1787 Constitutional Convention: Creating a New Government, Scrapping Articles, Summaries of Political Science

Download 1787 Constitutional Convention: Creating a New Government, Scrapping Articles and more Summaries Political Science in PDF only on Docsity! Terms and Topics to Know Elitism & Pluralism ● Elitism: A set of elite citizens is really in charge of the government in the United States and others have no influence. A small group of elites controls power while other citizens have little or no influence. ● Pluralism: Competing interest groups influence the government and hold political power (share influence in government). Citizens who want to get involved in the political system do so because of the great number of access points to the government. Economic Systems & Governmental systems Capitalism and socialism⇒ ECONOMIC SYSTEMS ○ Capitalism: trade and industry controlled by private groups and entities. ○ Socialism: calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources Types of goods: 1. Excludable: not everyone has access. Some will be excluded, often only those who pay may use it. 2. Non-excludable: all people have access to these goods. Anyone may use good or service, usually without charge. 3. Rivalrous: only one person can use good or service at given time 4. Non-rivalrous: many people can use same good,service at the same time ● Private (R,E) ○ Food, clothing ● Public (NR,NE): ○ No one can prevented from consuming them ○ Air, national defense ● Common (R, NE): ○ Anyone can use them. However, if one person consumes, their availability to other individuals is reduced. ○ Timber, coal, fish stocks ● Toll (NR,E): ○ Available to many people, and many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price. ○ Schooling Types of government 1. Democracy: political power is in hands of people a. Representative democracy: the people elect a representative. The citizens do not govern directly. Instead, they elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people. b. Direct democracy: everybody gets their say. People participate directly in making government decisions. 2. Monarchy: one ruler, often hereditary a. Often monarchs have arrangement with different type of government 3. Oligarchy: characterized by the rule of a few persons or families The branches of government 1. Executive branch: President is leader of executive branch a. The president’s cabinet: Secretaries make up the president’s cabinet. Department of: i. Education ii. Transportation iii. Agriculture iv. Treasury v. Defense vi. Health and human services vii. Energy viii. And many more… 2. Judicial branch: made up of the court system a. Supreme court: highest court in land and established by the constitution i. 9 supreme court justices, one of the nine being the chief justice b. Federal courts: established by congress c. Allowed creation of lower federal courts through congressional action 3. Legislative branch: the US Congress a. is made up of 2 parts: i. House of Representatives 1. Representation depends on how big your state is 2. Each representative can run for two years a. Considered for reelection every even year. 3. Chosen by citizen vote ii. Senate 1. Each of the 50 states sends 2 people to the senate (each state has equal representation in the senate 2. Chosen by state legislator b. Congress meets in Washington D.C. Its primary duty is to write, debate, and pass bills, which are then passed onto the president for approval to become laws ○ CAME TO THE THREE-FIFTHS COMPROMISE: 5 enslaved persons = 3 votes 3. Seperation of Powers and Checks and Balances ○ Implementing both of these things resolved the problem of increasing the authority of the national government while ensuring that it did not become too powerful Seperation of Powers: dividing national government into three branches (legislative branch, executive branch, judicial branch) 4. Federal Power vs. State Power a. Established a federal system of government in which power is divided between national and state government. The U.S. Constitution and Ratification → Created in September 1787 → Drafted the constitution during period of ineffective national government under the articles of confederation. → Although delegates to the constitutional convention approved the final draft in Sept 1787, the terms of the constitution itself prevented it from entering into force until 9 out of 13 states had ratified it. → June 1788 New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify constitution.⇒consitutution could enter into force. → REALITY: required populous and powerful states Virginia and New York to ratify constitution - Virginia ratified in June 1788, New York ratified in July 1788 →CONSTITUTION CAME INTO EFFECT MARCH 4TH 1789 ● Enumerated Powers & Reserved Powers ○ Enumerated powers: the national (federal) government may only act within specific areas in which the constitution explicitly grants the national government power. ○ Reserved powers: powers that are not explicitly granted to national government and are reserved for states ● Supremacy Clause ○ When both federal and state governments have the power to act, the supremacy clause (Article VI, Clause 2) states that the US Consitution, federal laws, and treaties made by the US are the “supreme law of the land. ○ Federal law superceded any state law or action ● Federalists vs. Anti-federalists ○ Federalists: those who favored ratification ■ Prominent federalists Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison published essays which became known as The Federalist Papers. (pseudonymously). ○ Anti-federalists: those who opposed ratification ● Process for ratifying the U.S. Constitution ● How were representatives picked according to the original Constitution? ● Bill of Rights ○ First ten amendments ○ 10 out of 12 amendments initially put in the constitution had been ratified thus BOR Amendments (focus on the amendments listed in class) ● How do you make an amendment to the Constitution? ○ Article V of constitution provides for the proposal of amendments: ■ Congress may propose an amendment, which must be approved by⅔ in both House and Senate. Or.. ■ States can call for a ‘national convention’, which must be approved by⅔ of state legislatures; the national convention can then propose and amendment. Federalism → Form of government where different levels of government act relatively autonomously (independently) and have the power to act directly on people within their jurisdictions. → In US, federalism refers to the national (federal) government and the various state (territorial) governments. Cooperative Federalism: ● During Great Depression US went into cooperative ● National and state governments coordinates their efforts to address problems ● During this period, federal govt expanded its power in several area.. i.e: economic regulation, civil rights protection.. Etc. Competitive Federalism: ● When federal policy does not always align with state and local policies. ● Federal policy has conflicted with state and local policies on issues like immigration, same-sec marriage, and legalisation of marijuana. Dual Federalism ● National government and state government act within distinct areas of jurisdiction (distinct division of power). ● For example, the national government has exclusive control over foreign policy, and states have exclusive control over other areas ● US entered dual federalism in 1877 after reconstruction New Federalism ● the transfer of certain powers from the United States federal government back to the states. ● In early 1970s, President Richard Nixon established new federalism ● In early 1780s, President Ronald Reagan continues Nixon’s implementation Concurrent Powers → Powers enjoyed by both state and federal government. Some are: power to… ● Collect taxes ● Borrow ● Budget and spend ● Create courts ● Create and enforce laws The elastic clause Term lengths of legislators - Members of the House serve for 2 years - Members of the Senate serve for six years John Lewis - Talks about getting into ‘good trouble’ - Was in the house of representatives from 1987 onwards - Principle organizers of the march on washing in 1963 Nixon’s War on Drugs - President Nixon Declares Drug Abuse "Public Enemy Number One" - President Richard Nixon started increasing size of drug controlling agencies and inflicting harsh penalties such as mandatory sentencing and arrests without warrants. - Very bad policy→affected the colored population a lot more. - Rate of incarcerated increased by 600% in 17 years - War continued by next president ronald reagan “Social Issues that Matter to Generation Z” (homework reading) 1. Health care 2. Mental health 3. Higher education 4. Economic security 5. Civic engagement 6. Racial equity 7. Environment AMENDMENTS TO KNOW ABOUT 1,2,8,13,15,19,24 1st Amendment: Rights to religion, speech, press, assembly, petition