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Fresh Grad Lands Job as Real Estate Agent With Help from Professional Writers

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Political Science - Background to the US Constitution

Why do we have a government? What is its job?

The government resolves collective action problems. 

How do governments resolve collective disputes?

Governments creates institutions and rules to resolve conflicts that arise. 

In a democracy, citizens give up liberty (giving the government a right to power) in exchange for security (obligating the government to protect them).  This is also known as the social contract theory.

Where can we find the rules governing American democracy?

We can find the rules in the Constitution.  A constitution creates a set of institutions and provides a set of rules prescribing the political processes these institutions must follow to reach collective agreements. 

For example, in our constitution, there is a requirement that the Congress comes to a majority agreement in order to pass a law.  They also need 2/3 or a supermajority in order to override a presidential veto.

The structure of the Executive Branch and the Judiciary can also be found in the constitution.

Road to the Constitution: Revolution

France and Britain got into a fight over territory in what is now the United States (1754-1763). The French and Indian war refers to Britain’s two primary enemies

To recoup the high cost of the War, Britain enacts the Stamp (1765) and Tea (1773) Acts

The colonists got really angry at the threat to their self-governance and their lack of representation in parliament -they threw a whole shipment of tea in the Boston Harbor (1774)

Britain punishes the colonies via the Coercive Acts (1774) which required the colonists to house the British militia men. 

Colonial frustration with British governance leads to the Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775) the first official combat and bloodshed of the revolution

Colonies declare independence (1776)

The Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777 and ratified in 1781.  It was America’s first constitution which was shaped by the founders’ experiences. 

The monarchy made the colonists distrust centralized government.

Strong value was placed on domestic independence

There was little experience in interstate cooperation, especially in defense or trade primarily because Britain handled those affairs during the Colonial times. A whole new set of actions was made in areas like these.

Provisions of the Articles of Confederation

They created a permanent Congress where each state received one vote (13 delegates)

Major laws – taxes and constitutional change require unanimous agreement of all states. Every state’s government had to agree.

Military: States raise revenue, taxes and outfit troops for battle, but the national military command answers to Congress

There was no national executive or judiciary

States retain authority to negotiate trade overseas

States print and coin their own money. This later on posed problems especially for colonial soldiers when states would only take British money and the new government didn’t have any.

The war ends through the British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

There is a lot of state-level freedom but also utter chaos. The founders were terrified at the prospects of developing a monarch, so they decentralized the government because they didn’t want a spine in the central government. While this move allowed for individual state-level freedom, it also resulted to more difficult challenges in dealing with military decisions or funds, army and trade negotiations.

Do the decision rules create high or low transaction costs?

It creates high transaction costs (costs that go to decision-making). You need everyone to agree.

Do the decision rules create high or low conformity costs?

 It creates low conformity costs. If one person doesn’t like a law, they can stop collective action in its tracks

 

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

               The Military is a mess. We have a prisoner’s dilemma wherein states are supposed to fund the military but the national government tells the military what to do and each state has an incentive to underfund the military and instead focus on their own personal security. If every state does that, we see a military that will lose the war with the colonies.

               In terms of the economy:

                              There is debt. We can’t raise taxes because we can’t get a unanimous agreement.

                              There are no trade regulations

                              and no uniform system of currency

               There are Security problems

and finally, there are Legislative inefficiencies because getting 13 people to reach an agreement on major issues like taxes and the direction of the military is a lost cause.

A constitutional convention was held to fix the whole problem.

THE VIRGINIA PLAN

               Creates a bicameral national legislature

               Lower chamber voted by popular election

               Upper chamber appointed by state legislatures

Legislative has veto power on state law

Council of revision

But some people oppose the Virginia Plan especially from small states who would potentially lose in two key ways:

               Representation based on population in the lower chamber took away power at the national level. For example, your state has 5 people, and a neighbouring state has 500 people, you have a lot more power if representation is assigned by virtue of boundaries rather than state population.

               National veto over state laws stripped individual state power

An alternate idea was proposed: THE NEW JERSEY PLAN

THE NEW JERSEY PLAN

               Single chamber, equal representation for all states

               Legislature has limited power to raise taxes and regulate commerce

               Plural executive, meaning multiple presidents

               Limited national Supreme Court

THE GREAT COMPROMISE

               Congress: Two chambers

               Senate, 2 representatives per state, 6-year term

               Members of the House of Representatives selected by popular election and based on population size

               Unanimous agreement part of the constitution was abolished, and replaced by the ‘majority’ requirement

               Constitution provides broad powers express and implied powers to Congress – evidenced in the necessary and proper clause (also known as Elastic Clause – can be used to regulate commerce)

               Anti-federalists insist on a Bill of Rights, something that federalists see as unnecessary

Some oversights: Women and People of Colour

Individual rights were not of primary concern. Instead, they were concerned with the rights of the state

Political rights for women were largely a non-issue

Political rights for blacks were a contentious issue, hotly-debated and discussed, but ultimately set aside because they can’t reconcile

               Constitutional convention raises issue of how to determine size of state populations.

                              Southern states argue that slave population should be counted for purposes of representation

                              Northern states argue slave population should be excluded, as slaves were deprived rights and freedoms of citizenship

                              A final deal was reached: The 3/5 compromise. For the purposes of determining state representation, slaves counted as 3/5 of a person.

So what are the differences in the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution?

The Article gave the states power and said, “Also save some for the National Government.”

The Constitution exquisitely gives how much the state and the national government will receive.

THE FOUNDING PARADOX

Hard lessons of the articles of confederations led to the Constitutional Convention and the Great Compromise

               They needed to create a stronger national government

               They also needed to resolve problems of interstate coordination and interstate conflict

But they also needed to limit the power of a more powerful national government

               Prevent the emergence of a monarchy/aristocracy

               Prevent Mob rule and the tyranny of the majority

               Prevent the competition and Rule of Vicious Factions

Solutions embedded in Constitutional Design

FEDERALISM

               Shared power between the Autonomous state and national government

               Madison’s Size Principle: Large and diverse government prevents any local majority from dominating politics

               Diverse interests and perspectives built into National Government. It creates a natural check of federal power.

SEPARATION OF POWERS: Sharing the Power and Division of Authority Across Branches of Government, so one branch can check the other two branches

               Staggered elections and tenure

               Checks and Balances

INDIVIDUAL BILL OF RIGHTS that guarantees rights of individuals and states from arbitrary government power