POSI - LIMITED AND REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
What would a society be like without a government or collective authority? (Called the "State of Nature' - Hobbes: "poor, nasty' Locke: "Perfect freedom" with "Many things wanting" Rousseau: "Peaceful" and "guided by pity to aid one another"
LOCKE'S WANTS America's founding generation best described as Lockean Locke identifies 3 wants satisfied by a "Political Society" o Established law, shared conception of right and wrong o A known and indifferent judge o Power to "back and support the sentence when right, and to give it due execution"
MONTESQUIEU Concept of dividing political power popularized by Montesquieu in 1700s and substantially influenced Americans Founding of America/constitution deviated from Monesquieu's ideas
PREVAILING WISDOM OF DIVIDING POWER Power must be divided between distinct parties to prevent one party from holding too much power Framers argued power ought to be shared Potential challenges: o Strict division: Some forms of political power may dominate the others o Blended: Gives influential power operatives the "in" to dominate multiple forms of political power and abuse it
LEGISLATURE -> CONGRESS EXECUTIVE -> PRESIDENT JUDICIAL -> COURTS
BILL OF RIGHTS Why have a Bill of Rights? o A demand of state ratifying conventions in 1787/1788 Why were there no bill of rights in the original constitution?
POPULAR GOVERNMENT Republics can only function in homogeneous, small territories Diverse interests result in internal conflict "Tyranny of the majority" resulted from factionalization Madison argued for the "extended public o With enough diversity, no one faction on it's own would be strong enough to completely control the gov
ELECTORAL CYCLES President o Every 4 years Senate o 6 years H.O.R o 2 years Federal judge o Lifetime/varied
TRENDS TOWARD MORE DEMOCRATIC POLITICS? Jefferson o Mostly symbolic o Popular influence on gov Jackson o Increased suffrage -- most property requirement est. o The electoral votes to popular votes Progressives o Women's suffrage, direct election of senators o Opened party candidate s