Transcript The Institutionalization of Power Poli 110J 2.1

The Institutionalization of Power
Poli 110J 2.1
Democracy and Republic
Declaration of Independence
(recap)
• In the voice of a national people
– The Union is a community of belief
• Equality the primary political good
• State of Nature argument, rights given by “the
Creator”
• Purpose of Gov’t to protect security & inborn
rights of individuals
Articles of Confederation
(recap)
• Written in the voice of the representatives of
the various States
– Union a contractual alliance of sovereign states
• Loose confederation, central gov’t lacks
coercive powers for either draft or taxation
• Most powers remain w/states, who retain high
levels of internal sovereignty
Articles of Confederation
(recap)
• needs 2/3 majority for legislations. National
laws apply to states, not individuals.
• Unanimity required for change
– Each state has veto
Democracy and Republic
• What is a republic?
• Minimally: Head of state chosen by method other
than hereditary succession
• Traditionally: A strong concern with the defense
and moral significance of the community.
– Strong concern with political & moral virtues,
corruption
– Free individuals banded together into a political unit
Democracy and Republic
• What is democracy?
– “The rule of the people”
– At this time, it referred primarily to what we now
call direct (i.e. non-representative) democracy
– Had a bad reputation for being erratic & lawless
Democracy and Republic
• What is liberalism?
– Strong political rights
– Strong property rights
– Rule of law
– Usually based in the authority of reason
Democracy and Republic
• These 3 political traditions are highly
influential at the time of the nation’s founding
(1776) and the drafting of the Constitution
(1787)
• Unresolved questions:
– Which is better, a small or a large republic?
– What is the ultimate source of authority, the law
or the will of the people?
– How should the will of the people be mediated?
Federalist Papers
• 1787-88
• Authorship:
• Usually credited as follows:
– Alexander Hamilton: #1, 6–9, 11–13, 15–17, 21–
36, 59–61, and 65–85
– James Madison: #10, 14, 37–58 and 62–63
– John Jay: #2–5 and 64
Federalist Papers
• Why kept secret? Why attributed to a single
pseudonym?
• Publius Valerius Publicola
– A leader of the Roman revolt, which ended the
line of the kings of Rome
– Wrote popular series of laws, helped to structure
Roman Republic
– Called “the friend of the people”
Anti-Federalist Papers
• 1787
• Unlike Federalist papers, not an organized project.
– “Anti-Federalist” a label that got attached to the position in
these essays
– Numbers assigned by later researches. We use those of
Morton Borden, meant to match roughly w/Federalist
Papers
• Authorship:
– Cato (~George Clinton)
– Brutus (~Robert Yates)
– Centinel (Samuel Bryan)
Anti-Federalist Papers
• Cato: Senator of the late Roman Republic,
known for his moral integrity & opposition to
the coup by Julius Caesar
• Brutus: most famous of Caesar’s assassins
• Centinel = Sentinel, guardian
A Revolution Divided
• Classical pseudonyms reveal the extent to
which Federalists & Anti-Federalists differ in
their points of view
– Is the republic being born, or threatened with
destruction?
• Many revolutions, lacking established
authority by definition, suffer internal conflict
– American political institutions may have helped to
prevent American divisions from causing major
political violence
A Revolution Divided
• Points of conflict
– What is America?
– One people or many?
– Both agree that ultimate source of political
authority lies in the people, but is that authority
expressed in their laws or in their voices?
– To what extent a democracy, to what a republic?
A Revolution Divided
• Points of conflict
– What should be the nature and the power of
American political institutions?
– Where should political power be located?
– How strong should the Union be?
Federalist and Anti-Federalist
• Basic points of disagreement:
– Are people fundamentally good or fundamentally
bad?
• What makes them good or bad?
– Which is the greater and more immediate threat,
anarchy or despotism?
– Is the United States one people or many?
Federalist and Anti-Federalist
• Basic points of agreement
– Our opponents are blinded by interest and
passion
• Fed #1: Opponents blinded by “perverted ambition”,
“passions and prejudices little favorable to the
discovery of truth”
• AF #1: “the deceptive mists cast before the eyes of the
people by the delusive machinations of its INTERESTED
advocates begins to dissipate”
Federalist and Anti-Federalist
• Though they take strongly opposed positions,
each side of the Constitution debate speaks
the same political language.
• Thus, this is not an issue of what ideals and
principles apply, but of their interpretation.
Federalist
• People are fundamentally bad
– Fed. #10: “The latent causes of faction are thus
sown in the nature of man; and we see them
everywhere brought into different degrees of
activity, according to the different circumstances
of civil society.”
– Fed. #6: “men are ambitious, vindictive, and
rapacious.”
Anti-Federalist
• Humans are fundamentally good
– AF #3: “Where the government is lodged in the body
of the people, as in Switzerland, they can never be
corrupted; for no prince, or people, can have
resources enough to corrupt the majority of a nation”
– “We make them bad, by bad governments, and then
abuse and despise them for being so. Our people are
capable of being made anything that human nature
was or is capable of, if we would only have a little
patience and give them good and wholesome
institutions”
Federalist
• Anarchy and civil war are the most pressing
threats
– Fed. #10: Due to the increased freedom found in
republics, they are particularly prone to faction.
– Fed. #6: “if these States should either be wholly
disunited, or only united in partial confederacies,
the subdivisions into which they might be thrown
would have frequent and violent contests with
each other.”
Federalist
• Anarchy and civil war are the most pressing
threats
– Fed. #6: “Has it not, on the contrary, invariably
been found that momentary passions, and
immediate interest, have a more active and
imperious control over human conduct than
general or remote considerations of policy, utility
or justice? Have republics in practice been less
addicted to war than monarchies? Are not the
former administered by men as well as the
latter?”
Anti-Federalist
• Despotism is the most pressing threat
– AF #2: Democratic republics, ruled by the people, will
not make war on one another (a version of the
“democratic peace” argument)
– AF #3: “Order and security are immediately sought by
the distracted people beneath the shelter of equal
laws and the salutary restraints of regular
government; and if this be not attainable, absolute
power is assumed by the one, or a few, who shall be
the most enterprising and successful.”
Anti-Federalist
• Despotism is the most pressing threat
– AF #14: National government unwieldy, threatens
state freedom
– AF #6: “a continual civil war, which is the most
destructive and horrible scene of human discord,
is preferable to the uniformity of wretchedness
and misery attendant upon despotism; of all
possible evils, as I observed in my first number,
this is the worst and the most to be dreaded. “
Federalist
• The United States is one, national people
– Fed. #14: "Shut your hearts against the poison
which it conveys; the kindred blood which flows in
the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood
which they have shed in defense of their sacred
rights, consecrate their Union, and excite horror at
the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies."
Federalist
• The United States is one, national people
– Fed. #23: “If we are in earnest about giving the
Union energy and duration, we must abandon the
vain project of legislating upon the States in their
collective capacities; we must extend the laws of
the federal government to the individual citizens
of America”
• See AF #3: Gov’t affecting individuals is national;
affecting states, federal
– Fed. #78: The Constitution will be the expression
of the will of “the people”.
Anti-Federalist
• The United States is an alliance of many
peoples
– AF #3: The division of American power and
identity makes the government slower, less active,
and less powerful. This leads to peace, and is a
good thing.
Anti-Federalist
• The United States is an alliance of many peoples
– AF #14: “It may be suggested, …that whoever is a
citizen of one state is a citizen of each, and that
therefore he will be as interested in the happiness and
interest of all, as the one he is delegated from. But the
argument is fallacious, and, whoever has attended to
the history of mankind, and the principles which bind
them together as parents, citizens, or men, will readily
perceive it. “
• Local identity and loyalty is stronger than national