U.S. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS, SPRING 2011
Woll 6 (Federalist 16, 17), 7 (Anti-Federalist Papers #17), 8 (Federalist 44), 9 (Federalist 45), 10 (Federalist 39)
Friday, February 18
5. (left over from Monday 2-14 class) 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)
Woll 7, Anti-Federalist Papers #17:
What concerns do the
Anti-Federalists raise about the proposed Constitution? In a nutshell – what are they worried about?
And, our recurring,
primary question for today: how do
Hamilton (in this excerpt) and Madison (in 44, 45 and 39) respond to concerns
about the proposed federal government being too powerful and a threat to the
sovereignty and power of the individual states?
Woll 6, Federalist
16, 17: this reading (along with
the other 3 Federalist papers for
today) offers several answers to the objections raised by the
Anti-Federalists.
Woll 8, Federalist 44: the “necessary and proper” (Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution) is the focal point in this essay
Woll 9, Federalist 45: assessing the overall “danger” to states were the Constitution to be ratified
Woll 10, Federalist 39: how federalism will work in practice, importance of Constitution being neither wholly national nor wholly federal
#39 questions: Which features of the Constitution were meant
to curb the national government’s domination of the states? How do Madison’s arguments here aim to
alleviate the concerns of the states about excessive power at the national
level?
One final question:
are the arguments of Madison and Hamilton convincing? Why or why not?