AGENDA September 13 2012

1. AGENDASeptember 13 2012 • Service Learning Option • Check-In: Quiz • NYT News round-up • How to access the DAHL book using Sawyer Library • How to Study for this course (and others!) • Watch portion of President Clinton’s speech • Hardin, Tragedy of the Commons, Prisoner’s Dilemma • Discuss Reading: • LAP, Ch. 2, 40-88 • Declaration of Independence (Appendix 2, LAP) • The Constitution (Appendix 3, LAP)

2. 9/18/2012 • Reading Due: • Federalist #10 and #51 (Appendix 4 and 5, LAP. OR, they are also in PPA) • PPA: John Roche, The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action, 34-59 • Writing Assignments: • Outline the arguments in Federalist 10 and 51. Upload to http://www.dropitto.me/rcobb (password is election)

3. 9/20/2012 • Reading Due: • Dahl: How Democratic is the American Constitution, 1-20 • Writing Assignments: • Blackboard Reading Quiz 2 • Consider arguments for and against whether the Senate is an outdated institution. We will have an in-class debate.

4. President Bill Clinton’s Speech • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5knEXDsrL4 • Start at 7:05

5. The Constitution • What was the institutional design under the Articles of Confederation? • How did the design change under the new Constitution? • What is apportionment?

6. Dismantling Home Rule • At the end of the Seven Years’ War Britain was broke • Colonists required to share the burden (taxes) • Britain asserted power to impose taxes • Also began to violate home rule in colonies • Stamp Act • Imposed tax on all printed materials • First non-self-imposed tax for the colonies • Inspired the colonists to organize and demonstrate collectively

7. America’s First Constitution: The Articles of Confederation • America now an independent nation • Second Continental Congress proceeded to create a new government • Drafted the nation’s first Constitution – the Articles of Confederation • Confederation • highly decentralized • national government limited authority from the states

8. The Articles of Confederation • Created a new, permanent Congress • each state received one vote • Major laws required the endorsement of 9 of 13 states • Amending the Articles required unanimous agreement • Delegates sought to replicate the home rule they had lost • Suspicious of national authority

9. The Confederation’s Troubled Peace • A war-torn economy • Trade barriers at home and abroad • Popular discontent • Shays’s Rebellion

10. Drafting a New Constitution • The 55 delegates met in Philadelphia in 1787 • Shared experience of war and its aftermath • Philosophical influences • Popular sovereignty—Locke • Sir Isaac Newton • Charles, Baron de Montesquieu • David Hume • James Madison’s “Vices of the Political System of the U. States” • Getting down to business • Patrick Henry “smelt a rat” and resigned • By near unanimous agreement, Washington to preside • Madison in the front row taking notes

11. The Virginia Plan • Madison and nationalists’ blueprint • Bicameral legislature • Members of the lower chamber apportioned among the states by population and directly elected. • Lower chamber would elect members of the upper chamber from lists generated by the state legislatures. • Veto power over states • Use of military power if states did not fulfill obligations • Council of Revision • Opposition formed • States’ rights states and small states feared loss of influence.

12. The New Jersey Plan • Opposition coalesced around an alternative • Proposed by N.J. delegate William Paterson • Hastily drafted response • Failed to propose the organization of the executive and judiciary • Kept same composition and selection of Congress as it functioned under the Articles, BUT…

13. The New Jersey Plan • Gave Congress the power to tax • Also allowed a simple majority to enact national policy rather than a supermajority • Stalemate over the plans • Debate raged for weeks • Delegates agreed to send the question of Congress to a committee • Madison not named to the committee

14. The Great Compromise • Each side got one of the two legislative chambers fashioned to its liking: • the upper chamber (Senate) would be composed of two delegates sent from each state legislature who would serve a six-year term • Madison’s population-based, elective legislature became the House of Representatives

15. The Great Compromise • Now the unanimous agreement rule of the states that had hobbled the confederation Congress was gone, replaced by a rule allowing a majority of the membership to pass legislation. • Article 1, Section 8 extended the authority of the national legislature. • commerce clause • necessary and proper clause

16. The Great Compromise • Given the compromise, Madison became interested in a genuine separation of powers between the branches with each side exercising checks and balances over the others. • This notion played a significant role in Madison’s formulation of the executive and judiciary as independent institutions.

17. The Great Compromise • What was his logic? • If the state legislatures could corrupt the entire national government through their hold on the Senate, they also could corrupt the entire national government through Congress’s power to select the offices of the other branches. • They must be insulated in order to contain the Senate’s effort to subvert national policy.