• Maintain order (Hobbes)
• Protect individual liberty/property rights (Locke)
• Provide public goods/services (Hume)

Government's legitimate use of force

• Conscription (draft)
• Imprisonment
• Execution

• All political actions have purpose
• Goal-oriented
• Leaders make instrumental choices

• Institutions provide structure for politics
• delegating

• Each side gives up something of value
• Make reneging expensive
• Create institutions to make sure agreements are honored

• More people=more interests
• Unstructured negotiation doesn't work
• Thus, need institutions

• How we got here matters
• Provides normative context

• Collective action needed in all politics
• Difficult because different interests/goals
• Can be overcome by bargaining and compromise

• Political outcomes are the products of policies
• Individual preferences
• Institutional procedures

• Separation of powers
• Government needs enough power for governance
• Control itself
• Checks and balances
• Federalism

Legislative Branch

• enumerated powers
• "necessary and proper" implied powers

Executive Branch

• President-max two terms
• Electoral College
• Duties/powers
• Qualifications-35 years or older, U.S. citizen, has lived in U.S. for 14 or more years

Judicial Branch

• Purposely vague
• Not elected
• Lifetime appointment
• Independent judgement
• Salary cannot be cut

Interstate Relations

• Judicial acts/criminal warrants honored in other states (full faith and credit clause)
• Add but not subtract states
• National government must protect from foreign invasion/domestic violence

Supremacy Act

• Supremacy Clause
• Constitution is supreme law of the land

Amendment Process

• methods for amending Constitution
• 2/3 majority of House and Senate
• 3/4 majority of states

Ratification Process

• Describes ratification process
• Convention in nine states necessary for Constitution to take place

• Congress can make all laws necessary and proper for executing
• An implied power to execute enumerated powers

• Congress explicitly granted
• National governement
• Specific authority to problems that states have not

ex) postal service

• Lawmaking (legislative)
• Law enforcing (executive)
• Law interpreting (judicial)

• Divide power between central government and regional units
• National government and state governments

• Federalism
• Republicanism
• Separation of Powers
• Checks and balances

• Unicameral legislature
• Equal representation
• Equal power among states

• Bicameral legislature
• lower-power apportioned by population elected by citizens
• upper-elected by lower house
• Power by proportion

• Bicameral legislature
• Lower-House of Representatives apportioned by population (large)
• Upper-Senate with equal representation; two senators from each state (small)