Module 1 - Chapter Three

Constitution: Limiting Governmental Power

• In the Online Lecture section, explore the instructor's discussion of the points raised in the first chapter.
• Ask yourself: how do these points compare to those found in the text?
• Make a note of the major concepts as listed in the text and as highlighted below.
• You may want to follow some of the current events hyperlinks to find examples of issues mention at the end of the online lecture."
• Go to the Dye textbook publisher site to look at the chapter overview and to test yourself as required (see below).

 

Dye Textbook: Overview

• Look at the Dye overview to assure yourself that you have absorbed the main points.  Only look at the overview after you have read the chapter!

Online Lecture

This chapter focuses on the origins of the American political system. There are several main themes that you should remember:

It is useful to keep in mind that Britain came up with many of the institutions and ideas that constitute the basis for modern democracy. The idea of a written constitution codifying the relationship between various government institutions, and between government and the individual, was found as early as the Magna Carta. The ideas of John Locke – who focused on the nature of limited government and the natural rights of individuals to life, liberty and property – were vital to drafters of American institutions.

However, while Britain had a form of early democracy, it was distinct from what came to be the US version. First, Britain had (and still has) parliamentary rule, in which the chief executive was the prime minister. Americans are used to thinking about a separation of powers between executive and other branches of government: the parliamentary system is different and instead focuses on fusion of power between the executive and legislative branches.

The fusion of power means that:

(1) the prime minister is elected as a member of the House of Commons (comparable to the House of Representatives in the US), but NOT like the President who is elected here in a separate election. (This is why we refer to the fusion of power between branches).

(2) the prime minister expects his/her Cabinet and the rest of his/her party members to tow the party line – those that do not don’t last long! As the prime minister must obtain a majority of votes for legislation to be passed, it is convenient that he/she represents the party with a majority in Parliament (is this the same as in the US?)

(3) Elections are called by the prime minister (or officially by the Queen…) within a set maximum period (usually 4 or 5 years).

(4) The prime minister and Cabinet (collectively referred to as the "government") can be forced to resign if the House of Commons fails to pass a vote of confidence or passes a motion of censure.

Vote of confidence: The prime minister tells the House of Commons that a vote on a particular bill constitutes a vote of confidence – if the House fails to vote with the prime minister, he/she will resign. Resignation would then force a search for a new prime minister (possibly from another party), or a call for new elections.

Motion of censure: The legislature on its own passes a bill calling for the resignation of the prime minister.

Naturally, another aspect of the British system that was NOT accepted by the founders of the US system was the role of the Monarchy. While the Monarchy’s role is almost entirely symbolic in Britain today, this was not always the case. Great struggles in Britain and elsewhere in Europe took place in the 17^th through the 19^th centuries redefining the role of the elected, appointed and hereditary elements of government.

The founders of the US system did not want any titles or other vestiges of aristocracy to cloud American democracy. They did, however, include elements within the American system to reduce the role of the majorities, which were feared to a degree as much as strong executives.

Lastly, there is a sharp contrast between the US and British with regards to the distribution of power between levels of government. While Britain was (and continues to be) a unitary form of government, the US eventually gravitated to a federal form. Before dwelling on federalism (which is the topic of chapter four), we should quickly remember some aspects of the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation were set up especially to provide safeguards to the states, who feared that their power would be undermined by a strong central government. Thus, the Articles allowed states almost every power: to print money, to make foreign treaties, to tax interstate commerce, to erect standing armies, etc. As Dye mentioned, a series of problems eventually made the Articles subject to revision during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. These problems included:

War Debt: states couldn’t be forced to pay debt incurred during the Revolutionary War, angering bankers and others who had lent money to pay for the war effort;

Tariffs: on interstate commerce impeded the expansion of markets, and were especially disliked by the emerging national capitalist class who wanted to tap into a broader market without paying taxes to cross state lines;

Currency: states were able to print their own money, leading many of them to printing money excessively in order to pay back war debt in inflated currency (again angering bankers…)

Popular Revolt: Shay’s Rebellion crystallized the relative weakness of state’s abilities to provide law and order, and especially to guarantee payment to creditors (enforcement of contracts was a vital part of the new capitalist order…)

As Dye mentions, as the Constitutional Convention evolved, the Virginia Plan and later the New Jersey plan were instrumental to structuring the Constitution that finally emerged and was ratified by the states. The core values and principles included:

Liberty – the Lockean idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of property (framed as "happiness") as inalienable natural rights of individuals

Social Contract – the idea that government was based on consent of the governed through an implied contract: the people would give up some of their freedoms to government (for taxes, laws, enforcement of order) in exchange for some voice (through elections) and individual rights

Republican form of government – this idea focuses first on the notion that hereditary monarchs were unacceptable, and second on the notion that a Republic need not be a perfect Democracy. Founders (as mentioned earlier) did not trust the masses fully, and thus implemented mechanisms such as the appointment of Senators, the indirect election of Presidents (electoral college), and the appointment of members of the Supreme Court to limit the power of the masses

Limited government – focusing on avoiding excessive concentrations of power, thus the separation of powers between branches of government as well as levels (federalism). The presence of a written constitution spelling out what the government could and could not do was important, especially as elaborated in the Bill of Rights.

Nationalism – There was an acknowledgement that the federal government had to be supreme over the states, especially when it came to economic factors (like controlling the money supply and guaranteeing free trade across states) as well as foreign relations.

Representation – Combined ideas found in the Virginia Plan which emphasized the idea that there would be one house within the legislature directly elected by the citizens (House of Representatives), and the New Jersey Plan which ensured that the rights of smaller states would be protected by having a house in which each state would have an equal voice (Senate). The "great compromise" put these two ideas together.

Voter qualifications fall under the idea of representation. The Constitution left this question to the discretion of the states, which in practice led to property ownership and other requirements for voting. These were not entirely eliminated until the mid-1960s.

Slavery – Did not fit in very well with the idea of liberty and social contract, but in fact reflected the pre-Revolutionary formation of the US political economy. That period split the 13 colonies into north and south, whose ideas and principles were not entirely compatible. The south found comfort in a weak national government insofar as it feared that a strong national government could force the elimination of slavery. The cry for "states’ rights" for many years was used by the South to protect the institution of slavery.

As Dye mentions, the conflict between states’ rights to slavery, and the ideas of liberty and political equality were bound to clash, as they did in the Civil War. The Constitutional Convention came up with the idea that slaves could be counted as 3/5s of a person for the purposes of allotting Congressional representation; that idea was eliminated by the Civil War and subsequent amendments to the Constitution.

Other elements included in the Constitution dealt with powers of taxation, interstate commerce, printing of money, the maintenance of a standing army, and the role of the national government in foreign affairs (such as making the President the "commander-in-chief").

Judicial review: This power which is now understood as the ability of the Supreme Court to review bills passed by Congress and signed by the President in order to assess their accordance with the Constitution. In theory, it is possible for the Congress to pass unconstitutional laws: the Supreme Court gained the power of judicial review as an explicit power early in the 19^th century, after the Marbury vs. Madison case. Your should review this case as it is mentioned by Dye.

The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to make it more palatable to the states. It focused attention on preventing the national government from passing any laws limiting individual rights. For example, the 2^nd Amendment has been interpreted by those who favor the possession of firearms by individuals as providing an unqualified "right" to the ownership of firearms, without any limits on the number or type.

The Bill of Rights did not prevent STATES from passing laws which undermined individual rights (until the passage of the 14^th Amendment).

It is important to note that the 10^th Amendment reserved to the states powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the states. This "reserved powers" clause has often been used by advocates of states’ rights against the encroachment of the federal government. However, as the chapter on federalism will make clear, the "national supremacy clause" has often been more powerful an influence upon shaping the power of federal and state governments, to the benefit of the federal level.

As Dye mentions, most of the other amendments to the Constitution have dealt with perfecting the constitutional process to give powers to certain institutions (as with the election of Senators, or giving Congress the power to levy and income tax); expanding the realm of liberty – abolishing slavery; or ensuring greater representation by increasing the suffrage to new groups (African-Americans, women, youth).

Note the difficulties in passing amendments: They must be first proposed by either 2/3s of the House and Senate, or 3/4s of state legislatures. They must then be ratified by ¾ of the state legislatures or conventions. This is a substantial challenge to many "good ideas" which fail either to get proposed (balance budget amendment) or ratified ("Equal Rights Amendment).

Refer to current events sources for news about impeachment as an aspect of the Constitution. How specific is the Constitution regarding the condition for impeachment?

Try going to the http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/ site for some national events.  Local events are covered in several newspapers such as the Annapolis Capital, the Baltimore Sun or the Washington Post.