Foundations of American Democracy

INTRODUCTION

• Government is essential for a market economy

  • determine the rules of the game

    • property rights

    • monetary and fiscal policy

  • interpret and enforce the rules - tends to enforce conformity and uniformity

    • uniform laws

    • conformity to laws

  • act to achieve gols which would not be achieved through the market - the logic of collective action

    • see lecture on market failure

• The market reduces the range of issues that must be decided through political means

  • supports diversity

  • based on proporitional representation using money as the basis for representation

Political and Economic Freedom

• Economic freedom requires that individuals are free to enter into exchanges as desired
• Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow man.
• The fundamental threat to economic and political freedom is the concentration of power which produces the power to coerce

  • monarchy, dictator, monopoly, oligarchy, political majority

  • the market power of large corporations is the basis for both economic power and political and social power

• The preservation of freedom requires the elimination or minimization of the concentration of power

  • Seperation of powers

    • federal, state, local

    • Executive, legislative, judical

    • regulation

  • control of concentration of economic power

Economic Power and Democracy

• Democracy began as a system of rights and political representation for those who had proved their worth by acquiring property - rural agrian interests

• With the emergence of industry and markets, capital became the most important factor of production - urban industrial and merchant interests

Classifications of Governments

• Relation of Executive to Legislature

  • presidential government

  • cabinet government - originated in Great Britain

    • prime minister and cabinet are members of the legislature, and depend on support of legislature to continue in office

• Geographic distirbution of powers

  • Confederation - loose union of states; individual states retain principle powers of government

  • Federation - union of states under one central government; independent spheres of authority may exist; local autonomy along with national concerns

  • Unitary government - one central government has whole power - France; may delegate to local government

• Limitations on power

  • autocratic - no legal limits to power of ruler - dictatorship

  • constitutional - fundemental principles limit the power of government - either written or custom an dpractice

    • under the consent of the governed

• Number of rulers

  • Monarchy - Dictatorship - government by one

  • Aristocracy - oligarchy - government by a few

  • Democracy - government by many

• Role of government - the nature of the debate

  • extent of government goods and services

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION

Popular Sovereignty

• We the people of the United States

Separation of Powers

• legislative, judical and executive branches

Federalism

• powers delegated to Congress in Article I, Section 8.

• elastic clause

  "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the Unites States, or in any Department or Officer thereof"

Limited government

• Article I, Section 9 limits power of national government

• Article I, Section 10 limits power of state government

Supremacy of National Law

• Article VI defines national government as supreme

FEDERALIST PAPER NO. 10

The Union is a check on factions and oppressive majorities

• the public good is often disregarded in the conflict of rival parties.

• the superior force of an interested and over-riding majority may overwhelm the rules of justice and the rights of the minority party if not checked.

• it is impractical to remove the cause of factions, therefore it is necessary to control it.

  • the most common foundation of factions is the unequal distribution of property

• a pure democracy can not control factions; a common interest or passion will be felt by the majority

  • a pure democracy is by necessity small and administered directly

  • the smaller the society, the more possible it is for a faction to gain their interests

• a republican form of government offers a means to control factions

  • a republic is based on the delegation of government to a small number of representatives

    • The public interest may be considered by their representatives

    • however they may also be subject to local factions if they are chosen from a small jurisdiction

  • if a republic extends over a larger population and area then there are greater diversity of interests

• the federal constitution refers aggregate interests to the national to the local and particularly the state legislature.

FEDERALIST PAPER NO. 51

The Constitution establishes a system of checks of balances based on federalism

• it is necessary to establish seperate and distinct powers of government so that each department will have a will of its own.

  • opposite and rival interests provide a check on each other

  • ambition counters ambition

• In a republic form of government legislative authority predominates

  • therefore the power of the legislature should be divided

• The weakness of the executive requires that its power be strengthened

  PRINCIPLES OF THE AMERICAN FEDERAL SYSTEM

  • all power surrendered by the people is divided between the federal and state government

    • it is further divided by departments

  • it is necessary to promote the diversity of interests in society to render the power of the majority of minority interests ineffective

    • society is broken into so many interests, parts and classes of citizens that it is difficult to form a majority interest

  • division of the Union into a Confederacy of States would encourage the development of oppressive combinations of majorities

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  References

  Saye, Albert, John F. Allums, Merritt B. Pound. Principles of American Government. Eighth Edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

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