Download government by the people

Unit one
Introduction To Government
1. Many Americans, especially young people, are apathetic
about politics and government. Young people because they pay little
attention to public affairs, young Americans are less likely to be well
informed about government and politics.
2. The institutions that make authoritative decisions that apply
to all of society are collectively known as government. All modern
governments have similar functions.
These include:
(1) Governments maintain national defense.
(2) Governments provide public services.
(3) Governments have police powers to provide order.
(4) Governments socialize the young into the political culture.
(5) Governments collect taxes.
IV. The Policymaking System (10-13)
A. The Policy Agenda
The policymaking system begins with people who have interests,
problems, and concerns. These interests, problems, and concerns
are expressed through linkage institutions, which are the political
channels through which people’s concerns become political issues on
the policy agenda.
Parties, elections, interest groups, and the media are key linkage
institutions The policy agenda consists of the issues that attract
the serious attention of public officials and other people actually
involved in politics at any given point in time. A political issue arises
when people disagree about a problem or public policy choice made
to combat a problem. Policymakers within the four policymaking
institutions (Congress, the presidency, the courts, and the
bureaucracy) make policies concerning issues on the agenda.
V. Democracy (13-19)
B. Defining Democracy
1.Traditional Democratic Theory
The writers of the Constitution were not fond of democracy. Most
Americans define democracy as “government by the people.”
The five cornerstones of an ideal democracy include:
(1) equality in voting,
(2) effective participation,
(3) enlightened understanding,
(4) citizen control of the agenda, and
(5) inclusion.
Democracies must also practice majority rule and preserve minority
rights. In a large society a few will have to carry on the affairs of the
many. The relationship between the few leaders and the many
followers is one of representation. The closer the correspondence
between representatives and their electoral majority, the closer the
approximation to democracy.
3. Three Contemporary Theories of American Democracy
” Pluralist theory contends that groups with shared interests
influence public policy by pressing their concerns through organized
efforts. Pluralists believe that through bargaining and compromise,
group competition will reflect the public interest. Multiple access
points to government allow groups that lose in one arena to take their
case to another.
The elite and class theory contends that our society is divided along
class lines and that an upper-class elite rules. Wealth is the basis of
this power and big business is the center of power. Hyperpluralism
is a theory that claims that too many influential groups cripple
government’s ability to govern. Many groups are so strong that
government is unable to act. When policymakers try to placate so
many single-issue groups the result is muddled and inconsistent
policy.
2. Constitutional underpinnings
Protecting our bananas – object lesson
John Locke – Second Treatise of Civil Government 1689
State of Nature -- before governments arise, people exist in a state of
nature where they are governed only by the laws of nature.
Natural Rights Natural law brings natural rights, including life,
liberty, and property. According to Locke, the sole purpose of
government was to protect natural rights
Social Contract -- consent of the governed, and it should be a
limited government. Covenant
Declaration of Independence (AKA Greatest Dear John Letter Ever)-Remarkable parallels between Locke’s thoughts and Jefferson’s
language in the Declaration of Independence. The sanctity of
property was one of the few ideas absent in Jefferson’s draft of the
Declaration: he altered Locke’s phrase “life, liberty, and property” to
read “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Nevertheless,
Locke’s views on the importance of property figured prominently at
the Constitutional Convention
THE GOVERNMENT THAT FAILED: 1776–1787
Articles of Confederation, which became the new nation’s first
governing document.
Weaknesses -- Handout
Captain Daniel Shays undertook a series of armed attacks on
courthouses to prevent judges from foreclosing on farms. Shays’
Rebellion spurred the birth of the Constitution and reaffirmed the
belief of the Philadelphia delegates that the new federal government
needed to be a strong one.
Constitution Convention
Factions --James Madison claimed that factions arise from the
unequal distribution of wealth. One faction is the majority, composed
of the many who have little or no property. The other is the minority,
composed of the few who hold much wealth.
Compromise
Three Fifths
Slave Trade
Great Compromise -- Connecticut Compromise, under which a
bicameral legislature would have equal representation for the states
in the Senate and representation based on population in the House of
Representatives.
Madison and his colleagues feared both majority and minority
factions. To thwart tyranny by the majority, Madison believed it
was essential to keep most of the government beyond their power.
Under Madison’s plan, voters’ electoral influence was limited and
mostly indirect. Only the House of Representatives were to be
directly elected. Senators were to be elected by state
legislatures (modified by the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913),
presidents were to be indirectly elected by an electoral college, and
judges were to be nominated by the president.
The Madisonian plan also provided for a system of separation of
powers in which each of the three branches of government would be
relatively independent so that no single branch could control the
others. However, the powers were not completely separate: a system
of checks and balances was established that reflected Madison’s
goal of setting power against power to constrain government actions.
In the battle over ratification, the Federalists supported the
Constitution and the Anti- Federalists opposed it.
Federalist Papers – 10, 51
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
The Constitution may be modified either by formal amendment or by
a number of informal processes. Formal amendments change the
language of the Constitution in accordance with the procedures
outlined in Article V. The Constitution may be informally amended in
a variety of ways, such as through judicial interpretation or through
custom and political practice.
3. Federalism
Federalism is a way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels
of government have formal authority over the same area and people.
Most governments in the world today are unitary governments, in
which all power resides in the central government. Although
American government operates under a federal system at the
national level, the states are unitary governments with respect to their
local governments. In the United States, local governments are
legally “creatures of the states”
In a confederation, the national government is weak and most or all
of the power is in the hands of its components (such as states).
The Constitution does not refer directly to federalism, and little was
said about it at the Constitutional Convention. However, the framers
carefully defined the powers of state and national governments. The
framers also dealt with a question that still evokes debate: Which
level of government should prevail in a dispute between the states
and the national government?
Supremacy Clause Article VI
Tenth Amendment
Necessary and Proper Clause Article I Section 8
Cite an Example of Federalism
In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that
Congress has certain implied powers and that national policies take
precedence over state policies. These two principles have been used
to expand the national government’s sphere of influence. Chief
Justice John Marshall wrote that, “the government of the United
States, though limited in its power, is supreme within its sphere of
action.” The “necessary and proper” clause (sometimes called the
elastic clause) was interpreted to give Congress certain implied
powers that go beyond its enumerated powers.
Gibbons v. Ogden – Commercial Powers
The Constitution requires states to give full faith and credit to the
public acts, records, and civil judicial proceedings of every other
state; states are required to return a person charged with a crime in
another state for trial or imprisonment (extradition); and citizens of
each state are entitled to all the privileges and immunities of any
state in which they are located.
dual federalism, a system under which states and the national
government each remain supreme within their own spheres. The
analogy of layer cake federalism
The United States moved from a system of dual federalism to one of
cooperative federalism, in which the national and state
governments share responsibility for public policies. Using the
analogy of marble cake federalism
When Republicans won Congress in 1994 they placed an emphasis
on devolution, the transfer of responsibility for policies from the
federal government to state and local governments.
Fiscal federalism
involves the pattern of spending, taxing, and providing grants in the
federal system. Grants-in-aid are the main instrument the national
government uses to both aid and influence states and localities.
Categorical grants
can be used only for specific purposes (or categories) of state and
local spending. State and local agencies can obtain categorical
grants only by meeting certain qualifications and by applying for the
grants. The most common type of categorical grant is a project
grant, awarded on the basis of competitive applications. Formula
grants are distributed according to a formula based on factors such
as population, per capita income, and percentage of rural population.
Block grants
Congress implemented block grants to support broad programs in
areas such as community development and social services. Block
grants provide more flexibility since states and communities have
discretion in deciding how to spend the money.
4. Civil liberties
Political scientists have discovered that people are advocates of
rights in theory, but their support wavers when it comes time to put
those rights into practice.
Civil Liberties are individual legal and constitutional protections
against the government. They are essential to democracy because
they concern the basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed –
either explicitly identified in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, or
interpreted through the years by courts and lawmakers.
Civil Rights Refers to those things that the government must do to
provide equal protection and freedom from discrimination for all
citizens.
Bill of rights
The Bill of Rights is fundamental to Americans’ freedom.
The Bill of Rights was written to restrict the powers of the new
central government. The First Amendment establishes the four
great liberties: freedom of the press, of speech, of religion, and of
assembly. In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Supreme Court ruled
that the Bill of Rights restrained only the national government and not
states and cities.
14th amendment
1925 that the Court relied on the Fourteenth Amendment to find that
a state government must respect some First Amendment rights
(Gitlow v. New York). In Gitlow, the Court announced that freedoms
of speech and press “were fundamental personal rights and liberties
protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
from impairment by the states.”
The Supreme Court gradually applied most of the Bill of Rights to the
states, particularly during the era of Chief Justice Earl Warren in the
1960s, developing the concept of the incorporation doctrine.
(Selective Incorporation) At the present time, only the Second,
Third, and Seventh Amendments and the grand jury requirement of
the Fifth Amendment have not been applied specifically to the states.
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Establishment clause and the Free Exercise clause
Engel v. Vitale
Employment Division v. Smith
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Reynolds v. United States
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Symbolic Speech
Prior Restraint
Near v. Minnesota, 1931
Censorship
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Obscenity
“Obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press”
(Roth v. United States, 1957)
Miller v. California -- Then, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote that materials
were obscene if, taken as a whole, they appealed “to a prurient interest in sex”
Libel and slander
New York Times v. Sullivan, 1964
Symbolic speech
Texas v. Johnson, 1989
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
National Socialist Party v. Skokie
RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
District of Columbia v. Heller
DEFENDANTS’ RIGHTS
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments are primarily applied in
criminal justice cases.
Mapp v. Ohio
Miranda v. Arizona
Gideon v. Wainwright
Eighth Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishment, but it does not
define the phrase.
Furman v. Georgia
THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY
Constitution does not specifically mention a right to privacy
Griswold v. Connecticut
Roe v. Wade
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Civil Rights
Most Americans favor equality in the abstract, but the concrete
struggle for equal rights has been our nation’s most bitter battle.
Civil Rights are policies that extend basic rights to groups historically
subject to discrimination.
14th amendment history
The only place in which the idea of equality clearly appears in the
Constitution is in the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the
states from denying “equal protection of the laws” to any person.
Three levels of judicial scrutiny
reasonable (that bear a rational relationship to some legitimate
governmental purpose) are constitutional.
inherently suspect Racial and ethnic classifications are presumed to
be invalid and are upheld only if they serve a “compelling public
interest” that cannot be accomplished in some other way.
substantial Classifications based on gender fall somewhere between
reasonable and inherently suspect—gender classifications must bear
a relationship to an important legislative purpose.
Segregation de jure and de facto
Plessy v Ferguson
Brown v. Board of Education
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made racial discrimination illegal in
hotels, motels, restaurants, and other places of public
accommodation. The Act also forbade many forms of job
discrimination, and Congress cut off federal aid to schools that
remained segregated.
Suffrage
Fifteenth Amendment – White Primaries and poll taxes
Voting rights Act of 1965
24th Amendment – poll taxes
WOMEN, THE CONSTITUTION, AND PUBLIC POLICY
19th Amendment
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned sex discrimination in
employment; in 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) was given the power to sue employers
suspected of illegal discrimination; and Title IX of the Education Act of
1972 forbade sex discrimination in federally subsidized education
programs, including athletics.
Gay Rights
Affirmative Action policies requiring special efforts in employment,
promotion, or school admissions on behalf of disadvantaged groups
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
Adarand Constructors v. Pena, the Court held that federal
programs that classify people by race, even for an ostensibly benign
purpose such as expanding opportunities for minorities, should be
presumed to be unconstitutional.
Unit one multiple choice
Unit one FRQ