to admit that they are endangering
  equality, liberty, or democracy

16
The Declaration of Independence A Statement of
Values?

• Politically, the Declaration sought to unify the
  disparate interests of colonial society around
  core principles and in opposition to the British
  crown.
• The Declaration has be seen as a statement of the
  values animating the new government.
• The Declaration asserts the self evident and
  unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the
  pursuit of happiness.

17
The Declaration of Independence

• Justification for Independence
• Natural rights the separate and equal station
  to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God
  entitle them
• Declaration to the World
• Justification for Government
• To secure these rights, governments are
  instituted among men, deriving the just powers
  from the consent of the governed
• Charges Against the King
• quartering large bodies of troops among us
• imposing taxes upon us without our consent
• depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of
  trial by jury.

18
Founding Documents The Articles of Confederation

• The first American constitution 1781-1789
• A weak national union of independent states
• a firm league of friendship
• Not read as a statement of American values, but
  conceived as one
• Replaced at Constitutional Convention convened
  to amend the articles

19
The Articles of Confederation

• Limited Powers
• No independent judiciary or executive branch,
  only Congress
• States retained sovereignty / executed laws
• Each state had one vote in Congress
• Congressmen chosen by the state legislatures
• Problems under the Articles of Confederation
• Americas weak international standing
• Internal unrest such as Shays Rebellion
• Lack of financial stability from regular revenue

20
The Constitutional Convention
Fifty-five delegates from twelve states to
amend Articles Elites from each state, but
divided Federalists and Anti-Federalists
Large states and small states the slavery
question Overlapping goals promote
commerce - protect property - disempower
radicals Compromises - The great compromise
(House and Senate) - Three-fifths compromise
(count 3/5 of slaves for Congressional
apportionment)

21
The Constitution

• Compared to the Articles of Confederation, the
  Constitution increased the power of the central
  government
• Commerce and finance
• National judicial supremacy
• Stronger executive branch
• Sought to curb excessive democracy
• Checks and balances
• Electoral College
• Limited the potential for government abuse
• Bill of Rights (added)
• Separation of powers
• Federalism

22
Box 2.2 top
23
Box 2.2 bottom
24
Article I Legislative Branch

• Article I sets forth the powers and structure of
  the Legislative Branch
• Bicameralism (House and Senate)
• Expressed powers of government
• Necessary and proper clause provides for the
  potential expansion of congressional and national
  government power

25
Article 2 Executive Branch

• Article II sought to provide a strong and
  energetic executive branch.
• The President was to be independent of the
  legislative branch
• The President was to be the countrys Commander
  in Chief and its chief diplomat
• Other powers include appointment of executive and
  judicial officials and the veto of congressional
  acts.

26
Article 3 Judiciary Branch

• Article III deals with the selection and powers
  of the federal judiciary.
• Justices and judges to be appointed by the
  President and confirmed by the Senate.
• Lifetime terms.
• Established judicial supremacy.

27
Articles 4 and 6 National Powers

• Key elements of Article IV promote national
  unity and power.
• Reciprocity among states that must give full
  faith and credit to acts of other states
• Guarantees citizens of any state the privileges
  and immunities of every other state.
• Article VIs supremacy clause states that laws
  of the national government and treaties are the
  supreme law of the land.

28
Article 5 Amendments

• Article V sets forth the procedures for amending
  the Constitution.
• Proposing Amendments
• Constitutional Amendments can be proposed
  either
• (a) by passage in the House and Senate by 2/3
  vote or
• (b) by passage in a national convention called
  by Congress in response to petitions by 2/3 of
  the states.

29
Fig. 2.3
30
The Bill of Rights

• The first ten amendments to the Constitution
  constitute the Bill of Rights
• Added to help generate agreement among the states
  on the Constitution
• These amendments were designed to protect the
  basic freedoms of American citizens
• The meanings and applications of these rights
  have changed over time as judicial
  interpretations of these freedoms has changed

31
The Bill of Rights A Charter of Liberties
CIVIL LIBERTIES are protections of citizens from
unwarranted government action.
The Bill of Rights emphasis on limiting the
powers of the national government makes it
arguably more a bill of liberties.

• CIVIL RIGHTS describe governments responsibility
  to protect citizens.

32
Box 4.1
33
14th Amendment Extending the Bill of Rights to
the States

• Passed after the Civil War
• Whether or not intended, extended the Bill of
  Rights to prevent state action and to protect
  corporations

• No state shall make or enforce any law which
  shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
  citizens of the United States nor shall any
  state deprive any person of life, liberty, or
  property, without due process of law nor deny to
  any person within its jurisdiction the equal
  protection of the laws.

34
Table 2.3
Some Later Amendments Extending Voting Rights
35
The Constitution Important Features

• Separation of Powers
• Checks and Balances
• Federalism
• Missing
• Political Parties
• Judicial Review
• Delegated Powers

36
Separation of Powers

• Different powers for legislative, executive, and
  judiciary branches
• Ambition must be made to counteract ambition
  (Madison Federalist 51)
• Attempts to prevent power accumulation in one
  branch

37
Fig. 2.1
38
Checks and Balances

• Each branch has ways to counteract the actions of
  the other branches
• If power is concentrated in one branch, other
  branches can react
• Makes it more difficult for government (or one
  faction) to act

39
Fig. 2.2
40
Federalism

• Governments can organize the balance of power
  between the central and regional governments in a
  variety of ways
• Confederations
• (like the Articles of Confederation)
• Federal systems
• (like the constitution)
• Unitary systems

• federalism
• defined a system of government in which
  power is divided, by a constitution, between a
  central government and regional governments.

41
Federalism in the Constitution

• Consistent with the Framers desire to divide
  the powers of government, the Constitutions
  federal division of power can be understood as an
  attempt to limit the power of the national
  government.
• With expressed powers, the Constitution grants
  specific powers to the national government and
  reserves the rest for the states.
• Over time, however, the powers of the federal
  government have expanded through Constitutional
  interpretation

42
Federalism Division of Powers

• National Government Powers
• Expressed powers
• collect taxes
• coin money
• declare war
• Implied powers
• The necessary and proper powers the national
  government from their implication in the
  Constitution

• State Government Powers
• Reserved powers
• police powers (the powers to regulate the
  health, safety, and morals of its citizens)
• 10th Amendment
• The powers not delegated to the United States
  by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
  States, are reserved to the States respectively,
  or to the people.

43
The Ideas Behind the Constitution? The Federalist
Papers

• Written to convince the smallest states to accept
  the Constitution
• Published under the pseudonym Publius in New
  York newspapers
• Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and
  John Jay
• Helped create coalitions around the new
  Constitution
• Should they be read as statements of values or
  public relations documents?

44
Federalist 10The Problem of Factions

• What is a faction?
• By faction I understand a number of citizens,
  whether amounting to a majority or minority of
  the whole, who are united and actuated by some
  common impulse of passion, or of interest,
  adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to
  the permanent and aggregate interests of the
  community (Federalist 10).
• What is The Problem?
• The latent causes of faction are thus sown in
  the nature of man A zeal for different opinions
  concerning religion, concerning government an
  attachment to different leaders have, in turn,
  divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with
  mutual animosity, and rendered them much more
  disposed to vex and oppress each other than to
  co-operate for their common good The most common
  and durable source of factions has been the
  various and unequal distribution of property. The
  regulation of these various and interfering
  interests forms the principal task of modern
  legislation, and involves the spirit of party and
  faction in the necessary and ordinary operations
  of the government. (Federalist 10).

45
Federalist 10The Problem of Factions

• There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of
  faction the one, by removing its causes, the
  other, by controlling its effects.
• We cannot control the causes they are human
  nature and liberty. We cannot destroy liberty or
  give everyone the same opinions and interests.
• The only alternative is to control their effects
• Majority rule
• Representative government
• Form a large and diverse nation

46
Federalist 10 A Republic, Not a Democracy?

• Madison does not endorse a pure democracy, by
  which I mean a society consisting of a small
  number of citizens, who assemble and administer
  the government in person can admit of no cure for
  the mischiefs of faction.
• Madison endorses A Republic, by which I mean a
  Government in which a scheme of representation
  takes place
• The benefit of a Republic to refine and enlarge
  the public views by passing them through the
  medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom
  may best discern the true interest of their
  country and whose patriotism and love of justice
  will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary
  or partial considerations.
• Democracy does not appear in the constitution

47
Federalist 51

• Provides justification for separation of powers,
  checks and balances, and House and Senate
• If men were angels, no government would be
  necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither
  external nor internal controls on government
  would be necessary
• you must first enable the government to control
  the governed and in the next place oblige it to
  control itself. A dependence on the people is,
  no doubt, the primary control on the government
  but experience has taught mankind the necessity
  of auxiliary precautions.

48
Federalist 51

• Separation of Powers
• Each department should have a will of its own
  and consequently should be so constituted that
  the members of each should have as little agency
  as possible in the appointment of members of the
  others.
• Checks and Balances
• But the greatest security against a gradual
  concentration of the several powers in the same
  department consists in giving to those who
  administer each department the necessary
  constitutional means and motives to resist
  encroachments of the others
• House and Senate
• Different constituencies (states and people),
  different terms of office

49
Are these still the principles of American
government?

• A lot has changed since the founding
• Government has expanded dramatically
• The American role in the world has expanded
• Movements have altered our core principles
• A lot has remained the same
• The longest surviving constitutional structure
• The problem of factions remains
• The founding documents are still referenced

50
The Progressive Era One effort to frame a new
set of values

• 1890s 1920s reform period
• Influenced by scientific expertise, populism,
  pragmatism, and moral values
• Credited, in part, with womens suffrage, alcohol
  prohibition, direct election of Senators, income
  tax, business regulation, civil service
  administration, and the initiative process

51
Review American Democracy in Theory and Practice

• Types of government who rules and limits
• Political culture consensus values?
• Declaration justification and political values
• Constitution branches, powers
• Amendments process, Bill of Rights
• Separation of powers / checks and balances
• Federalism division of powers
• The Federalist Papers The problem of factions,
  Republican government, justification for
  constitutional structure

52
Questions or Comments?

• You can ask questions or comment about
• The readings
• Logistics
• Relevant current events
• Announcements

53
Discussion Founding Principles

• Founding Questions of American Political Theory
  (Madison)
• Which threatens government more
• Tyranny of the minority or tyranny of the
  majority?
• Which is more important in government structure
• Enabling government action or preventing action?

54
Discussion Progressive Principles

• Modern Questions of American Political Theory
  (Dewey vs. Lippmann)
• Which is more important
• The Fairness of the Political Process
• The Justice of Political Outcomes
• Which is better
• Rule by the Experts
• Rule by the People

55
Readings for Thursday

• We The People 468-490
• House and Senate overview
• District representation
• Congressional elections
• Organization of Congressional parties
• The committee system
• Staff and agencies
• Schickler, Institutional Development of
  Congress
• History of the committee system
• History of Congressional party leadership
• Attempts at Congressional reform