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POLITICAL SCIENCE MIDTERM OUTLINE
• British and French war 1756–1763
• Britain won, and needed money to pay for reparations, so they started imposing a
higher tax on the colonies
• The colonies were not fond of this tax and began rebelling:
o Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia
o “No taxation without representation”
o Boycotts
o Wealth was very concentrated by the top 5% of taxpayers
• Overthrew the colonial rulers
• Howard Zinn’s view:
o Ambitious colonial elite saw the opportunity to expand their power and
influence
o Mobilized lower class energy for upper class purposes (Zinn was saying that
leaders used smart words to fuel up the energy of those who were poor because
it was easy to get them angry and they used the poor’s energy to charge against
the British, all for the purposes of the rich)
o Used inspiring language to build resentment against British rule and forge
common American identity
o Created the myth of the revolution – that it was on behalf of the common people
• Nature of Government
o British had an aristocracy, in which power and privilege it attached to title
inherited from birth, rigid and hierarchic, feudal
o However, the US was going to have a democratic nature of government, in which
class differences exist, but social mobility is possible. Hierarchy is fluid, liberal-
egalitarian.
• Concepts of government:
o Equality: each person is equal and has the same rights as any other person
o Liberty: freedom from governmental interference in our lives
o Popular Sovereignty: government exists because the people allow it to
o NB: representative, not direct democracy—Founding fathers had low opinions of
the masses
• DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
o Justification for independence
o Philosophy of individual rights and self-government
o Statement against tyranny
o Statement against power derived religious of monarchic authority
o All men created equal
o Endowed by creator with inalienable rights
o Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
o Government… derives its powers from the consent of the governed
o People have the right to “alter the government”
o List of grievances against King
o Supporting examples
o Case against tyrannical practices
o Sanctity of representative democracy
• LOUIS HARTZ:
o The liberal tradition in America
o Lack of feudal stage in US history prevented the development of socialism as an
ideological or revolutionary challenge to liberalism
o Instead, the US developed a strong liberal tradition: equality, private property,
liberty, individualism, democracy
o This had dominated political discourse ever since, creating a broad consensus
around these political beliefs
• ROGER SMITH
o Noted for his research and writing on American constitutional and political
development and political thought, with a focus on issues of citizenship and
racial, gender and class inequalities.
o Smith disputes dominance of liberal tradition: instead, it exists alongside a
second, often contradictory tradition of “ascriptive hierarchy”
o Society is divided into a hierarchy where the liberal tradition applies to those on
top, but not on the lower classes or groups
o Treatment of minorities and women clearest example
o American political development is the product of these often conflicting multiple
tradition
• THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
o weak central government
o league of “sovereign states”
o individual states held the real power
• Weaknesses of the Articles (pp. 24-25)
• 1. could not levy taxes directly
• 2. could not regulate commerce
• 3. states could issue paper money
• 4. delegates to confederal Congress were loyal to states
• 5. state militias primary units of defense-- lack of a national army and navy
• 6. unanimity need for amendments
• 7. no Supreme Court--difficult to settle inter-state disputes
• 8. could not enforce laws or treaties.
• Why the articles failed?
o Weak central government
o Did not resolve key divisions emerging in new nation
o No enforcement mechanism
o No power of taxation
• Shay’s rebellion
o An uprising of indebted farmers
o Revealed faults of the weak confederation
o Massachusetts responds to economic crisis by forgiving debt and printing more
paper money(Pro-Debtor Laws), as a result sheriffs seized farms and arrested
farmers who could not pay their debts
• The Constitutional Convention: 1787
o Challenges:
▪ Create democratic system with limited popular sovereignty
▪ Create stronger national government that isn’t tyrannical
• A republican form of government
o A particular form of democracy in which people select representatives to make
the laws
o Constraints on popular rule:
▪ electoral collage
▪ presidential appointment of justices
▪ senate (for 1st 100 years) elected by state legistlatures
• The constitution and Founding Conflicts
• #1: More powerful national government
o Three branches
o Checks and balances
o Federalism
• Legislative branch
o Taxation
o Approval of presidential nominations
o Maintain army/navy
o Declaration of war
• Executive Branch
o International duties
o Appointments
o Veto power
o Convene special sessions of congress
• Judicial branch
o Handles conflict between states and federal government
• #2: Deciding representation
o Virginia Plan VS New Jersey Plan
Virginia Plan New Jersey Plan
o bicameral Unicameral
o Large states Small states
o Unitary form, independent of states confederation
o Representation based on population equality of representation
o Power to pass all laws in which
o States are incompetent, or where
o State action disrupts harmony
o of the union
o Veto state laws
o Use military against states
