rulers and rules

 Kings and Queens, Emperors etc. 

Power comes from Divine Right

FACTIONS

• CROSS CUTTING
• REINFORCING

the process

through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common or collective action – even as they continue to disagree on the goals that action is intended to achieve.

A constitution of a nation creates its governing institutions and the set of rules prescribing the political process these institutions must follow to reach and enforce collective agreements.

Collective Action Problems

Coordination

Prisoners Delema

Free Rider

Principal Adent

1) Coordination (What does the group want and how will they get it?)

2) The Prisoner’s Dilemma (When individuals act according to their best interests, taking into account what others might do, the outcome isn’t always the best for the group).

3) Free Riding (Why should I participate if it won’t make a difference?)

4) Principal Agent Problem (Hard to monitor)

 The act increased duties on non- British goods shipped to the colonies.

Currency Act

Parliament's first direct tax on the

American colonies

•Colonial assemblies passed resolutions demanding repeal of the tax, sent delegates to a national conference (The

Stamp Act Congress) to draft a unified response.

• Solving coordination problem

Sons of Liberty was created, aimed at intimidating  the

stamp agents who collected Parliament's taxes.

• Agreed to not import British goods

Townshend Acts 

 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.

Boston Massacre

•5 Americans Killed

•Troops withdrew from Boston

•British soldiers defended in court by future president John AdAMS

The First Continental Congress

• 1774 - This colonial Congress adopted a Declaration of American Rights, which asserted home rule, ,

and endorsement of an agreement to ban all trade with Britain until it rescinded the taxes and regulations that colonists found unbearable.

• Trade ban was a collective action problem

Common Sense 

moved independence from Britain to center stage; it had not been considered seriously early on.

confederation

confederation – a highly decentralized governmental system in which the national government derives limited authority from the states rather than directly from the citizenry.

Articles of Confederation

• who drafted?
• how many votes did each state recieve?
• Major laws required the endorsement of how many states?
• Was there an executive or Judiciary Branch?

Drafted by 2nd continental congress

Created a new, permanent Congress in which each state received one vote.

• Major laws required the endorsement of 9 of 13 states.

• More fundamental change, such as amending the Constitution and direct taxation, required unanimous agreement.

• National authority was so circumscribed that the delegates saw little purpose for an executive or a judiciary.

Shay’s rebellion

The Virginia Plan

1. introduced by who?
2. what kind of legislater?
3. WHo would elect lower chamber?
4. Who would elect upper chamber?

Introduced by Edmund Randolph from Virginia,

• Its centerpiece was a bicameral legislature.

• Members of the lower chamber apportioned among the states by population & directly elected.

• Lower chamber would elect members of the upper chamber, executive and courts

• Can veto state laws

The New Jersey Plan

1. who proposed?
2. Executive and Judiciary?

Proposed by New Jersey delegate William Paterson in response to the Virginia Plan.

•Single-house chamber with equal representation for each state

•Legislature can levy taxes and veto state legislation

•it failed to propose the organization of the executive and judiciary.

1. Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independen

2. with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates

   
   

   3. firm league of friendship

The Great Compromise

1. Upper chamber (senate) is composed of two delegates sent from each state legislature who would serve a six-year

   term

   2. Madison’s population-based, elective legislature became the House of Representatives.

HOUSE 

1.  ELECTED EVERY 2 YEARS BY THE PEOPLE

2. Representation based on population

 Senate

• Elected every six years by state legislature

• VP is president of the Senate (breaksties)

• Try impeachments

Enumerated powers

Congress can Collect taxes

borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, post

offices, declare war, rule over Washington D.C.

States cannot…

1. Enter into treaties with other states 
2. Coin money 
3.  Impose tariffs

Madison and Hamilton largely succeeded in fashioning an independent executive by:

• Giving the president the ability to veto

llegislation.

• Requiring a supermajority (2/3rds) of each house to override a presidential veto.

• Framers also checked the executive’s power in numerous ways.

Checks on the Presidency

• Only Congress can declare war

• Senate approval of ambassador appointments and treaties

• Senate must confirm all appointments in the executive departments

1.  Who would appoint Supreme Court justices?
2.  And should a network of lower federal courts be created or should state courts handle all cases until they reach the federal court?

Treason

 Need two witnesses

Logrolling 

federal system

 authority is divided

between two or more distinct levels of

government

Three Qualifications of Federal Systems

1. Geography: The same people and territory are included in both levels of government

2. Independence: The nation’s constitution protects units at each level of government from encroachment by the other units. Independence was missing under the Articles of Confederation

3. Mutual Influence: Each unit is in a position to exert some leverage over the other.

Dual federalism 

This type of federalism leaves the states and the national government presiding over mutually exclusive “spheres of sovereignty.”

Shared federalism 

 It recognizes that the national and state governments jointly supply services to the citizenry

How does policy become nationalized? 

Generally, two scenarios:

1. Realities of collective action (problem solving).

Truck driver licenses, power companies? 

2.                          Purely political considerations (i.e.,

opportunities for political advantage). 

Voting Rights Act