Instructor Info
Instructor: Anthony Madonna
Email: ajmadonn@uga.edu
Website: http://ajmadonn.myweb.uga.edu/
Office: 418 Baldwin Hall
Office Hours: MW 1:30-2:30pm
Phone: (706) 583-0555
Syllabus is on the website.
Introduction to American Government
POLS 1101
The University of Georgia
Prof. Anthony Madonna
ajmadonn@uga.edu
Collective Action Problems
Trade and Foreign Policy
After the Revolutionary War, states engaged in cutthroat competition for
foreign commerce.
Resolution by Framers:
Placed foreign policy under the administration of the president.
Gave Congress the explicit legislative authority to regulate
commerce.
Defense and security given to the national government as
responsibilities.
The Framers recognized that the states had to surrender some of
their autonomy to a central agency – the national government –
in order to prevent free riding or the breaking of collective
agreements and thus allow successful joint actions.
Constitution forbids any state from entering into a foreign alliance
or treaty, maintaining a military during peacetime, or engaging in
war unless invaded.
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Slavery
Women’s Rights
Delegates agreed to allow the
individual states to continue to decide
which citizens should have the right to
vote.
Women and slaves were left out of the
Constitution. However, it does read as
though it were drafted to be as free of
gender bias as the eighteenth century
usage allowed (person, citizens).
Women’s political rights simply had
not yet become an issue.
Slavery was not absent from the debates. It was present at
several important junctures and figured importantly in many
delegates’ private calculations, particularly those from the
South.
One critical point was during the creation of the national
legislature.
Southern states wanted to count slaves as part of their
population, thus giving them more representatives in the
House. Yet these “citizens” had no rights in that state.
After much debate, the southern states were allowed to
count a slave as three-fifths of a citizen.
Slavery
Slavery
Why did the northern delegates give in to the southern ones,
who were fewer in number?
The need to get the Constitution passed.
Fear of defection.
Later in the convention some southern delegates insisted on
two guarantees for their “peculiar institution” as conditions
for remaining at the convention and endorsing its result.
Unrestricted right to continue importing slaves. In the end
they managed to negate a ban on regulation of slavery
until 1808.
The return of runaway slaves in northern states.
New England accommodated the South, and in return the
South dropped its opposition to commercial issues that were
important to New England.
Logrolling -- a standard bargaining strategy in which two
sides swap support for dissimilar policies.
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Amending the Constitution
Amending the Constitution
Since its ratification, the Constitution
has been amended twenty-seven
times.
In every instance Congress
initiated the process.
In all but one case, the state
legislatures did the ratifying.
Six additional amendments (including
ERA) were sent to the states but failed
to win the needed number of
endorsements.
Ratification
In addition, dozens of amendments are proposed in
Congress but fail to garner enough support.
Recent examples include: amendments to restrict
marriage to a man and a woman; assuring “God” is
included in the Pledge of Allegiance; and providing a
mechanism for Congress to replenish its membership
should more than a quarter of its members be killed.
Ratification
“The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be
sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between
the States so ratifying the Same.”
This statement did two important things.
It removed the unanimous assent rule of the Articles of
Confederation.
Antifederalists argued that only local democracy could approach true
democracy. A country so large and diverse could not be ruled by a single
set of laws.
Stronger national government must come with safeguards against tyranny.
It withdrew authority from the state legislatures, which
might have misgivings about surrendering autonomy.
Madison made a strategic move and announced that he would introduce
the constitutional amendments that would protect individual rights.
For this reason, the Bill of Rights was included almost immediately after
ratification.
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Ratification
Ratification
Two of the Federalist Papers (Nos. 10 and 51) focus on the fundamental
problem of self-governance.
We are not “angels,” as Madison writes, so how do we get a government
of non-angels not only to govern the governed, but to “govern” itself as
well?
The responses mustered to counter the Antifederalist arguments against
the Constitution collectively make up eighty-five essays.
Written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay
Were directed primarily at New York, which had not yet voted in 1788,
although by this point the Constitution was technically ratified.
Fed. 10 responds to the strongest argument of the Antifederalists -- that a
“large Republic” cannot long survive.
Discusses the negatives of faction defined as “a number of citizens,
whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united
and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse
to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests
of the community.”
They provide insight into the “genuine” meaning of the Constitution.
Fed 10
Fed 51
How does Madison propose we “control” faction?
Two possible solutions:
(1) Removing it’s causes…
Destroying liberties…
Everyone has the same preferences…
(2) Control it’s effects…
Expand the sphere…More voters! More factions!
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were
to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would
be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by
men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the
government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to
control itself.”
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Fed 51
Constitution
How does a government control itself?
-By dispersing power among
several branches…
-Being subjected to majority
rule…
This serves to guard against tyranny,
expands the sphere of influence and
solidifies the Republic.
Irony: national pluralism that Madison was striving to install
was already at work at the federal convention, frustrating
their success.
Many of the Constitution’s provisions have no theoretical
rationale; they are simply the hammered-out products of
compromise.
News
“Grass-roots liberal movements gave birth to two Democratic stars over the past
decade: one who rode a wave of antiwar sentiment into the White House and the
other who became the ideological standard-bearer in the party’s fight against big
banks and corporate greed,” the Washington Post reports. “Now, in a battle few saw
coming three years ago, President Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are
locked in an increasingly personal feud over a global trade deal that the president is
trying to finalize in his last years in the White House. The clash has become a
defining battle for Democrats, as Obama seeks — and Warren resists — “fast-track authority” from Congress that would give him a freer hand to cut trade deals.”
Introduction to American Government
POLS 1101
The University of Georgia
Prof. Anthony Madonna
ajmadonn@uga.edu
Washington Post: “There could be 16 or more declared candidates by then in one
of the most robust GOP presidential fields in history. Another half-dozen are
contemplating long-shot bids. No GOP primary debate has ever included more
than 10 candidates. Even if this year’s stage is more crowded than in the past,
some reasonably serious White House aspirants are bound to be left out.” “The
criteria for who will qualify to participate will be set by the news organization
producing each debate, with input from party officials. This year, the behind-thescenes discussions have been the source of acute angst at the Republican National
Committee, which has floated using factors such as campaign donations and earlystate staffing to winnow the pool.”
Calling it a “major-ass haul” that would provide “some muchneeded scratch,” Vice President Joe Biden reportedly scored
over 800 feet of copper wire from a foreclosed home in the D.C.
suburbs, White House sources confirmed Thursday.
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Federalism
Under the articles of confederation voters bequeathed
power to the state and local governments, which then
bequeathed power to the federal government.
This resulted in high transaction costs and many states
became free riders.
During the Constitutional Convention, the founders
sought to cut down on these transaction costs by striking a
balance between state and federal power.
American-Style Federalism
Federalism
Building off of the work of Montesquieu, the AntiFederalists took issue with this “balance.” They argued
that a large Republic could never be successful. The
antifederalists favored the confederation, where the states
were sovereign.
In a federal system, authority is
divided between two or more
distinct levels of government.
In the United States the division
is between the national (federal)
government and the states.
American-Style Federalism
Federalism is a hybrid arrangement.
Mixes elements of a confederation (lower level has
real power) and a unitary government (national level
monopolizes constitutional authority).
Before adopting a federal system in the Constitution the
nation had experienced both of these alternatives.
Monarchy/parliament – unitary.
Articles of Confederation – confederation.
Worldwide, unitary governments are far more common.
Typically, the central government establishes national
policies and raises and distributes funds to the local
units to carry them out.
Lower-level units function primarily as the
administrative apparatus of the national government.
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Qualifications of Federal Systems
Qualifications of Federal Systems
A government must have constitutional relations across
levels, interactions that satisfy three general conditions:
1. The same people and territory are included in both
levels of government.
2. The nation’s constitution protects units at each level
of government from encroachment by the other units.
The second condition, independence, sets the stage for the
third condition, mutual influence.
Independence was the missing ingredient that made the
national government impotent under the Articles of
Confederation.
3. Each unit is in a position to exert some leverage
over the other.
Qualifications of Federal Systems
Note also that local governments are not a separate level
of government.
They are established by the state and do not exercise
independent, constitutional authority.
State law establishes their responsibilities and the extent
of their discretion over policies.
Types of Federalism
Two distinct forms of American federalism have been
identified.
Dual federalism.
Shared federalism.
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Dual Federalism
The simplest possible arrangement.
This type of federalism leaves the states and the national
government presiding over mutually exclusive “spheres of
sovereignty.”
The nation, however, has never divided authority so
neatly.
Shared Federalism
The second and more accurate conception of federalism is
called shared (or “cooperative”) federalism.
It recognizes that the national and state governments
jointly supply services to the citizenry.
Over the years progressive nationalization has moved
American federalism from mostly dual to mostly shared.
Dual Federalism
From the early days of quite limited responsibility for the
national government, nationalization has shifted authority
to the national side and away from state governments.
Today the national government has a hand in almost all
policies that “concern the lives” of the citizenry.
Dual federalism no longer describes that nature of
federal-state relations.
Shared Federalism
Often the scope and complexity of modern problems
mandate a joint, cooperative strategy across states and
levels of government.
Critics of nationalization argue that the federal
government has so intruded into the traditional
responsibilities of states and local
communities that even “shared” federalism is a misnomer.
But if there have always been critics, how did we get to
this point?
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Shared Federalism
Why have states’ rights advocates had difficulty
partitioning federal and state responsibilities?
As national politicians sought to expand their authority
over the years, they discovered that the wall between the
federal government and the states was not impregnable.
Shared Federalism
But the question of whether
or not the federal
government actually
assumed responsibility for a
specific policy remained
(and still is) a political
decision.
The Constitution leaves ample room for a variety of
federal-state relations.
Moreover, when nationalization of public policy
proceeded, it rarely triggered a constitutional crisis.
Shared Federalism
Federalism and the Constitution
South Dakota v. Dole (1987)
South Dakota, allowed 19-year-olds to purchase beer
containing up to 3.2% alcohol.
In 1984, the United States Congress passed the National
Minimum Drinking Age Act, withholding highway funds
from states that did not adopt a minimum legal age of 21.
South Dakota challenges the law and loses 7-2. The
ruling argues that this is a valid exercise of federal
authority under the “necessary and proper clause.”
The greatest victory of states’ righters during the
Constitutional Convention was the creation of a Senate
whose members were to be selected by the state
legislatures.
Thus senators are beholden to the state legislators.
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Federalism and the Constitution
The ratification of the Constitution was by state
conventions that directly represented the people, not by
the state governments themselves.
Thus the people created the government, not the states.
Language governing the relationship of the national
government to the states runs throughout the Constitution.
But the end result was a system open to nationalizing
forces.
The Supremacy Clause
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States
which shall be made in Pursuance thereof [that is, in
keeping with the principles of the Constitution] … shall
be the supreme law of the land.”
The provision of the Constitution with the most profound
implication for modern American federalism is the socalled supremacy clause in Article VI.
This clause does not give the federal government free
license.
Framed to avoid impasses over jurisdiction rather than
to cede to the national government broad, preemptive
authority over the states.
The Powers of Congress
The Powers of Congress
Some powers are broadly stated and thus helped open up
state policy to national intervention.
Example: the commerce clause.
Article I, Section 8 lists powers of Congress (enumerated
powers).
In addition, the elastic clause (necessary and proper
clause) also eventually undermined the restrictive purpose
of the enumerated powers.
These powers are important to federalism because they
create jurisdictional boundaries between the states and the
national government.
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The Tenth Amendment
Given the fear of tyranny as articulated by the
Antifederalists, it is not surprising that Madison had to
promise the addition of a Bill of Rights as an incentive for
ratification.
Many members of the first Congress wanted protections
for the states as well as for individual citizens.
The Tenth Amendment reserves to the states (or the
people) all powers not directly given to the national
government.
Interpreting Constitutional Provisions
Sweeping language with
which the Constitution
variously endorses national
power and states’ rights has
given politicians easy
openings to interpret the
Constitution according to
their own political
objectives.
The “wall” between the
federal government and the
states is not as impregnable
as the Framers had
supposed.
The Tenth Amendment
The Tenth Amendment offers the most explicit
endorsement of federalism to be found in the Constitution.
Yet despite its plain language, the Tenth Amendment has
failed to play a major role in fending off national
authority.
Why?
The powerful combination of the supremacy and the
elastic clauses.
Interpreting Constitutional Provisions
The Framers envisioned the
Supreme Court as the
referee of disputes
between the national and
state governments.
– When resolved created
powerful precedents.
– Allowed national
policy to develop free
of state prerogatives.
McCulloch v. Maryland
(1819)
– Protected the national
government from
actions of the state.
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
– Only Congress
possesses authority to
regulate commerce.
Garcia v. San Antonio Metro
Transit Authority (1985)
– Federal wage hours
applied to state and
local employees.
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McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
McCulloch v. Maryland
(1819)
It goes to the Supreme Court.
In 1816, a new national bank
gets re-chartered. It’s
not-popular.
Maryland is one of the states
that is particularly
cheesed with this new
bank. They levy a 2% tax
on it.
The two big questions:
(1) Can Congress charter a
bank?
(2) Can a state tax a federal
entity?
James McCulloch – a bank
agent – refuses to pay the
tax.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
(1) Yes. Under the necessary and proper
clause, this is a Constitutional exercise
of federal power.
(2) No. The 10th Amendment reserves to
the states only powers not delegated to
the federal government and the
Constitution already gives the federal
government the power to tax. Further,
as the “power to tax involves the
power to destroy,” the federal
government is exempt from state taxes
under the Supremacy Clause.
New York State legislature gives
Ogden a steamboat monopoly.
A New Jersey steamboat operator,
Gibbons, enters New York
waters hoping to steal some of
Ogden’s business.
Ogden is upset – pressures New
York to ban Gibbons.
Gibbons hires Daniel Webster and
this goes to the Supreme Court.
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Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
(1)Yes. Commerce is more than
just buying and selling, and
while the power to regulate
commerce within a state
belongs to the state,
commerce among the states
does not stop at the border.
It goes to the Supreme Court.
The two big questions:
(1) Does the Constitution
permit the federal
government to regulate
navigation?
(2) No. The NY monopoly is unconstitutional because the
Supremacy Clause gives the federal government’s laws
precedent here despite the 10th Amendment. However, the
monopoly would have been fine if the federal government did
not choose to regulate.
(2) Is the New York monopoly
Constitutional under the
10th Amendment or does
this violate the Commerce
Clause?
Nationalization
Bottom line: Power is
shifting from the states to
the federal government.
The Logic of Nationalization
How does policy become nationalized?
Generally, two scenarios:
The 10th Amendment
usually loses at the
Supreme Court level.
It’s kind of like the Ohio
State of Constitutional
Amendments.
Realities of collective action (problem solving).
Purely political considerations (i.e., opportunities for
political advantage).
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The Logic of Nationalization
The Paths to Nationalization
A state’s jurisdiction over public goods that fall within its
borders offers real advantages: efficiency and
responsiveness.
But once the public good encompasses the larger
community, the logic for local control disappears.
Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century,
America remained a nation of segmented communities
that did not require much coordination of commercial
endeavors.
The logic of collective action has assumed several forms:
The Paths to Nationalization
Historic Transfers of Policy to Washington
First, Americans have at times decided collectively to
adopt policies of such magnitude and scope that they
outstripped the resources of states.
Roosevelt’s New Deal (1930s).
Johnson’s Great Society (1960s).
Second, states have solicited federal intervention when they could
not solve their problems by working together individually.
Finally, political considerations inspired national majorities to insist
on federal involvement in what were formally state and local
matters.
Broadened the scope of federal responsibilities.
Were accompanied by large national majorities to Congress from the
president’s party. A mandate for new collective goods.
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New Deal
Roosevelt’s New Deal was
a comprehensive set of
economic regulations and
relief programs (massive in
size and scope) intended to
fight the Great Depression.
To justify its unprecedented
intervention in the
economy, FDR invoked the
commerce clause.
Nationalization: The Solution to States’
Collective Dilemmas
The kinds of collective action dilemmas that prompt states
to ask Washington for help often fall into one of three
categories:
Great Society
Elected in 1964, Lyndon Johnson
and his Democratic Congress
launched a War on Poverty -- part
of a Great Society agenda.
Passed more than 100 new
categorical grant programs.
Spent over $5 billion 1964-65.
Grants supplemented state
programs/national goals.
Traditional state and local
responsibilities became federal
ones.
Coordination Problems
A nation composed of fifty states is bound to face
coordination problems.
Example of driver’s license laws:
(1) Coordination problems.
(2) Reneging and shirking.
(3) Cutthroat competition.
Lobby to standardization for interstate truckers -- what
led to this federal intervention?
Creation of bureau within DOT to centralize records
of traffic violations.
Easier to create centralized record keeping than to
require each state to update its records with those of
every other state.
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Reneging and Shirking
Cutthroat Competition
Under the Articles of Confederation
each state was free to conduct its own
international trade policy.
Foreign governments and
merchants would exploit the
competition among the states for
their own ends.
States may always honor their commitments to their sister states.
Classic prisoner’s dilemma -why?
The Constitution and national laws solve many of these dilemmas
by authorizing the federal government to take direct action raising
resources and administering policy.
Negotiating from a united front
the best strategy, but states
underbid each other or engaged
in cutthroat competition.
Example: polluted air/water. Without enforcement states continue to
pollute.
Political Logic of Nationalization
Sometimes those promoting a policy find that it is in their
interest to shift their focus from the states to the national
government. Why?
Difficult to lobby/persuade fifty separate states.
More efficient method – a single federal law can
change policy in all fifty states at once.
National government may be more receptive.
At various times cutthroat
competition has prompted state
officials to lobby Washington to
prevent bidding wars.
Examples: minimum wage standards,
environmental regulation.
Competition can also emerge as
states bid against each other for
economic reasons – getting
companies to relocate to their state by
providing tax breaks or special
services.
States spend as much as $40 billion
annually to lure and retain large
employers to their states.
Political Logic of Nationalization
Sometimes the reverse
political process occurs, as
groups that lose at the
national level see smaller
victories in those states
where they enjoy majority
support.
Example: social
conservatives on the issues
of abortion rights and
school prayer.
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Modern Federalism
National government’s primacy in setting domestic policy
is secure.
Recent Supreme Court decisions.
Limit federal government.
Gains have been modest.
Easily circumvented by an alternative strategy of
financial inducements.
Preemption legislation.
Less so than sharing responsibility.
Carrots and sticks.
Preemptive Legislation
Federal laws that assert the national government’s prerogative to
control public policy in a field.
Relatively little preemption prior to the New Deal. Afterwards,
much more.
Owes its existence to the supremacy clause.
On balance, federal government has not usurped states’ jurisdictions
so much as it has joined with the states in formulating policy.
Result: shared federalism.
How does the federal government induce cooperation from the
constitutionally independent states?
Carrots and sticks.
The Carrot: Federal Grants
to the States
The Carrot: Federal Grants
to the States
During the last fifty years federal grants-in-aid became an
important part of intergovernmental relations.
Another alternative to categorical
grants: block grants.
Few grants prior to New Deal.
Like categorical grants, funds are
appropriated to achieve a
particular policy goal with
specific administrative
procedures.
All of these programs enlist categorical grants, in which
federal dollars are tied to particular programs or
categories of spending.
These grants are inducements to states to carry out
particular programs, but they also allow the national
government to define these state programs.
Policy targets are only
generally stated.
Fewer strings are attached.
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The Stick: Unfunded Mandates
Trends in the Federal Regulation of the States
Since the 1960s the federal government has relied
increasingly on rules to pursue policy objectives.
States are required to administer policies they might
object to, and they may even be asked to pay for the
administration of the policies.
Examples:
No Child Left Behind Act.
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
Required that new federal laws pay for the programs
and regulations they imposed on the states.
Help America Vote Act.
The practice of unfunded mandates and preemptive
legislation has continued.
Conclusion
Federalism: A Byproduct of National Policy
Federal-state relations are dynamic.
Dramatically transformed during the twentieth
century.
Nationalization of public policy is not based on a grand
design planned by the Framers.
Product of the interplay of political interests.
Problem solving.
Questions?
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Constituency service.
Likely to continue in this form.
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