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US Gov Notes <3
US Gov Notes <3
State of Nature
What is government?
Where do Governments come from?
What are we Consenting to?
Why does this matter?
How do we argue that people are consenting?
The Declaration of Independence
The Founding:
Revolutionary War
Governing the Country
Shays Rebellion
The Connecticut compromise
Slavery
The Constitution:
Preamble
Article One
Article Two
Article Three
Article Four
Article Five
Article Six
Ammendments
Civil War Amendments
The Progressive Era
Great Depression
Reaction to Current Events
Federalism
What is Federalism
How to Distribute Power
National Government
States
Shared
Why a federal system?
Advantages of Federalism
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Disadvantages of Federalism
State Governments
Arkansas Government
Local Government
Political Culture
What makes American democracy work?
Parts of the political culture
Immigration
Citizenship
Public Opinion
Ideology
Opinions on Specific Issues
Where our opinions come from
Impact of Public opinion
Finding Out Public Opinion
Importance of Public Opinion
Interest Groups
Collective Action Problem
Membership and Leadership
Roles
Activities
Recruit Supportes
Persuade Government
Force Government
Shape Government
Influencing Interest Groups
Political Parties
Role of Parties
PIG
PO
Shared
Power of Political Parties
Spoils System
Third Parties
The Media
Participation
Turnout
- Why voting has declined in the United States
- Who is more likely to vote
- Impact of low voter turnout
- Other ways people participate
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Elections
Nominating Process
Strategies in the Primaries
Conventions
General Elections
Tone of elections
Debates
Predicting the Winner
Campaign Finance
Impact of Campaign Finance Laws
How Voters Decide
Congress
Re Apportionment and redistricting
Structure and Membership
Powers of Congress
Organization
● Leadership
● Caucases
● Commities
● Staff
How a bill becomes a law
Representation
The Presidency
Powers of the President
Staff of President
Beuracracy
Reforming the Beuracracy
Appplying Private Business Ideas
The Courts
Jurisdiction
Standing
Precedence
Opinion
Structure of Court System
Supreme Court Justices
Judicial Review
Civil Liberties
Political Liberties
Personal Liberties
Civil Liberties for people that are suspected or accused of commiting a crime
Civil Rights
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MLK Jr’s letter from Burmingham Jail
A Decent in the bollinger case by clarence thomas
Exam 1:
Exam 2:
Exam 3
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State of Nature
What is government?
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a government is an institution that is responsible for organizing and regulating a fixed
geographic area that has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force
Governments organize and regulate, they have the power to make rules about what
people do
In a fixed geographic area, they have boundaries
Monopoly on the legitimate use of force, only government can use force and authorize
people to use force. Citizens cant use force under this definition
The government is expected to: provide security (protect from one another), defence
(protect people from other countries), gives predictability, accomplish large tasks people
cannot do on their own even as some people together
Where do Governments come from?
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The government came about from brute force
Divine right of kings, im in charge because god picked me
Consent of the governed, you can be in charge because the people you are governing
say you can govern them
What are we Consenting to?
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The state of nature is mankind before the government
A philosopher Thomas Hobs, has a pessimistic view of human nature, do what they
wanted to get what they wanted, they were selfish. War of all against all. Government
has to protect life given Hobs state of nature. He said we would give anything as long as
the government protect their lifes
John locke said most people were basically good. In a state of nature, without
government you still had certain rights that were derived from natural law. These were
the right to life, liberty, and property. You were free to make your own decisions and
property. Lockes state of nature was better than hobs’s, but still have problems. Locke
thought you wouldnt consent to a government that would just protect your life, liberty and
a government will take your property. Put more restrictions on government according to
locke.
Why does this matter?
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Gives an idea of what the boundaries are for the government for a government that we
would consent to
According to lock the government has to protect our lives, liberties, and our property,
otherwise the government has broken its legitimacy
It explains when it is okay to rebel against the government
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How do we argue that people are consenting?
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If you don't consent you are free to leave
You would always be under some form of government
If you benefit from the government that you dont need then you consent
If someone votes you are influencing who has the power to make decisions for them
The Declaration of Independence
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why it was okay for the government to rebel against the british colonists
All men are created equal, people have inalienable rights, among these are life liberty
and the pursuit of happiness, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among
men. Driving their just powers from the consent of the government. When any form of
government becomes distructive it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. And to
institute a new government laying its foundation on such principles. Man is more
disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable. When a long train of abuses. It is the
peoples right and duty to throw off the government for the countries securiry.
This was a summary of john lockes argument, we are given particular rights. To protect
those rights, people consent to government
They consent to the government given the idea that the government will protect those
rights
If the government fails to protect those rights, then it has violated its end of the deal, and
people should overthrow the government.
In europe the was a perception of other people outside of europe that didnt live like them
were savages
To the colonists they agreed with locke, and if they hadnt they wouldnt have had a
revolution, or a strong central government with few limitations
The Founding:
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Colonists were coming from great britain and other european countries, having some
culultural similarities, but differents
People were coming for the freedom to practice their own religion, people looking to
imporove their economics, people from the nobility where people would give the oldest
the whole property many younger sons moved to the colonies, being stuck in debtors
prison
There was something in great britain that didnt work
People had the freedom but getting reminded of the control creates an atmosphere of
discontent for a revolution
There was some minor wars and conflict to the others, the british government sent
troups to protect the colonists. The government thought the colonists should pay for
some of that expense
In 1765 parliament passed the stamp tax, youd buy items then youd stamp the item to
show youd paid for it, the proceeds of the tax were used to help station troops for the
colonists
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Colonists refused to pay the tax, parliment passed the tax but the colonists didnt have
any representation. The colonists fought so hard for it that Parliament repealed the
stamp tax. The government cant take the colonists property without our consent
Parliament passed the tea tax to replace it
In 1775 the colonies send representatives to the first continental congress, they write a
strongly worded letter, they were going to explain in detail why they were mad. And to
get the attention of british parliament they call for a boycott on british goods.
The british responded by sending troups to break up the continental congress
This sparked the revolution
There is a second continental congress and they write the declaration of independence
This group serves as the provisional government of the united states
Revolutionary War
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1783 the colonists win their independence
The atlantic ocean helped the colonists win, because maintaining and supplying and
providing troups to go across the ocean and fight the colonists is difficult and expensive.
Also france decided to come in on the side of the colonists giving them training,
equipment, ships, and making great Brittan nervous. France could have invaded great
brittan if they sent most of the troups to fight in the revolution. So the colonies only faced
a fraction of the military power that brittan had
George washington was admired by the colonists, he went home after the war, most
people would have supported washington as the leader. He turned over power to the
continental congress and went home
Governing the Country
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First attempt was the articles of confederation which created a loose alliance in
independent states, all the power stayed with the individual states
There was a national government on paper, but it was weak and limited
It created a continental congress, had one representative from each state, and the
continental congress had the power to declare war, but couldnt raise an army, it couldnt
impose any taxes except tarifs (taxes on imported goods). So the government would
have to beg the state government to give them money
The government could create money, but each state could create their own currency too,
states could put tarifs on goods from other states
You needed 9 out of 13 states to pass anything and the articles could only be amended
by unanimous consent of the states
Shays Rebellion
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There was a group of farmers in west massechusets, you dont get paid till the end of the
season
People in farming often borrowed money then pay those debts off from harvists, but it is
risky
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The farmers had debts couldnt pay and put their land up for collateral for the loans so
their creditors would take their farms from them.
The farmers went to the courthouse, if the court couldnt meet their land couldnt be
legally taken
The farmers held the state hostage because the government had no troops
A group lead by james maddison, persuaded the states to elect delagates to a
convention in philadelphia to come up with ways to amend the articles of confederation
They didnt want to amend the articles of confederation, the real goal was to get rid of the
articles of confederation and write a brand new constitution
The people that thought we should stick with the articles of confederation and just make
changes respond by saying they were going to boycott the convention
At the convention they agreed to start work on a new constitution, meet in private only
have to defend the final document, and use the virginia plan as a reference
The Connecticut compromise
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congress had two houses with representation from two houses based on population.
The larger your population, the more people you got to send
The smaller states countered with the new jearsy plan, each state would be equally
represented in the one house
What they agreed to was the connecticut compromise, 2 houses in congress, one based
on population, one where they get an equal say (senate)
Slavery
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How to count the population, states will have representation in the house based on
number of people in the state, we have to figure out how to count the population
Southern states said for representation count the slaves, and for taxation dont count the
slaves. North said the opposite.
The three fifths compromise said for every 5 slaves count them as 3 people
The slave trade compromise, whether or not to allow the importation of other slaves into
the country, we let congress figure it out in the future.
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Write the constituion and send it to the states to get ratified
The people were confided that george washington would not turn the presidency into a
monarchy, setting precedent for how the office would run
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Constitutions tell you powers and procedures, and protect the rights of the population
Constitutions are harder to change than laws and people that need to approve it.
This means that its hard to change the rules being in a temporary majority.
Accept the outcome of the election
Oldest constitution continuously in use anywhere in the world
Build to strike a balance between a tyrannical government and avoiding a weak
government
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Federalism divides power between different level of government
Separation of powers, set up different branches that check each other
The legislative branch, congress, hose of representatives, senate, if elected to the house
serve for two years, elected to the senate serve 6 year term. Two parts of congress have
two different ways of thinking. In the house you are influenced by public opinion (what
the majority want). The senate is designed to represent the elete. They both had to
agree to pass a law
executive branch, president, 4 year term. 2 terms. See that the laws are carried out
Judicial branch, court system, interpret the law. What the law means relative to a case.
To be on the court you must be apointed by the president and confirmed by the senate, if
you are apointed to the court you serve for life
There is nothing in the constituion of political parties, the only offices that are elected are
house of representatives, there isnt a not an election for president, rights for alot of
people werent in the original constitution. (you had to be white, male, property owner)
The Constitution:
Preamble
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The preamble doesnt create any rights or procedures or limitations.
The preamble is a statement of purpose. It says we the people, in order to form a more
perfect union.
Coming out of the articles of Confederation, which was an alliance of states.
They want to ensure domestic tranquility, Provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity (free
country for ourselves and children, and descendants).
Article One
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The legislative branch
They thought congress would be the most important part of the federal government
Congress is the one who writes the law
All legislative power belongs to Congress
Congress made a line item veto, where president can veto part of a bill. The supreme
court said that a line item veto could change the bill effectivly thus giving the president
legislative power.
The article discusses a formula for seting up representation in the house, and gives the
requirement that we do a census each 10 years
Organizes congress by giving each house a leader. in the house it is the speaker, that
person is elected by the house of representatives itself. For the senate it is the president
of the senate, that job goes to whoever is vice president. Since the senate has two
members per state, it will always have an even number of members. The vice president
has the power to break a tie
Article one says Congress must meet at least once a year.
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Members of congress are also prohibited from serving in the executive branch at the
same time, this means the different branches are going to be made of different people
There is a long list of powers, congress gets the power to levy taxes, congress can set
the budget, congress has the authority to coin money, congress could raise an army
The necessary and proper clause, congress has the power to do whatever is necessary
and propper to fulfill its job.
Congress cannot regulate itself, because congress in the future could just undo what
another congress did
States cant coin their own money, the arent alloweod to engage in foreign policy, they
cant put restrictions on goods from other states
Article Two
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The executive branch
The president has all executive power
Sets qualifications for run for a term in office
The electoral college elects the president
Gives the vice president a second job, wait for something to happen to the president
Vice presidents are dependent on a good relationship with the president.
The president is commander in chief for the armed forces, head of the executive
department, makes the president the chief diplomat, job of seeing the laws that are
executed
Article Three
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The judicial branch
Established supreme court, they have the final say
Gives federal courts jurisdiction over violations of federal laws
A trial has to occur in the state where the crime was originally committed, we rely on the
public for people's rights being protected
Deals with treason, defines treason. Treason involves making war with the united states,
or aiding the enemies of the united states. Criticising government wasnt treason. To
convict someone of reason do 1 of 2 things, a person could confess in open court, or
have two witnesses to people could attest to a person commiting treason.
Article Four
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Relationships between the states
Full faith and credit, states have to recognize actions taken by other states
Privileges and immunities clause, states have to treat citizens of other states the same
as its own states.
States are required to send suspects to a state that has a warrant for their arrest
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States are provided with a republican form of government, you have to have people
choose their own government in some way.
Article Five
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Ammending the constitution
Two thirds vote in congress and majority vote in ¾ the state of legislatures (38 states
approve amendment to the constitution)
Article Six
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Gives the supremacy clause, in conflict laws, the supremacy clause says the top is the
US Constitution, then treaties with a foreign government, then federal laws, then state
constitutions, then state laws. The order hasnt changed but the 10th amendment gave a
better picture to the states
If the constitution is ratified, then the federal government will take the debts of all the
state governments have gotten up to that point. This is a way for the national
government to establish legitimacy with foreign governments and citizens
You cant have a religious test for office
Ammendments
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The first 10 ammendments are the bill of rights
Freedom of press, freedom of press, freedom to assemble and petition and protest
The right to bare arms
The protection of search and seasure
Cruel and unusual punishments
9th amendment is like the necessary and proper clause, they arent going to think of
everything. There are rights that arent written down in the constitution
10th amendment says powers that arent granted to the federal government by the
constitution belong to the states and the people. The 10th amendment changes the
interpretation of the list of hierarchy. The constitution is saying there are some federal
powers and anything else belongs to the state. If the federal government passes a law
for something the federal government cant control that is violating the Constitution.
The people that supported the constitution (the federalists), the others said there isnt
that much that protects the rights of citizens
They added the bill of rights to the constitution to make everyone happy
11th amendment, if you want to sue the federal government you must use the federal
court
If you want to sue a state other than your own you have to go to that state
12th Ammendment, how we select the vice president. The vice president according to
article two was who got the second most electoral votes. The way the electoral college
worked is that everyone casts two votes for president, they couldnt vote for two people
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from the same state. This was done so people could actually have a majority and not just
have everyone vote for their state.
They told people to vote for jefferson with your first vote, then vote for aaron burr with
your second vote who was a political alli of jefferson. Then jefferson could be president
and aaron burr could be vice president. But then they had a tie, both majority electors. At
a tie it goes to the house of representatives. Adams supporters in congress said we hate
jefferson. Jefferson finally got enough support to become president.
The 12th ammendment separates the vote for president and vice president
Civil War Amendments
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The 13th ammendment abolishes slavery
Lincon ordered an executive order which was the emancipation proclamation. This was
an order to the army to free slaves . this only applied to the areas that were conquered
by the union army
The 13th ammendment changes the constitution to say you are not allowed to have
slavery.
The 14th ammendment pushed this further, the government has to provide you with due
process, and equal protection under the law. States also have to provide due process
and equal protection.
Anybody born in the united states is a citizen, it does away with the 3/5th compromise
The 14th amendment irradicated the debts of the confederate states
It was a form of punishment, you backed the confederacy you lost the money, taking
away legitimacy from the confederates
15th amendment says you cannot deny someone the right to vote based on race, color,
or previous condition of servitute
The Progressive Era
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Movement to take power away from people who had power and distributing it to those
who didnt.
16th Amendment allows for direct taxation
17th Amendment gives direct popular vote for election of senators
18th Amendment was prohibition so people wouldnt buy alcohol and waste their lives.
19th Amendment was wommans suffarage. You cannot deny someone the right to vote
based on gender. Women couldnt vote themselves power
This comes in reaction to world war 1, take tons of men out of the work force and to the
military but all of a sudden increased demand for things to support for army. So women
moved into the work force making guns. Women played an essential war to winning the
war and thus gave women the right to vote.
Great Depression
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Huge economic crisis in the 1920s, many lost jobs
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Originally presidents were inaugurated in march, but after the 1932 election and
roosevelt wins but has to wait 4 months before he comes in office and can try to fix
things
They move the presidential inauguration into January
Repeal prohibition, this is the only amendment that repeals a previous amendment.
Reaction to Current Events
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22 amendment gives presidential term limits, this comes in reaction to franklin rosavelts
presidency. He is elected 4 times. A president in power that long will continiue to gain
power.
23 ammendment gives people in washington DC the right to vote for president. The
president is elected by the electoral college, and those votes are given to by the state.
The amendment gives DC gives the number of electoral college votes of the smallest
state (3).
24th amendment outlaws pole tax, this is a tax you pay to be eligible to vote. This was a
way to discriminate against african americans because they were dispoortionally pore
and disproportionately unable to vote. You cant pay to exercise your rights
25th Amendment has to do with presidential succession. John f kenedy is killed, Lyndon
Johnson dies and becomes president. What happens if he was in a coma or
brain-damaged and not just killed 25th Amendment sets up two ways the vice president
can get the powers of the president while the president is still alive. The president can
sign over powers to the vice president.
The vice president writes a letter to congress saying the president is incapable of doing
their job. If a majority of the members of the cabinet sign the letter then the powers of the
presidency move to the vice president. Within 21 days congress has to approve that
transfer of power, if they dont at the end of 21 days then the powers go back to the
president.
26th amendment lowers the voting age to 18, this comes in reaction to the vietnam war.
Many 18-20 year olds were drafted to war and they thought if you could be drafted to the
war then you should probably get a say in who makes those decisions to lead you to get
drafted.
27th amendment was passed by congress at the same time as the bill of rights. Ratified
by a few states but not enough to get added to the constitution. This gets revived
because a student at the university of texas wrote a paper on the amendment that said if
you were a member of congress and congress votes itself a raise, you dont get that raise
until after the next election. The student convinced enough state legislatures to ratifiy it
to add it to the constitution.
The constitution was successful because it was vague on many points, as circumstances
change, the constitution can adapt, giving it flexability.
It doesnt give us too much flexibility, the amendment process is made quite difficult. You
have to work to convince a large majority of people it is the right thing to do.
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The most difficult issue was delt with to be put off later, they didnt try to deal with slavery
right at the start. The government wasnt in a position to put away with slavary when the
Constitution was ratified. By waiting till they could deal with it it helped.
We limited participation to a small homogenous group. There is not a lot of disagreement
about fundamental issues.
Federalism
What is Federalism
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Federalism is a system of government in which more than one level of government is
sovereign
More than one level of government that acts independently of the other
Ex the national government and state governments
The alternative is a unitary system. Only the national government is sovereign. Every
other government below it is subject to what it says. Ex great britain
Other alternative is a confederation, a system of government where the lower levels of
government those are sovereign and any national government is dependent on the whim
of those local governments, many organizations are confederations, such as the united
nations. Member states are sovereign, but the UN is at the whim of the countries
How to Distribute Power
National Government
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Anything to deal with foreign policy is national Government, signing treaties, declaring
war
Things that can only be delt with at the national level, such as questions about
citizenship, controlling the borders, federal elections,
Regulation of the economy for interstate commerce
Not following interstate commerse can fall under interstate commerce
States
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Marriage & Divorce
Driving Regulations
Education
Most Crimes
State Residency Rules
State Elections
Intra state commerce
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Shared
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The power to tax, if only one had the power to tax then the other would be waiting on
money and wouldnt be sovereign
Social Welfare Policy, Parks, Roads, etc
Why a federal system?
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The state governments had to ratify the constitution for it to go into effect
At writing this they were operating under the articles of confederation, they wanted a
government that was more powerful than what they had, but less tyrannical than the
british parliament they had in the past that would take away their rights
Democracies have existed, but only at a small scale. It was easier then to get direct input
from people. Here is a larger area, the thought was it would be next to impossible to run
from one national government. Federalism allowed to break the country up into more
manageable chunks
Rules matter, and affect the outcome
Federalism is a set of rules
Advantages of Federalism
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Federalism allows for local solutions to local problems, making rules in two different
regions may not make sense
In a federal system there are laboratories of democracy, you have a greater opportunity
to experiment with policies. Multiple states can try different things to learn from success
or failure of policies
Its easier in federal systems for citizens to get in contact with someone who has power
Disadvantages of Federalism
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Change tends to be slow in federal systems, to see national change you need to see 50
states change, not just one
There is alot more confusion in federal systems, laws can differ from state to state.
State Governments
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Most state governments look exactly alike. Goveners in power
only real structural difference is nebraska has a unicam rule in legislature nebraska just
has one house in its state legislature (not senate and house of reps). Texas and
oklahoma have two state supreme courts one for criminal cases, one for civil cases, the
other 48 states have 1
When it comes to the power of the state governments there are significant differences,
some state constitutions empower the state governments to make it easy for the state
government to do things and solve problems, some state governments are set up to limit
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the power of the state government, prevening them from abusing their power. North East
generally empower, in the south state constutions that limit power
States often view the federal government and dont like the federal government acting on
things they view as their areas, but the states like the money the federal government
gives out in terms of grants
Arkansas Government
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After the civil war the southern states were told to be let into the counttry they needed a
new constitution
But also put limits on who could vote, if you had been apart of the confederacy you could
not vote
Most people were unable to vote, the people that could vote were african americans,
unionists (people who from the south but didnt support succession), people from the
north that moved south
Almost all of the people who lost the right to vote were democrats, most people left were
republicans
This creates a proactive government, giving african americans rights
Once the people got their voting rights back they wanted to make a new constitution that
emphasises democracy and limited government
This looks like a house of representatives and a senate, in house its 2 year terms 100
members, 35 members in senate in 4 year terms
Meet every 2 years to pass a new budget
Limited time to meet
Legislatures make 40k a year, most legislators have a day job keeping them in touch
with society and in the real world. See what people want
16 year limit
Have specific and limited power, nothing like the necessary and propper clause
The govener is the head of the executive branch, originally a 2 year term, now a 4 year
term, 2 term limit
Positive powers are powers that get you to get something done
Negative power is stopping something from happening
Emphasizing limiting government you support more negative power
Unlike the president, governors are stuck with people in the executive branch that they
cannot get rid of
There are other office positions that are elected
Governors can appoint people for various positions for fixed terms
Presidents can veto a law or ⅔ majority in each house to override a veto, but in arkansas
the governors veto is weaker. It only requires a majority of the state legislature to
override the veto. This is weak because it already takes a majority of the legislative to
pass the bill in the first place.
But the legislative session is in session is short, so many dont come back to override
Courts in arkansas judges are elected, federal judges are appointed
In elected judes they are more likely to focus on what the voters want. Appointed judges
are more immune from political pressure to make unpopular choices
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The ammendment process in arkansas is a majority vote in each house of congress and
a majority vote in voters who participate in that election
Arkansas legislature can only propose 3 amendments every two years
Arkansas constitution has bill of rights same rights as us constitution and more, if you
contact your elected official they are required to respond to you, rights for victims of
crimes (compenssation), right of information
Local Government
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Local governments are not soverign, they are created by the state
City governments can provide emergency services, local streets, human services (parks,
libraries), authority to pass own laws (ordinances), zoning ordinances city can decide
what the land is for
Counties dont typically have ordinance power, administering programs from the state.
Counties serve as a back up for a place without a city
Special districts provide utilities, trransposrtaiotn, education
Participation in local government is low in the us
There is competition among governments, they want more perfect people (tourists) they
drop money and leave, governments compete for business because they provide jobs
and tax revenue
Have attractions people want to visit, state parks, beach. For businesses have good
roads, have good education. These tend to be good for the people who live there
Governments are competing to not have some things. The opposite of tourists (homless
people), they take services, take money, governments dont want them. Make a camping
ban. Competing not to have criminals, be harsher on crime
Political Culture
What makes American democracy work?
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Youd thinkk itd be hard for democracy to work
Large country with variations in climate, there are different demands throughout the
country
Varitety of religion and ethnicities
Large economic gap
Helps that we have federalism, we dont have to have a onc size fits all
Because of the way people immigrated to the united states we dont have a country that
is geographically divided by ethnicity and religion
This means we cant just seceed because we disagree with one another
When people are better integrated it is harder to demonize different groups
The overall economic success of the united states is huge, so being poor in the united
state is not the same as being poor elsewhere
Poor people are better off in the united states than many other countries
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People in the united states are generally optimistic about their chances of economic
success
We have a shared dominant political culture
Limited Scope, narrow ideological
spectrum
We are more likely to argue about the details of policy rather than the fundamentals
Most important thing in democracy is accept when you have lost an election
Parts of the political culture
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System of beliefs called the American creed that we tend to not question
Believe in Freedom, not free to do whatever you want to do. Freedom is other people
should be able to make important decisions about their own lives even if you dont like
those decisions.
You can make decisions about your own life, but when you start to harm other people
youve crossed a line
Belif in equality, equality under the law. People should be treated equally by the law. If
you are accused of a crime, it shouldnt matter who you are , it should matter the
evidence used against you. Equality of opportunity, people should be given the same
opportunity to succeed (not that we will succeed at the same rate, or the same level of
success) but all have the same chance to succeed.
To create equality of opportunity the american government provides public education.
We typically dont belive in equality of outcome, we dont think people should end up with
the same stuff
Belief in democracy, rule by the majority
In a democracy, because we keep voting, we have an opportunity to be on the winning
side some of the time.
Belief in limited government, we believe there is things government should not be
allowed to do.
The limited government gives rights to individuals. Instead of saying congress canot
make a law to limit freedom of speech, we could say individuals have the freedom of
speech
Belief in individualism, people are responsible for their own successes or failures.
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If people think the economy is doing well, they will reward the president by reelecting to
voting for that party. If we think the economy is doing bad people often vote against the
president.
Sometimes beliefs contradict one another
Immigration
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The united states is a country of immigration
Many people chose to go to the united states for freedom, and economic opportunity
In the past, owning land was like owning your own livelihood.
We are a democracy, and our policy often promoted immigration. If the public were
overwhelmingly hostile towards immigrants then we would have a completly different set
of policies
When the economy is doing well we tend to be more welcoming to immigrants
The method of immigration matters, people who come through the legal process are
more often supported than those who dont.
The first big wave of immigration comes from ireland in the 1820s. There was concerns
about these people because they were overwhelmingly Catholic. They would just vote
the way the pope told them which could be the end of democracy
In 1850s we had a wave of german immigrants, they were largely protestant, but they
dont speak english. So there was concern about the german immigrants
Big surge in immigration from southern and eastern europe in late 1800s and early
1900s (itally). These people are catholic and dont speak english
Those distinctions arent super distinct now
Citizenship
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Most people were born here you are a citizen of the united states, you are also a united
states citizen if any of your parents are a us citizen and you are born anywhere else.
If you are not a citizen then you need to legally be a resident of the US for 5 years, you
need to pass an exam about US history and government that is in english.
This process is more lenient than other countries, our citizenship isnt defined on ethnicity
or religion
The mark of american citizens is the general beliefs in the american creed
We can all change our beliefs if we want to
How do we have a shared dominant political culture despite people from all over the
world living here?
There is a self selection bias, people are choosing to move to the united states. If you
are someone who chooses to leave the country you know and move to the united states
its probably because you believe some of those ideas in the american creed.
We have alot of individual success because we have freedom, and other things in the
creed
We socialize people into the beliefs in the creed
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Public Opinion
Ideology
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A layer above our beliefs is our ideologoy
Our ideology is our specific interpretation of the American creed, take broad ideas and
interpret them and see how we think about what gov should do
Two main ideologies in the United States are Liberalism and Conservatism
In general liberals are more likely to favor government spending than conservatives
Conservatives are more likely to favor less government regulation
These ideologies rest on different assumptions about human nature
When you are making a logical argument, you start with an assumption
In the american context liberals and conservatives generally believes we are better
because we have a capitalist system
One of the assumptions that underlie liberalism is the best thing we can do to help those
who are worse off are pool our resources and the most logical place to do that is
government
The second assumption is that the government will do the things we want it to do and
actually be effective at helping those people
Conserivitves assume that they know what they need how to improve and get ahead
than we know how to improve their lives. Then people say that we need to create
circumstances where people can help themselves
The second assumption is that power corrupts. They say pooling our resources is giving
the government more power which will corrupt them
We hear people say about the people on the other side of the ideaoloical spectrum as
being evil and stupid but for the most part people want whats best for others and have
different assumptions
Opinions on Specific Issues
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Above ideology is our opinions on specific issues, public opinion
What do individuals think about a specific issue
Put all of the opinions together to see what the majority thinks on a specific issue
With democracy, what the majority of people think should play a role
Public opinion in the united states is often uninformed about issues
People do surveys to see factual questions to see what people know
People dont pay attention to politics
People dont need to know alot about politics the way our system is set up. Which person
should win, 2 choices
At an individual level people are not ideologically consistent across issues
At an individual level we are not consistent on issues across time
At the aggregate level, that measure of public opinion is consistent over time
Individuals change but the toals do not. This suggests that those changes are basically
random.
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Sometimes people have a firm opinion and they wont change
Sometimes people dont have any opinion on an issue (non attitudes)
Where our opinions come from
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The most important impact on your opinions is early socialization, things you learn early
on
Most people believe the same as your parents
Peoples experience impact your opinions, multiple experiences, or powerful experiences
Peoples self interest impact your opinions
The weakest is ideology, when the first 3 dont give us an answer you tend to fall on your
ideolgy or others who agree with your ideology
Impact of Public opinion
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When public opinion changes on an issue, policy tends to follow a few years later
You may have to have an election inbetween to see change
We dont often see policy change and the public follows
Finding Out Public Opinion
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Polls, asking for opinion
To make it work you have to choose respondents randomly and have enough people
(800-1000 people)
The margin of error, estimate of people
The margin of error is dependent on the size of the sample, having 800-1000 people
gives about 3% margin of error. 3% is seen as good enough
The media give a poor description of margin of error
That doesnt mean we will get a good result, statistically 1/20 polls are going to be bad
th e way poll questions are worded impact people respond
Dont assume people about respondents, dont use always or never, options have to
reflect distribution of opinion
Order can matter, some people dont know, give people an out if you dont know
Importance of Public Opinion
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Government officials are influenced by public opinion
Candidates dont look at the polls to see what they believe (and people dont like those
who do)
Candidates can use the polls to figure out which issues to talk about and which issues to
not talk about
Media is influenced by polls
Popular ideas get positive coverage
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Interest Groups
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Interest groups in the united states tend to have a bad reputation, people think they are
dark, shady, and work behind the scenes and not good for the public
An interest group is an organization whos members have something in common who
work to try to get government to do something.
Interest groups are common in the united states, about a third of the adult population
belongs to some interest group
Interest groups are common and successful in the united states
- Interest groups succeed because we have a constitutional right of association,
the right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. The
government cannot stop you from forming an interest group.
- There is a decentralized government, alot more access to get people to help you,
more chances to succeed
- Weak political parties, in other places if you disagree with the party on an issue
you may not get re elected. You can make a case and it will make a difference
- Because we have a narrow ideological spectrum, we are fighting over the details
of the policy. It is easier to persuade someone on the details rather than change
their mind on their fundamental concepts.
Collective Action Problem
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Public Goods - something that everyone benefits from, regardless of whether or not they
did anything to help create it. Requires so many people to help create it in the first place
that no one persons contribution makes a noticeable difference.
Example: national defense
When you have public goods, you will have free riders. People who accept the benefit
and dont contribute
A collective action problem occurs when you have so many free riders that it damages
the public good, or that you entirely loose the public good.
Ways to deal with collective action problems
- The government can use force
- Offer side benefits, only go to people who contribute. Tangible side benefits,
something you can point to that has some value. Psychological benefits, you feel
good about yourself
Interest groups exist to solve the collective action problem, offering side benefits to get
people involved.
Membership and Leadership
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Because there are side benefits, members are joining the interest group
Some interest groups are small so they can only give psychological benefits
When people join for a side benefit, they dont have to agree with the goals of the
organization
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A group that only offers psychological benefits is more likely to to be homogenous,
groups with large benefits tend to have diverse members
The leadership in large interest groups tend to be homogenous
The leadership in large interest groups are not representative of the larger group, but
smaller groups leadership reflect the group as a whole
Roles
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Interest groups create benefits
- Make it easier for people to get involved
- Help to educate the public about issues, people have to have a reason to care
- Serve as a liaison between the public and elected officials. A liaison is someone
who helps facilitate communication between two different groups
- Interest groups educate elected officials about issues. Intreist groups have
expertise to help provide pieces of information on an issue
- Push government to act. If nobody is pushing for a change, we will assume what
we are doing is fine and we will keep doing it. When people push for a change we
have to stop and think about what we are doing.
Activities
Recruit Supportes
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Provide public with information, run adds, hold events
Persuade Government
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Direct Lobbying, sending a direct representative from the group to meet people from
the government, and talk directly with them to persuade them to do something
You need access to government to be a lobbyist
One of the most lucrative careers that you could be on to become a lobbyist is to
become an elected official
If you serve in congress there will be lobbying firms that will hire you to represent clients
to do things in government
Lobbyist have to register with the government, there are limits
Indirect lobbying, talk to members of group or talk to general public. Urge them to
contact elected officials (large interest groups or lots of money typically)
Testifying in commity hearings, when you are thinking about passing a bill it will first
go to a committee and they will hold a hearing.
Force Government
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Get one part of government to force another part of government to act
Suing the government, using the court system to make the legislature or the executive
branch do something it doesnt want to do (last resort)
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If you persuade someone to do something they will work harder to make it happen, if
someone is forced they wont try hard
Brown vs board of education, sue government challenging seperate but equal school
systems. The brown family wins, segregating schools is not creativing separate but
equal schools. But not much changed. But in 1960s there were civil rights activist and
government helps change
Shape Government
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If you can get someone who agrees with me, you dont have to work as hard to persuade
government
Campaigning on behalf of individual candidates or parties, giving money to candidates
If you are an interest group you are giving money to those who agrees with you in the
race
Money gets you access
Influencing Interest Groups
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Government officials want to hear what interest groups want to say because interest
groups have access to 3 resources elected officials really care about.
- Interest groups have access to voters (most important). If you get votes you keep
your job
- Money for campaigns
- Expertise on issues
Iron triangle theory, when it comes to making policy there are intrist groups, congress,
and beurocracy. Intrist groups are incrediblly influential as they give congress info and
money. Congress impacks bureaucracy cause they make the law and control the budget
(how much money beuraracy gets). The interest groups provide information to the
bureaucracy
Issue networks theory replaced the Iron triangle theory. They said what is important is
what is happening inside the interest groups
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The more interest groups, the less influence they have. If you loose the more incentive
you have to bring in more competition
When there are alot of voters the interest groups may be irrelevant
Political Parties
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interest groups are similar to political parties in that they are a group of people with
something in common that want the government to do something
political parties are different in the mechanism they use to try to get the government to
do what they want. Political parties try to become the government. If someone ran their
own canadates they would stop being interest groups and become political parties
Nobody has been able to figure out how to make a large scale demoncracy work without
political parties
The three parts of a political party are Pig, Pie, and Po
PIG is the party in government, their job is in government (elected official, appointing
officials). You are a member of a political party
PIE is the party in the elector, voters who belong to one of the political parties. No
paperwork to be apart of the political party. Each member has a vote, and votes are what
the party wants
PO is the party organization, people that work with the party itself
Role of Parties
PIG
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Organize and operate the government
Help focus responsibiliy
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Recruit candidates to run for office
Parties educating the public about issues
PO
Shared
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Synthesize interests making it easier to get a majority and get thingts done
Simplify election process, party labels help you know who you likely agree with
Power of Political Parties
Spoils System
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Democrat was the first political party, created in 1820s in reaction to andrew jackson
getting most votes in presidential election but loosing in the house of representatives
and instead voted for john adams.
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Jackson supporiters made organizations, one called the democratic party. They
instituted the spoils system.
The spoils were jobs, when a new president got elected they would fire everyone. The
president would fill those positions with people who supported him.
This meant the bureaucracy was responsive to elected officials and made elections
personal for lots of people
Over the 19th century parties built on this to perfect party power in the era of party
machines
Party machines is a party organization that is running the show, telling elected officials,
working in government what to do.
Local party leaders have control over lots of jobs
If you vote the way then they will try to help you, unelected party leaders had control
over you
They had control over elected officials because they controlled who was on the ballet
Corruption
Reforms to weaken political parties
Civil service reform, people have to apply for jobs in government. Show someone was
the best qualified candidate, show evidence to get someone fired. Does away with spoil
systems
Australian ballet to not see how people voted
At state and local level, primary elections. Parties couldnt pick who they wanted to, to be
on the ballet. You instead have elections to decide who the nominee of the party would
be
Weakens party machines
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1968 national democratic convention
Typically you would pick people who agreed with you to go to the convention with you to
choose presidential canadate.
Protests against the convention
The Mccogvern Fraser Commission is created to revamp the presidential nominating
process to prevent future protests
Voters get a say in who represents their state at the national convention
Turned this into satate law, party leaders dont control who their partys nomnee is
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Rebirth in party power in 1980s
Campaigns become more expensive, more expensive to run for office
Greater expectation of professionalism in campaigns
People need the parties to run for office
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When parties are powerful people vote and are engaged, but they take away power from
the voters and corruption
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When parties are week people arent interested and dont vote and a bureaucracy that
doesnt care what the voters want
Third Parties
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The other parties are not important
Why do third parties have a difficult time in the US?
- Single Member Simple Plurality (SMSP) elections, we go and vote a single
member and whoever gets the most votes wins. To be the one person elected
you have to beat everyone else. A third party candidate has to do better than the
democratic candidate and the republican candidate to win
- Some countries use proportional representation system, you vote for a
person and not the party. What share of the vote that party get is the
share of the seats (not how its done in US)
- Because there is a narrow ideological spectrum, most of the votes are inthe
middle so that is where the parties would be. There isnt a space on the narrow
ideological spectrum to constantly compete with the two major parties
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When you put those two things together it becomes almost impossible for a third
party to win
Third party candidates run because they want to get ideas out there and parties to talk
about issues they arent talking about.
They run as blackmail parties
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black mailing the party to give more extremist policies
The Media
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What the media does
- The media informs the public about what is happening in the world, with no
media the only thing that would explain what is going on in the world would be
the government
- The government wouldn't tell the public where it went wrong so we need
something independent of the government to help the government stay informed
- The media helps the government quickly reach the public with information
- Provide a way for the public tp reach the government, polling to see what
people think
- Media serve as a watchdog on government, how the government messed up.
Then the government will behave more often
What does the media give us
- The main goal of any media outlet is to make money
- Cover the media by getting the most views for profit
- Media outlets want to cover scandals
- They want conflict, emphasise the bad news. badnews get covered more than
good news
- Cover new things, and cover things first, and be accurate
- When one outlet covers a story, other outlets will cover the same story (pack
mentality)
The number of media outlets has increased alot in the past few decades
With all the media outlets people find a niche and biased. They are catering to audience.
So they become biased
Little biases in different outlets
Overarching biases in media
- Negativity bias
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Pro government or pro establishment bias, people who are in government can
get in the media easier
The relationship between people in government and the media
- They need one another but they dont give eachother what they want or need
- The media provides people in government with content to get people to watch
stuff about you and get messages out to voters
- The media wants scandals and bad news and the people in government dont
want to provide that. The people in government tend to be limited in what they
say because they dont want it to turn into a scandal
Impact and effect of media
- The media doesnt really change peoples minds on something
- The agenda setting effect, when the media speends more time covering an issue,
the public thinks that is more important issue.
- Winnowing, narrowing down the field of presidential contenders. They look at
who is most likely to win and only talk about those. People in the back they set
them back more
Media regulation
- Media outlets can be sued for liable and slander, writing or saying something
about someone that is false and that causes them harm. They have to know it
was false or they didnt do anything to verify.
- Broadcast media are subject to further regulation. The only way to survive is you
have control on that frequency. You need government to assign and protect that
frequency. You have to agree to a series of rules (restrictions on obscenity, and
equal time doctrine)
Participation
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Who is eligible to vote? (sufferage)
- By the 1820s the requirements to be able to vote you didnt have to own property
- After civil war, african americans were able to vote
- But there were more restrictions later to prevent people to vote (literacy tests, poll
taxes, grandfather clause, white primary)
- 1920s womans suffrage, you dont have to be male
- Restrictions on voting being eliminated in 1960s, no need to be white to vote
- 1970s the voting age went from 21 to 18
- Now there are two ways to be eligible to vote (US Citizens and 18+)
- Two ways to lose that right to vote (Convicted of a Felony, Found Mentally
incompetent)
- To activate your right to vote you have to register
Turnout
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Started low, it was a new government it wasnt easy access to the news
Over 19th century turnout increased drastically
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As parties started to weaken and turnout decreased
Turnout settles about 60% on presidential elections
Most other countries have higher turnouts
To vote it takes time to vote, and stay informed, taking time off work, and getting to the
voting place. If you help someone win then you get benefits.
If the voting turn out in the united states is lower than other countries than the
costs of voting are higher in the united states or the benefits have to be lower in the
United States
- When we vote in us is tuesday, people are typically at work
- Other countries its a weekend or a national holiday, than its easier to vote
because you dont have to be anywhere else
- Where we vote, we are assigned a place to vote based on your address such
that people get different ballots. Its very expensive to have all these other ballots
- You have to register to vote before election day, in other countries you dont
register to vote
- More time, effort, and inconvientience
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The narrow ideological spectrum limits the benefits of electing one person over
the other, we are getting small details changes
We have many times to vote in the year, so its not a big deal if you dont vote now
In australia its almost 100% turnout, if you dont vote you pay a fine, then there is
a benefit to vote because you dont pay a fine
- Why voting has declined in the United States
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There is a lot more competition for our attention, people pay less attention
The decline in political parties, political parties lost a great deal of incentives that
they could offer people to show up and vote
We have changed the way we campaign, it used to be labor intensive, now its
capital intensive, run advertising campaigns and we just stop paying attention to
the adds not going up to peoples doors. Capital intensive campaigns are less
effective
People are mobile, people keep moving. You have to figure out where to vote,
and whos running in a new area. You are less likely to care because you may not
be there long. As people have become more mobile there is less incentive to vote
- Who is more likely to vote
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Older people, they have been around longer and more time to figure out things
about voting
Better educated people are more likely to vote
Wealthier people are more likely to vote because they can pay the cost to vote
People are more partisian are more likely to vote, when you have a strong
attachment
Parents are more likely to vote, more likely to care about long term
consequences
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- Impact of low voter turnout
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For national elections The results wouldnt be much different if everyone has
voted
For midterm elections there is a differencel, the party that is out of power would
do better than if everyone shows up. People that are un happy will tend to vote
Local elections the results could be extremely different
- Other ways people participate
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Show up to events
Petitions
Run for office
To have a reasonable chance of success, the more people you have the better,
the better you understand the system.
Elections
Nominating Process
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Initially (after washington) Groups and leaders in cogress would get to gether behind
closed doors and decide who to support to be president
In the 1820s we moved to national nominating conventions and discuss who to nominate
Now we hold elections to nominate candidates using primaries
That change has had consequences
- Its more democratic process
- They get a chance to learn more about candidates
- The campaign has gotten longer
- The campaign is more expensive
- The fighting that is going on inside the party is more out in the open. This means
voters are dividing themselves in a party
- Voters are less satisfied with the choices
Strategies in the Primaries
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First meeting in iowa, and new hampshire with the first primary then goes to june or july.
The early voters have more candidates, but after a few primaries candidates drop out.
Front runner has most money, name recognition. They are serious competitors
Underdogs dont have much money or heard of them
The underdog strategy is focus on either iowa or new hampshire. If you can outperform
expectations and spend all the money and go to events in one states. Then the
candidate that has not much recognition starts doing well nationally. Voters nationally will
hear about this person. Then you have to build on this momentum to steadily build and
get more support and attention to build up to a front runner
The front runner strategy is spread out in time and money so the underdog has to play
catchup in the other states.
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Conventions
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The conventions generally dont have the drama they used to have
The presidential candidate announces the running mate they must be eligible to run for
president and not from the same state. They typically are different from the president.
(vice president)
Official vote for presidential nomneee
Acceptance speech
General Elections
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Two major differences between nominating contests and general elections for president
- The audience changes, you want to be further left (democrat) and further right
(repubican) in the primary election to appeal to the partisian voters. But when you
get to the general election you are more concerned with the people in the middle
to win their votes. The race to the center to appeal to the voters in the middle.
They change the focus (and message) of their campaign because you are
appealing to a different group of voters.
- You have to deal with the electoral college. You arent going from one state to
another to win votes. Its all happening at the same time. Whoever wins the state,
wins that states electoral college votes. Then you pick and choose which states
you campaign in. The four biggest states with the most electoral college votes
are California, Texas, New York, and florida and they are pretty set and stone. So
presidents focus on the swing states, where they think it will be close.
Tone of elections
-
I would be good, opponent would be bad. Positive is former, negative and ladder
Negative campaign can be more or less effective
The attack on the opponent needs to be percieved as true
The attack needs to be relavent
Debates
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In the nominating speach they get 1 hour to be uninterupted
Debates are where we can directly compare the candidates
Gets voters to see who people are
Predicting the Winner
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They use a measure of the economy and look at the encomnbant president on who will
win and the share of the vote
This works because the economy is always an important issue. When people think the
economy is doinjg well they will reelect that president or party. And if the ecionomy is not
doing well, vice versa.
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Sometimes this doesnt work. The assumption is that the campaigns cancel eachother
out.
Campaign Finance
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Running for house of representatives. Bare minimum you need to raise a million dollars
To run for senate you need 10 mill to have a chance
To run for president you need about 500million to have a chance to win as president
They would raise money for the president
There are donation limits, 3300 individual limit in a given cycle. 3300 during nominating,
3300 during election. This number is tied to inflation, so it goes up every two years
Political Action committees are limited to 5000 per cycle.
A party organization the limit is 5000 per cycle.
None of these donations are going to be a large share of the funds.
Disclosure requirements. Any donations or expenditures over 200 dollars must be
reported. Voters can determine for themselves if there is an issue on the influence of
money. Things cant have value post election for expendetures
Federal Election Commission has the job of enforcing this but its poorly staffed and
funded so its hard for them to pay attention to all of it. As long as its publicly available is
what matters.
Impact of Campaign Finance Laws
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Campaign finance laws do a good job of doing what they were intended to do, limit
corruption
This is a huge advantage to the previous president because you need alot of donors to
get to the target totals.
Elected officials spend alot more time fundraising than they used to.
How Voters Decide
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Voters dont typically research both candidates and weight pros and cons
They typically take shortcuts to decide
- Party Identification (most important). Generally things about what they beliefs
- Small number of issues about what they care about and decide on those few
things
- Nature of the times, if things are going well vote the incumbent, if things are not
vote for the out party
- Individual characteristics
- Outsource the vote, endorsements
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Congress
Re Apportionment and redistricting
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Take the population of the united states and divide it by 435
Take population and divide by that result for number of representatives per state
States voting republican generally grow faster than democrats
Redistricting is is re drawing the district lines within a state
Create districts with equal population within the state, this is political process done by
state legislature
When you have divide house or senate it is hard to draw the lines to just benefit one
party, drawing on it benefits encombants
Structure and Membership
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Two houses, house of representatives with 435 members, senate with 100 members
To be eligible to run for the house you must be 25 years old, reside in the state you work,
been a us citizen for 7 years
Serve a two year term, no limit on terms
The district they represent tend to be smaller than the districts of senators
To run for senate you must be 30, live in the state you work, must be a us citizen for 9
years
6 year term
In the house you have to go to the small homogenous district every two years to keep
your job. You will care alot about what the people in that district want
The senate you are insulated from public opinion
To get anything significant done the house and the senate have to agree
Regardless of house you make 174k a year
You can be removed from office, it takes a ⅔ vote of the house you are serving in
In house Special election for if someone dies, you go to the end of the term
Senate it varries between govener, votters and idk
Most members tend to be there for the long term
Powers of Congress
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House of Representatives
- Initiate a bill that will raise taxes
- Impeach officials in executive adn judicial branches
Senate
- Make decision to remove someone from office who has been impeached (⅔)
- When the president appoints people to important positions the senate has to
approve, majority vote
- Negotiating a treaty (⅔)
Shared
- Raise money
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Controls budget
Regulate interstate commerce
Regulate international commerce
Raises an army
Organization
● Leadership
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The constitutionalyl created position is the speaker in the senate, you must be
elected by the house of representatives
The speaker controls the schedule for house of representatives, stop anything
from coming to the floor
Influence over who serves on which committees in majority party
Speaker decides Which committees will reciecvve which bill
Below the speaker each party has its own leader
That person serves as the floor leader and they will speak for the party over a bill
Serve as chief negotiators for a bill
Run the affairs of the party
Keep the party together
Below the leader is the whip
The whip counts vote and encourages people to stick with party
Party elects its leader and whip
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President of the senate is the vice president given by constitution
Power to break a tie
Dont want to give vice president the same power as the speaker over the house
The majority leader has the same job as speaker of the house and majority
leader job
Same roles for everything else
● Caucases
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Clubs in congress
Groups of representatives that have something in common
Caucasus are a bargaining tool
● Commities
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Standing committees, permanent
Select committees, temp
Gives congress greater efficiency
Expertise, people who understand will look at a bill first
Members reelection
Committees assignment valuable, be important for constituents, raise your
profile, influence over other people in congress
Rules committee are cool
Ethings is least desirable
● Staff
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Staff serve as filters for information
How a bill becomes a law
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First to pass a bill into a law it has to be sponsored by a representative
When a representative sponsors a bill it is sent to a committee
If a committee passes it by getting a majority rule, it goes to the floor of the house
You need someone in the senate to sponsor a bill
Then its sent to a senate committee
If a majority of the committee agrees on it, the bill will go to the floor of the senate
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You can have a filibuster, when a minority tries to stop a bill by debating forever. If a
minority wants to filibuster the bill 60 votes to end debate and send it on
At this point it is likely the bill has changed some from where it started in the senate and
or the house of representatives if the bill is different the bill is sent to a conference
committee and negotiate one final version of the bill
Then it goes back to the floor to be voted on, if both the house and the senate pass it
then it goes to the president
The president either signs the bill or vetos the bill
If the president vetos the bill ⅔ vote in house and senate to override the veto
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The Efffects of this procedure:
The vast majority of bills die in any given session (95%)
They all requires alot of compromise
Representation
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Delagates, the person that votes the way someones constituents want
Trustees vote the way they think is best, but not what the constituents say
You are elected into position, so it doesnt matter if you are a delegate or a trustee
because most of the time youll end up doing the same thing
How someone will respond when they disagree with consittuants is dependant on timing,
the closer it is to a persons relection campaign the more likely they are to act as a
delegate, strength of convictions
Members of congress have an incentive to act as a constituent advocate. Look out for
their constituents and help them with problems.
Representation for show, doing things that make you look good to your constituents
knowing it will not have any effect.
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The Presidency
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The president is the head of the executive branch
Main job to see the laws are executed
To run for president you must be 35 years old, born a united states citizen and lived in us
for past 14 years, you cannot be naturalized and be president
As president you make 400k a year
The vice president succeeds them if they leave office
The president and vice president is only role that is elected by the entire country
6 Roles of President
○ Head of State, symbolic position, represents the country
○ Head of government, supervise the bureaucracy
○ Serve as Chief Legislature, veto, congress gives authority to the president to lead
the way for congress
○ Chief Diplomat, appoint ambassadors
○ Commander in chief of armed forces
○ Head of political party
Powers of the President
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Formal Power - power that is in writing, a document says the president has the authority
to do it
Informal powers - not in any document, the power just comes with the job
Formal Powers of The President:
○ Veto, bargaining tool, limited by override in congress
○ Negotiate Treaties
○ Make Appointments, limited as senate has to confirm
○ Fire People in Executive branch
○ Issue Executive Orders, only apply to people in the executive branch, the
president can tell the military what to do, but only in 3 circumstances (if we are
invaded, rebellion against the government, governor of a state has requested aid
from the military). All excutive orders must be within the law
○ Executive Privilege
○ Propose the Budget
○ Pardon, wipe away a conviction and a federal law. Not Really any limitation
- There is not a need to limit that power of the government because they
arent taking away those rights, prevent court from taking away rights
Informal Powers of the President
○ Visibility, more attention than anyone else, get their message out
○ Title Entrappings of the Office, symbols of the presidency
○ Power of Access
Informal powers used to put pressure on congress
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Staff of President
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Staff serve as filters for the president
Cabnet, White house staff, executive office of the president
Cabinet are people that are run major federal agencies, secretaries of state. They all
have to be approved by the senate
Whitehouse staff job is to support the president, provide advice to the president
Executive office in the president, various positions, some need approval from senate,
some dont
Generally the closest people to the president that the president trusts the most go in the
white house staff
- No senate confirmation
- People in the cabinet have two jobs, people in the whitehouse staff can focus on
the president
Beuracracy
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Beuracracy is an organization that is designed to perform a particular set of tasks
Charachteristics of bureaucracy
- Beuractacys tend to be based in hierarchy
- There are clear lines of accountability and responsibility
- Because you are focused on one area, people develop specilization and
expertise
- Bureaucracies are develop rational procedures, rules people
Setup this way to get things done efficiently
4 negative tendencies of bureaucracy
- Beuracracies tend to become expansionary, they want more
- Beuracacies tend to become rigid, more rules and more rules, hard to addapt
- Tend to become sluggish, more distance between the people at the bottom and
the top, making it slow to change
- Tend to become isolated,
Reforming the Beuracracy
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Reduce the size
- If they are asking for more than they need, make cuts
- Find where the excess and waste is, that is expensive
- Politically reducing the size of the bureaucracy is mixed
- Instead of firing people, we hireing freeze, stop hiring people and as people leave
or retire the size of the beuracracy is reduced
Make it more flexible
- Treat everyone the same way to prevent people from saying they are being
desriminated against
Make it easier to fire people
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Some people arent committed to their job
These restrictions are in place for a reason, not just to fire people because you
dont like them
Make the bureaucracy to operate like a private business
- Private businesses are more efficient than bureaucracy
● This is because they have a profit motive
● Competition motivates you to be more efficient
● It is easy to measure success and failure of different parts of the
business, identifies inefficiencies
Appplying Private Business Ideas
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Some government agencies that make money, and some things make money based on
the service (post office), but some cant make a profit (welfare), and some can make a
profit but it may not be a good idea to run it like that (police)
When it comes to competition its kinda the same thing.
Its hard to assign responsibility for who is responsible for successes and failures
The Courts
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Criminal Case - when the government is acucsing someone of having violated the law
- Felonies - serious crimes
- Misdemeniors - not serious crimes
Civil Cases - disputes between pirates, and going to the courts to decide
- Contract Cases - formal agreements between someone else, someone is
accusing someone else of violating the terms of that agreement
- Tort Cases - one person accuses another of causing them harm, either willfully or
through neglegance
- Family Law Cases - divorce, child coustody, metal competenacy hearings
The standard to win a criminal case is different from the standard to win a civil case
- In criminal cases, beyond a reasonable doubt. If a government acuses you of
commiting a crime they have to convince all 12 jurers that you are guilty beyond
a reasonable doubt. There is no other reason for the facts
- About 95% certain that person is guilty
- In civil cases, the reason is the preponderance of the evidence. The evidence
makes it more likely that the person is responsible than not
- 51% confidence
Why the standards are different: In most civil cases the worst thing that could happen is
you owe someone alot of money. In criminal caes the worst thing that could happen is
you are sentances to life in jail or executed.
Jurisdiction
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Jurisdiction is a courts authority to hear a case.
3 Types of Jurisdiction
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Original Jurisdiction, a court with original jurisdicion has the authroiry to hear a
case the first time it comes to court
Appellate Jurisdiction, authroity to hear a case that has already been decided.
They look at the legal questions arround it. They could not see a problem. They
could send this to a court with original jurisdicion and redo the trial. They could
also throw away the case.
Final Jurisdicion, authority to hear a case for the last time (supreme court), if the
value of the case is less than $20 then the first court is the last court
Standing
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Standing is the complement to jurisdiction
An individual who wants to bring a case to court must have standing
To have standing you must be directy affected by what is the issue
Precedence
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Courts tend to follow the idea of precedence
You want to look at what earlier courts have decided
Something could be different, new evidence, something is different, law has changed
Opinion
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A judge has to explain why
Opinion tells us circumstances and context
Structure of Court System
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In the federal court system there are 3 levels
Federal District, Federal Appelate courts, and us supreme courts
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Federal District courts have original jurisdiction over cases in violating federal law,
original jurisdiction of civil cases of citizens of different states, original jurisdiction over
cases involving the united states government
Above that is the federal appellate court. If you appeal your case you appeal goes to
federal appelate court. The federal appellate court has appellate jurisdiction over any
case from federal district court. Multiple Judges, no jurry. Majority Rules
Above that is the US supreme court. They have appelate jurisdiction out of any case
from federal appelate court and appelate jurisdiction of any case from state supreme
court. They have origincal jurisdicion in a few number of cases. The US supreme court
has final jurisdiction over any case that it hears
At the state court level there is two different types of courts at the bottom, both local
courts and state district courts have jurisdiction over violations of state law, lawsuits over
same state, and suing state
The more serious the crime the more likely you are to go to the state district court
State appelate courts have appelate jurisdiction over cases communing out of local
courts and state district courts
State supreme courts have appellate jurisdiction over things from state appellate courts,
and final jurisdiction over anything that doesnt have a federal issue
You only ever move up and down and not left or right
You could have a federal case and a state case that comes out of the same incident, the
evidence can be used between them
Supreme Court Justices
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You get to be on the supreme court by being appointed by the president and accepted
by the senate
If you are confirmed you are confirmed for life (9 nerds)
No requirements to be on supreme court
When appointing you look at people who generally agree with you
you want someone who is young but has experience (40s or 50s typically)
Once a person is nominated, it is sent to the senate judiciary committee
Senators want to ask if you are confirmed and you agree with an issue i care about, how
are you going to rule, the nominee says they cant tell you now because they arent
looking at the specifics of the case
Judicial Review
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The power to decide what the constitution or a law means
What is the opinion of 5 of the 9 supreme court justices, that legally is what the
constituion means
The supreme court interpreted the consitution to say that the supreme court has the
power to interpret the constitution
There are different ways to interperet the constitution
3 schools of thought on how the constitution should be interpreted
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Original intent, when we interpret the constitution. Take into account what the
people who wrote it mean. It could leave us stuck in the 18th century, we arent
evolving
Evolving interpretation, the way we interpret should evolve with the times. The
problem is we are leaving it up to judges to decide how society has changed
Playing meaning, trying to figure out the original intent and how society is
evolving is subjective. We should stick to the words on the page. No other
outside information, this is very stable. But the downside is that it is vague so its
hard to find the meaning of it
What do we do if we dont like a decision the supreme court makes
- Ignore the court
- Legally you could change the law or consitution
- Change the composition of the court by appointing presidents that overturn court
jurers
Civil Liberties
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Civil Liberties are rights that you have that protect you from government, and only
protect you from government
-> Freedom of speech
Civil rights are rights that protect you from everyone (including government)
-> The Right to Vote
Political Liberties
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Most important
Freedom of speech, anything you do that is designed to communicate a message. You
cant have freedom of speech and a right not to be offended at the same time
- The limits on speech are things that lead to directly and predictibally harm can
be regulated
- You can be sued for liable and slander, writing/saying something about someone
that is false and causes them harm
- Commercial speech can be regulated, have to be able to back up claims about a
product
- Limit on obscenity. Obscenity involves things that are offensive to majority of the
community and have no redeeming social value. If what you are doing is
communicating a political message the court will find the message has
redeeming social value. If the sole purpose of a message is shock value then no
redeeming social value.
Freedom of Press, the government cannot limit what the press says.
- Liable and slander rule applies to the media but also they have to know what they
were saying was false or they didnt do enough to try to figure out if it was true or
false
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Right to assemble and petition the government
- You have the right to gather together
- You cant go into a private company and protest
- Restrictions when it may cause harm to other people
- Limit time place and manor to protect people
Give them the broadest interpretation
If you dont have these, you will probably loose your other liberties
Personal Liberties
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Freedom of Religion
- Government cannot limit the exercise of religion
- The government cannot establish a religion
- The government has to recognise you are a religion
- To get the government to recognise you
- The more people you have the better off you are
- The longer people have been practicing the religion
Right to bare arms
- The right to bare arms will not go away
- If we can restrict other things when it harms other people, then there are
restrictions on gun ownership
- Age restrictions
- Restrictions on types of weapons
- Safety course requirements
Civil Liberties for people that are suspected or accused of commiting a
crime
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Protected from ex post factor laws
- You cant be punished for something that was legal when you did it
Protected from search and seizure of your property or person without proper
justification
- Need a warrent
- Or Need probable cause
Protected from self incrimination
- You dont have to answer questions
- Refusal to answer questions cant be used against you
- People have confidentiality and cant tell police if you say you did something
wrong
- Exception is if you tell psychologist you WILL commit a crime, they have
to tell police, but if you say you did commit a crime they cant tell people.
Right to an atteroney
- Even if you cant afford an attorney you will be provided one
- Your other civil rights become meaningless if you dont know what they are or
how they work
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Right to be arraigned
- Hear the charges against you
- Show a crime was commited
- Gov cant lock you up with no evidence
Right to enditement in front of grand jury
- A jury looks at the evidence and decides if there is enough evidence to have a
trial
- The grand jury doesnt have to see you are guilty, they just have to see there is a
chance you are guilty
The Right to A Speedy Trial and a partial jurry of your peers
- The govrnment cant just lock you up and never get a trial
- The court must get to you as quickly as they can
- The decision as to whether or not you are guily is not by the judge, it is made by
a group of citizens that are randomly selected
- They want someone who is not part of the government to decide if you are guilty
(cause everything else is part of the guilty)
- Unanamous decision of the jury to say evidence bewond reasonable doubt
The right to face and compel witnesses
- People who testify against you have to do so in person, in the trial. So you have
an opurtunity to cross examine
- To compell witneses means you can force witnesses to testify
Protected from cruel and unusual punishments
- The government cant torture you (the government can still execute you)
Protected from double jepordy
- You get tried twice for the same crime
Often protecting the civil liberties of people who are accused of commiting a crime isnt
popular
Our criminal justice system is not designed to be unbiased. It is biased in favor of the
defendant
- It is biased in favor of of the defendant because:
- We as a society think that it is better to let a guilty person go free, than it is to
falsy accuse an innocent person
- The government has more resources than its defendant
Civil Rights
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Protect rights from everyone
Civil rights dont belong to groups of people, they belong to individuals
Equal treatment under the law
- Economic Oppurtunity
- Getting a job
- Getting fired
- Access to education
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Political Participation
- voting
Protection From Harassment
- Sexual harassment
- Police harassment
Dealing with discrimination
- Race, Gender, Religion
Where discrimination is a civil rights issue is when it is based on things that are not
relevant to the task at hand. Prove that it is necessary there is discrimination
MLK Jr’s letter from Burmingham Jail
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Mlk is writing in response to some white ministers who criticised him for breaking the law
Mlk says he gets a lot of criticism from alot of people and i usually dont respond, but i am
responding to you because i respect you
Mlk went to burning ham to protest against the massive discrimination that is going on
Birmingham requires to have a legal protest you have to get a permit, and they are
denying a permit
Mlk is arrested for peraiding without a permit
Talks about the harm done by these injustices
When it is okay to break the law
- When the law is unjust. A law that is designed to degrade a group of people. If
the law is imposed by a majority on a minority but the minority doesnt have to live
under the same law
- Civil disobedience, cant use violence, do it openly, accept the consequence.
Force people to see there is injustice
Mlk says you should be on my side, dont just go along blindly with what is legal
If you undermine me then who will lead you
Implied threat, support me in non violent protests, or support those who are violent
Mlk believes the civil rights movemnt will succeed because americans really believe the
things they say they believe
A Decent in the bollinger case by clarence thomas
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A supreme court justice writing a decent in a supreme court case
Thomas is writing specifically to other justices on the supreme court
Thomas also compliments the people he is criticising
He sympathises with his coleges on the supreme court, he thinks they are trying to do
the right thing
There were two cases involving the university of michigan at the same time
The other case that is not this one. Had to deal with admission to undergraduate
program. They were assigning people points based on their application based on their
race.
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In the law school case they werent doing that, it was part of the factors in admission but
there wernt numbers assigned with it
The supreme court said that is okay
Thomas is disagreeting with this
The ability to discriminate against race (strict scrutany) applies because the government
is using race to choose who should go to law school or not
Thomas argues that it is unconstitutional and says it is harmful to the people it is trying to
help
King and thomas agree we should not treat people differently basd on race
King is closer to the side that says always follow what you think is right
Thomas is closer to the side that says always follow the law
If you always broke a law when someone doesnt think a law is right, then there would be
no law and defeat the purpose of having government
The other side, saying always follow the law is like nazi germany,
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Exam 1:
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Exam 2:
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Exam 3
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