The First Founding

• There was a variety of interests in colonial America.

• They included:– New England merchants– Southern planters– Royalists– Shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers

– Small farmers

The Road to Independence

• Geography– Distance limited Britain’s capacity to govern the colonies. It also made it expensive!

• Home Rule– The British had given the Americans responsibility for managing domestic affairs, including taxation. The colonies had been electing their own leaders for over a century.

Self-Governance

• By 1650, the colonies had established elective assemblies– Had the authority to initiate laws and levy taxes.

• The Crown appointed governors, judges and colonial councils– They usually went along with popular opinion

Home Rule Limitations

• No experience regulating commerce

• No independent military

• Limited experience in foreign relations

• Little experience working together

British Taxes and Colonial Interests

• Beginning in the 1750s, the British Crown began imposing a series of modest taxes on the colonists, in part to pay some of the costs of imperial defense.

• The particular types of taxes—levies on stamps and commercial goods, like sugar and molasses—caused several of the colonial interests to begin to organize against the Crown.

Political Strife and the Radicalizing of the

Colonists

• A series of provocative acts and counter-acts radicalized the colonists and led to the Declaration of Independence.– Boston Tea Party (1773)– First Continental Congress (1774)– Lexington and Concord (1775)– Second Continental Congress (1776)

• This is the Collective Action Principle in action.

The Continental Congress

• Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party with the Restraining Acts and Coercive Acts.– Closed the port of Boston– Dissolved the Massachusetts assembly– Decreed British troops could be quartered in colonial homes.

– Americans could be tried in England• Continental Congress passed resolutions condemning taxes and decrees– Appointed delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress.

The Declaration of Independence

Thomas Paine and “Common Sense”- First piece to openly ask for independence- ”An island cannot rule a continent”

The Declaration of Independence

• “All men are created equal.”• Governments derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed.

• Declares that when a government no longer serves the needs of the people, the people have a right to revolt.

• Does not create a government.

The Revolutionary War

• The War of Independence was long and bloody, with tens of thousands of casualties among colonists, British soldiers, and native Americans who fought on both sides.

• The colonists ultimately prevailed because it was so long, so bloody, and so expensive and, for the British, there was no end in sight.

The Articles of Confederation

• Confederation: a decentralized governmental system in which the national gov’t derives authority from the states rather than the citizens.

• The first American Constitution• America is really 13 sovereign states with a weak central government– No standing army– Weak executive– No ability to tax and spend– Problems of international standing– Shays’s Rebellion

The Confederation at War

• States responsible for recruiting troops and outfitting them for battle

• Congress attempted to coordinate state regiments into a single force

• Could borrow money but NOT tax• No administrative branch—so Congress had to do everything.

The Confederation at War

• NE States met and passed a resolution to give Congress “powers competent for the gov’t”

• Hartford Convention– Called on Congress to grant itself the power to tax.• Rhode Island vetoed the bill

• France enters the war! • The British give up.

The Confederation During Peace

• A war-torn economy• Trade barriers at home and abroad

• Popular discontent (Shays)– Despite the efforts of Hamilton, Washington, etc, Daniel Shays (and other uprisings) compelled the states to form a stronger union.

Founders’ Philosophical Influence

• Locke(1632-1704): popular sovereignty. Citizens’ delegation of authority to their agents in gov’t with the ability to rescind that authority.

• Newton(1642-1727): force and balance• Montesquieu(1689-1755): separation of powers, superiority of small republics

• Hume(1711-1776): competition of contending interests.

Constitutional Convention (1787): Key Issues

• Key Issues:– Revise or scrap the Articles of Confederation

– National Power vs. State Power– How much democracy?– Slavery

• Some answers:– The Great Compromise– The Three-Fifths Compromise

• http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/9zm7cy/national-constitution-center

Virginia Plan

• National vs States’ rights.• Madison favored a stronger executive—more like a parliamentary system.

• Proposed the Virginia Plan– Bicameral legislature with lower house apportioned among the states based on population.

– Upper house elected by lower house.

New Jersey Plan

• States’ rights activists displeased with Virginia Plan.– Called for one legislative chamber– Equal representation for each state.– Gave power to tax to the national gov’t

– Established simple majority rather than unanimity.

– Did not establish courts or organize executive

The Great Compromise

• Now the unanimous agreement rule was gone, replaced by a rule allowing a majority of the membership of Congress to pass laws.

• Article 1, Section 8 extended the authority of Congress– Commerce Clause; Necessary and Proper Clause.

The Separation of Powers

Article I: Legislative Branch

• Bicameralism – Division of a legislative assembly into two chambers or houses

• Expressed Powers of Government• Necessary and Proper Clause – Also referred to as the “elastic clause”

Article II: Executive Branch

• Provides for an independent, stronger, and more “energetic” executive than in the Articles of Confederation.

• The president is commander in chief, chief executive, and chief diplomat.

• Other powers include the veto, the nomination of executive and judicial officials and the power to grant reprieves and pardons.

The Take-Care Clause

• Just as the necessary and proper clause enabled Congress to enlarge its powers, Article II has done the same though the ‘take-care’ clause– The president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”

• Modern presidents have used this to undertake whatever actions national policy may require that are not expressly forbidden in the Constitution

The Electoral College

• Each state is awarded as many electors as it has members of the House and Senate

• The Constitution left it to the states to decide how electors are chosen, but the Framers generally expected that the states would rely on statewide elections

• Today, a candidate needs a majority (270) of the 538 EC votes, otherwise election is decided by the House of Reps.

Article III: Judicial Branch

• Provides for a Supreme Court and other federal courts Congress can establish.

• Justices and judges have lifetime terms and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

• Does not explicitly provide for judicial review—the power of the courts to declare actions of the legislative and executive branches invalid or unconstitutional.

Clicker Question: Articles I, II, and III

Which of the first three articles is longest and most specific in its grant of governmental power?

A. Article I – Legislative BranchB. Article II – Executive BranchC. Article III – Judicial Branch

Articles IV and VI:National Unity and Power

• Article IV provides reciprocity among the states through the “full faith and credit” clause and the “privileges and immunities” clause.

• Article VI promotes national power through the national supremacy clause.

Article V: Amending the Constitution

• Sets forth the procedures for amending the Constitution

Article VII: Ratification

• Calls for ratifying conventions in each of the 13 states

• The Constitution is deemed ratified when 9 of the 13 states vote to ratify.

The Fight for Ratification:Federalists vs. Antifederalists

• Federalists favored ratification and a stronger national government.

• Antifederalists opposed ratification but disagreed among themselves about what the alternative should be.

• At issue:– Nature of representation– Danger posed by tyranny of the majority– Scope and location of governmental power

The Fight for Ratification

Discussion/Clicker Question

Which contemporary group’s ideas do the Antifederalists’ ideas resemble?

A. Occupy Wall StreetB. Tea PartyC. Green PartyD. Libertarian Party

The Fight for Ratification:

The Bill of Rights• The Bill of Rights is one key result of the fight for ratification

Beyond the Constitution:Limiting Governmental

Power

• The Federalists and Antifederalists agreed that governmental power had to be checked; they also agreed that “mere parchment barriers” would not be enough.

• In Federalist 10, James Madison outlines the strongest argument from the Federalist camp for why popular government will succeed in the new United States.

Beyond the Constitution:Limiting Governmental

Power• In Federalist 10, James Madison argues:– The key problem of democracy is instability and factionalism.

– Factions are sown into the nature of man.– So we must control the effects of faction:

• Representation and “filtering” of public opinion

• “Extend the Sphere” – Take in a greater variety of interests

• The American “solution” is that we’ll agree to disagree!

Federalist 51

• “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. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

Federalist 51

• How does a gov’t control itself?– By dispersing power among several brances

– Being subjected to majority rule

• This serves to guard against tyranny, expands the sphere of influence and solidifies the Republic.

Amending the Constitution

• There have been just 17 amendments to the Constitution since 1791.

• Two of these cancel each other out (Prohibition).

• The remaining 15 amendments can be broken down into 3 categories.

Expansion of the Electorate

Changing Elections

Expanding and Limiting the Power of Government

The Constitution

• Irony: national pluralism that Madison was striving to install was already at work at the federal convention, frustrating their success

• Many of the Constitution’s provisions have no theoretical rationale; they are simply the hammered-out products of compromise.