U.S. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS, SPRING 2011
OSY chapter 2; Woll 2 (Roche) and 3 (Beard)
Monday, February 14
Key terms/ideas from OSY chapter 2: Stamp Act Congress, Committees of
Correspondence, First Continental Congress,
Second Continental Congress; Declaration of Independence - purposes, major
themes, key political beliefs expressed; Articles of Confederation – structure
of government, problems; Shays Rebellion; Virginia and New Jersey plans, Great
Compromise – know how plans differed, what aspects were part of the Great
Compromise; Three-Fifths Compromise; Montesquieu; basic principles of
Constitution: federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances (chart on
p. 38 is a useful summary); main subject matter of Articles I, II, III, IV, VI
of Constitution; enumerated powers, implied powers, necessary and proper
clause; full faith and credit clause; supremacy clause; Federalists v.
Anti-Federalists – main arguments of each side regarding Constitution; Federalist Papers, who wrote them and
why; formal constitutional amendment process, why so few amendments have been
passed; informal methods of amending the Constitution; Bill of Rights
1. Pre-Constitution forms of government
- Why did the newly
independent 13 states choose to adopt the Articles of Confederation, and how
did the A of C represent something more than the Second Continental Congress?
- What problems were
created by the Articles of Confederation that led many influential political
figures to call for revisions?
Concerns over the Articles of Confederation are covered thoroughly in OSY chapter 2. Shays’ Rebellion added to concerns over how well states would be able to respond to security threats without cooperation for other states. This helped motivate delegates to Philadelphia in 1787 to do more than just amend the Articles of Confederation.
2. Convention
conflicts
OSY pp. 34-36 discusses the core issues; Roche (Woll 2) and Beard (Woll 3) consider the motives of the Framers in addition to the Constitutional Convention’s activities. Readings from the Federalists and Anti-Federalists for Friday will explore some of these issues at more length, and we will also come back to the core arguments of Roche and Beard during Friday’s class.
- What major
principles and powers did the Framers seek to include in the new Constitution,
and why? What were the core conflicts in
the Constitutional Convention about?
3. KEY PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION
The
Constitution reflects several key principles, based on a philosophy of
government explained best by the Federalist Papers. As we discuss these points, keep in mind one
major theme – in numerous ways, the Constitution reflects the belief that
people (as individuals but especially in organized groups) are not to be fully
trusted to exercise power in a just manner. All three of the core principles
(federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances) reflect this
theme. A fourth core principle (maybe):
the legislative branch is conceived as the most powerful branch of the national
government.
- How does federalism reflect this theme?
- What specific aspects of the election process (as
originally outlined in the Constitution) reflect a distrust of organized
political power?
More discussion of
separation of powers and checks and balances comes next Monday.
4. RATIFICATION
We will cover this topic (pp. 42-44) on Friday.
5. AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION
- How does the
process of amending the Constitution reflect the three key principles of the
document?
- Why did the Framers
make it so difficult to formally amend the Constitution?
Some key points about constitutional amendments to keep in mind:
- tradition makes amending harder today (after the first 10 are added right after ratification, the Constitution has not been amended very often)
- the process can be quite lengthy (involving several steps and supermajorities)
- most of the amendments that have been approved address very specific problems (the first 12 amendments all fall in this category, as do 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, and 25)
- the informal changes to the document are just as important as the formal amendments; examples include establishing the power of judicial review (we discuss this more in chapter 9) and the transfer of the warmaking power from Congress to the President (we discuss this more in chapter 7)