Who Governs?

To What Ends?
Who has power?
How much?
How should it be used?
 Those Who Govern will affect us
because they have POWER
 Power: The ability to cause another person
to act in accordance with your intentions
 Gaining government office is a good
example of using Political Power
 By gaining office, a person gains some
Authority, or right to use that power
 That right comes from Legitimacy – a
result of a law or constitution
 DEMOCRATIC THEORY
 Democratic theory has very strong roots in
British history, although it may be traced
back to much earlier civilizations, such as
Ancient Greece.
 Democracy is a form of government that
places ultimate political authority in the
hands of the people. Democratic theory
has two basic models:
 Direct Democracy
 In this form of democracy, citizens debate and vote directly on all
laws.
 In Ancient Athens, the legislature was composed of all of the
citizens, although women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded
because they were not citizens.
 Direct democracy requires a high level of participation, and is based
on a high degree of confidence in the judgment of ordinary people.
 Many of the Founders of the United States were skeptical about the
ability of the masses to govern themselves, being too prone to the
influence of demagogues (charismatic leaders who manipulate
popular beliefs) and too likely to overlook the rights of those with
minority opinion.
 The latter leads to majoritarianism, or the tendency for government
to do what the majority of people want.
 Representative Democracy
 The Founders chose to establish a republic, or an indirect
democracy in which people elect representatives to
govern them and to make laws and set policies.
 This form is also referred to as an indirect democracy.
In the United States, the people came to hold the ultimate
power through the election process, but all policy
decisions were to be made by elected officials or those
that they appoint.
 A representative democracy, then, is a compromise
between a direct democracy and an authoritarian rule, and
has become the most accepted form of democracy in the
world today.
 ELITE THEORY
 How can a republic claim to be a democracy if only a few people
actually make political decisions, even if they are elected by the
people?
 Elite theory holds that a “representative democracy” is not really
based on the will of the people, but that there is a relatively small,
cohesive elite class that makes almost all the important decisions for
the nation.
 Another version of elite theory argues that voters choose from
among competing elites.
 New members of the elite are recruited through a merit-based
education system, so that the best and brightest young people join the
ranks of the elite.
 Elite theorists argue that the founders believed that a privileged
majority should rule in the name of the people with a controlled
amount of input from citizens.
 PLURALIST THEORY
 Another theoretical perspective is pluralism, the argument that
representative democracies are based on group interests that protect
the individual’s interests by representing him or her to the
government.
 The theory is grounded in the notion that in a diverse society such as
the United States, too many interests exist to allow any one coherent
group of elites to rule.
 Government decisions are made in an arena of competing interests,
all vying for influence and struggling to speak for the people that
they represent.
 Some pluralists have argued that the founding fathers represented
different interests (such as rural vs. urban, or north vs. south), and
that many points of view were actually represented.
 The model still works today, as pluralists argue, creating strong links
between government officials and their popular base.
Hobbes, Locke,
& Rousseau
Development of Social
Contract Theory
 THEORETICAL
PERSPECTIVES
 John Locke and other Enlightenment
thinkers, such as Voltaire, Montesquieu,
and Jean Jacques Rousseau, created
theories of democracy, republican
government, pluralism, and elitism that
guided the Founders as they shaped the
new government of the United States in the
late 18th century.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

 Overall Objectives:
– To put moral and
political philosophy
on a scientific basis
– Contribute to the
stability, peace, and
welfare of mankind
 Hobbes’s Perspective
 Felt that earlier thinkers (excluding
Machiavelli and certain others) had failed
because they attempted to base their
theories of society on mankind’s highest
aspirations.
 Believed he had uncovered the basis of
human behavior and human nature 
people have competing interests (“State of
Nature”)
 Hobbes Recommendations
 To prevent chaos, society, though political and
economic organization use force and coercion
(carrot and stick = power) to hold society
together.
 Agreement to this by the members of society
forms the social contract.
 Social Contract
 The social contract is not between the citizens
and the ruling power.
 It is a contract citizens make with each other to
accept the rule of central authority.
 The minority accepts the majority decision.
 A society so united forms a single body, a
commonwealth, a leviathan.
 John Locke (1632-1704)

Locke’s message:
– All government is
limited in its powers and
exists only by the
consent of the governed.
– All people are born free.
Locke’s Two Treatises on Gov’t
 Begin with the questions:
– “What is political power?
– What is the appropriate end and objective of
civil government?
 Answers:
– Political power is the right to make laws,
enforcing them at penalty of death.
– Establishment of penalties related to
regulating and preserving property and
defending the commonwealth from foreign
attack, all for the public good.
 The “State of Nature”
 The state of nature is a state of perfect freedom
and equality.
 The world was never without political or social
structure. Political and social structure arise
naturally with humankind.
 People “… living together according to reason,
without a common superior on earth with
authority to judge between them, is properly the
state of nature.”
 Locke on Political Power
 Must be limited.
 Majority rule.
 Separation of Powers.
 There is no freedom where there is no law.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
 Concerned with the
relationship of the state and
the individual.
 Believes that society is based
upon some implicit contract.
 The contract implies that the
ruler is the people’s agent,
not their master.
 Rousseau’s View of Human Nature
 Civilization brought inequality and other evils to
the “State of Nature”.
 The key social bond has been the development of
private property.
– “The first man who, having enclosed a piece of
ground bethought himself of saying ‘this is mine’, and
found people simple enough to believe him, was the
real founder of civil society.”
 Thus, Private property is the source of all evil
and leads to the necessity of the establishment of
society, government, and law.
 “The Social Contract”
 People empower the state by their
contract with the ruler giving the state
complete control over themselves and
their possessions.
 If the ruler or laws act other than in the
interests of the whole of society, then the
contract becomes void.
To Sum Up All this
Philosophy…
 Hobbes’s Social Contract
 You would give up

Liberty

 To gain

Security
 Locke’s Social Contract
 You would give up
Your right to live in the “state
of nature”

 You gain
Protection of certain key rights
(life, liberty, property)
 TWO VERSIONS OF
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
 THOMAS HOBBES  JOHN LOCKE
– “Every man is against every – “Life, liberty, and the
man… and the life of man is enjoyment of personal
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, property”
and short.” – Meaning, GOVERNMENT
– SO, give Power to a KING EXISTS TO GUARANTEE
to… PEOPLE’S NATURAL
• Enforce Laws RIGHTS.
• Punish Criminals – Power to the People
• Defend people from • Make Laws
invasion • Agree to follow Laws
• Punish Law breakers in an
**SOME RIGHTS HAVE TO agreed upon way.
GO IN ORDER TO HAVE **NO RESTRICTIONS ON
LAW AND ORDER. CITIZENS WITHOUT
THEIR CONSENT.
 Republican Government
 The Framers of the United States
Constitution (“founding fathers”) believed
in natural rights and to protect them they
favored the idea of giving Power to the
governed in order to minimize the abuse of
Power by a king, tyrannical majority, or by
officeholders.

 Representative Democracy
To What Ends?

What is the Function

of Government?
 FUNCTIONS
OF GOVERNMENT
 Protect People from each other and
outsiders
 Protection of individual rights and liberties
 Provide public goods and services
– Parks, monuments, environmental regulations,
anti-monopoly policies, commerce, welfare,
medical, agricultural law
 How much national defense? How much
protection for rights? How many services?
– These questions are about political ideology
 POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
a.k.a.
Beliefs about Governance.
 Liberalism (modern)  Conservatism
– Support… – Opposed to…
• Government • Government intervention
intervention in in the economy
economy • Government sponsored
• Government social programs
sponsored social
programs – Support…
– Opposed to… • Government intervention
• Government to uphold MORALITY
interference with • A Strong Military and
personal morals or force as a means to an end
activities • A balanced budget
• To expansion of • Limited taxation
military
 Libertarianism
– Accept Locke’s emphasis on basic natural rights, accept Adam
Smith’s free market ideas.
– Support a VERY limited government (defense, provide liberty,
free trade)

 Socialism
– Democratic Socialism (Germany, Britain, France, Scandinavia)
• Support democracy
• Support government regulation and ownership of major industries
• Support regulation of production and distribution
• Support government planning to protect citizens’ welfare
– Totalitarian Socialism – Communism (in practice, not theory)
(China, North Korea, former USSR)
• Support for revolution against the existing system with a dictatorship
of the proletariat
• Support for government regulation and ownership of industry
• Support for government planning to protect citizens’ welfare and
interests
 Classification of Political Systems
a.k.a.
TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS
 Anarchy
– Absence of government! (Lebanon 1990s, Somalia 1990s –
today)
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Theocracy
– Control of governance by a religion, church and/or clergy.
Church law above civil law (former Tibet, Puritans in
colonial New England)
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Pure (direct) Democracy
– Direct citizen participation in daily governance (ancient
Athens, colonial New England town meetings)
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Representative Democracy – REPUBLICANISM
– Election of government officials to manage the state (USA, many
others)
• Majoritarian – “will of the majority”
• Pluralist – “competition of groups for superiority”
• Elite – “domination by rich and powerful serving their own needs”
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Absolute Monarchy
– Government by a monarch with absolute power descending from
God (absolutism in Europe, Macchiavelli) (Louis XIV)
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Constitutional Monarchy
– Government by a monarch with a constitution, limited monarchy
(Great Britain and Denmark today)
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Dictatorship
– Single leader rule by force, no consent of the governed at all
(USSR under Stalin, IRAQ under Saddam Hussein)
– Liberal or Conservative?
 Which gets us back to the
“Founding Fathers” (Framers)…
 Between 1607 and 1733, the English founded 13
colonies on the eastern seaboard of the current
USA
 Each colony had its own version of democracy,
in a crude form (slavery/indentured servitude and
no representation for women)
 However, the colonies established a strong
democratic pattern with the following features:
– WRITTEN CONSTITUTIONS
– LEGISLATURES OF ELECTED OFFICIALS
– SEPARATION OF POWERS BETWEEN THE
EXECUTIVE (GOVERNOR) AND THE
LEGISLATURE
 In 1776, the colonies declare independence
from England and become an independent
nation
 They establish a limited confederation of
states
– ARTICLES of CONFEDERATION
• each colony (now state) was independent and with
few limitations
• System did not work:
– Congress can’t tax or regulate commerce
– Absence of a national Judicial system and NO Executive
– One vote per state regardless of population
• BANKRUPTCY
• TRADE WARS
 Founding Fathers
Come Together
to Form the
“More Perfect Union”

The Building of the A

merican Constitution
 It’s a POWER problem…
 The new nation was struggling with Who
Governs and To What Ends
 Should a strong national government be
formed to ensure the good of the entire
group of states? How could it be kept
from being tyrannical? How would a
strong central government enforce
individual rights and allow state and
regional differences?
 Solution? FEDERALISM
 Compromise (“The Great”) allowed all states to
share sovereignty with national government
 National government took supremacy over many
matters including commerce, defense, civil
liberties, etc.
 State governments took supremacy over issues of
great local importance including education, etc.
 Federalism in America is a combination of
confederal (unitary) and federal theories:
 The Constitutional Convention
May 1787, Philadelphia
 Fifty-five (55) white, Protestant, wealthy
males of varying education
 Future presidents, state governors, Chief
Justices, and Revolutionary War veterans
 Shared a belief in the English system
– Magna Carta (1215)
– English Bill of Rights (1689)
 Enlightenment Thinking
 Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau
– Principles: Social Contract, Power is Derived from the
Consent of the Governed, Separation of Powers,
Checks and Balances, Right to Vote

 Declaration of Independence
– Equality
– Inalienable rights
• Life
• Liberty
• Pursuit of Happiness
 Evidence of Framer’s
Fear of Power to The People
 Senators selected by state legislatures

 President selected by Electoral College

 Amending Process to the Constitution

– Proposal by two-thirds of Congress or state
conventions
– Ratification by three-fourths of state
legislatures or state conventions
Basic Principles of the
Constitution

1. Representative Government
2. Federalism
3. Separation of Powers
4. Checks and Balances
 Representative Government

 Selection of representatives in “free” and

scheduled elections

 Governance by the “consent of the

governed”
 Federalism – The American Version
 Division of power between national, state, and
municipal governments
 Compromise between dictatorial national
government and independence of the states
 Historically, the national government continues
to gain power:
– Expressed Powers: “enumerated” in the Constitution
– Implied Powers: “suggested” in the Constitution
– Inherent Powers: certain powers which all
independent nations have; i.e. foreign policy matters
Why is the National Government getting
stronger?
 Many problems are of a national nature
 States need the national government for $$
 Unequal distribution of wealth among and within states
 Inability or unwillingness of states to deal with certain
problems
 “Statements of power” to the national government from
the Constitution:
– General Welfare clause
– Commerce Power
– Defense of the Nation
– Necessary and Proper clause – elastic clause
 Courts have slowly and methodically taken away states
constitutional rights
Duties of the National Government
 Guarantee territorial integrity of the states
 Guarantee a republican form of government
 Protect each state from invasion
 Protect against domestic violence within states
– 1894 Pullman Strike
– 1957 Little Rock Crisis
– 1962 University of Mississippi
– 1963 University of Alabama
– 1992 L.A. Riots
 Assist with natural disasters
– 2006 Katrina
 Congress chooses to admit new states
 Powers Denied to the States
 No coining or printing of money
 No tariffs
 No troops in peacetime
 No signing of treaties with other nations without
Congressional consent
 No slavery (13th Am.)
 No depriving of life, liberty, property without due process
(14th Am.)
 No denial of vote on basis of race (15th Am.)
 No denial of vote on basis of gender (19th Am.)
 No power to destroy the federal system (Civil War?)
– No “NULLIFICATION”
 Powers and Responsibilities
of the States
 NO ENUMERATED POWERS IN THE
CONSTITUTION (10th Am – “powers not given
to national government are reserved to the
states”)
 Education
 Marriage
 Voting
 Property Laws
 Public Safety Laws
 Welfare
 Establishment of local governments
 State taxes
 Concurrent Powers
Powers shared by National and State Governments
 Powers not denied to the states or given to the national
government
 Collecting Taxes
 Making and enforcing laws
 Borrowing and spending $$
 Regulating Commerce
 *Education
 *Welfare
 *Highway Construction
 *Urban Renewal
 Separation of Powers
 Insures against any one branch from
gaining too much power

 Different constituencies for different

branches of government

 Different terms of office for different

branches of government
 Checks and Balances
 Executive (Presidency)
– Checks on Congress
• Propose legislation
• Veto legislation
– Checks on Judiciary
• Appoints federal judges
• Enforces court decisions (or not!)
 Legislative (Congress)
– Checks on Executive
• Override veto
• Impeachment
• Ratify treaties / justices / budget
– Checks on Judiciary
• Impeachment / Confirmation
• Amendments
 Judiciary (Federal Courts)
– Check on Executive
• Review of Presidential Actions / Behavior
– Check on Legislature
• Judicial Review
 This Uniquely American System is
embodied by the Constitution of 1789 –
at the time a very controversial document
 Supporters were called  Opponents were known
Federalists as Anti-Federalists
– James Madison – Patrick Henry
– Alexander Hamilton – John Hancock
– John Jay – Samuel Adams
 Emphasized importance  Opposed surrendering
of a strong central state powers to the central
government (unitary) to government
improve on the problems  Concerned about the
of “the Articles” return of a strong
 Published “Federalist Executive (King George
Papers” in New York paranoia)
 Argued for a Bill of
Rights to counteract the
strong national gov’t.
 THE LIVING
CONSTITUTION

A document to create
“Government for the Ages”

A Video Biography by
Yale Professor of Government
Akhil Reed Amar
 The Constitution Lives!
The Framers brilliantly created a document that has
evolved over time, allowing it to adapt to societal
changes.

1. Elastic Clause
2. Amendments
3. Informal Methods
 The Elastic Clause
Article I, Sec. 8, Line 18
 “To make all laws which shall be
necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the foregoing powers,
and all other powers vested by this
Constitution in the government of the
United States, or in any department
thereof.”
 Constitution evolves as National
Government sees more opportunities to
make “necessary and proper” laws.
 Amendment Process
 Only FORMAL way to “change” the
constitution.

 Requires a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the

entire Congress

 Three-quarters (3/4) of state-wide

legislatures must ratify
Informal Ways to Amend/”Change”
The Constitution
 Actions of Congress
– Passage of laws, i.e. creation of Federal court
system, agencies, commissions
 Actions of the Executive
– Foreign policy, commander in chief power
 Actions of the Courts
– JUDICIAL REVIEW
 Actions of Political Parties
– Party Arrangement and Division in Cogress
 Unwritten Traditions
– Precedent of two-term presidency
– Creation of “The Cabinet”
– Congressional Committee System
 Structure – in Brief!
 Article I – Legislative
– Bicameral House
– Power to make laws, taxes, etc.
– ELASTIC CLAUSE (sec. 8, line 18)

 Article II – Executive
– Law Enforcer, Commander-in-Chief, etc.

 Article III – Judiciary

– Supreme Court and Lower Federal Courts

 Article IV – Miscellaneous Guarantees

– Guarantee of republican form of government

 Article V – Amendments

 Article VI - Recognition of “Supreme Law”

 Article VII - Ratification