diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | rich/09_american_constitutionalism | 46 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | rich/10_electoral_connection | 41 |
2 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/rich/09_american_constitutionalism b/rich/09_american_constitutionalism new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a92c07 --- /dev/null +++ b/rich/09_american_constitutionalism @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +FDR during a fireside chat recommended the American public to read and +reread the constitution. + +Its language isn't particularly complex, but it is often deliberately +ambiguous and increasingly settled by jurisprudence and precedence. +Its context sometimes helps clear things up: +- Notes kept by Constitutional Convention participants +- Federalist papers +- Correspondences of delegates and leaders +- Anti-Federalist tracts + +Believed deeply in political theory +- Social contract, government by the consent of the governed +- Legitimacy for self-government from constitution +- Wanted civil liberty (freedom except detriment to common weal) +- Used written constitutions to ensure consent of governed + +Even anti-federalists were committed to republicanism and personal +liberty. +Both sides accepted political science and the multiple interests in +government and the importance of preserving public opinion. +Anti-federalists feared the absence of a bill of rights, "unrestrained +power," and the possible development of an aristocracy, that helped make +the Constitution a good compromise. + +- Happiness an important factor +Social contract: + - People govern the people + - Didn't want to be "enslaved" by the British (Lockean analogy) + - Actual slavery was a huge compromise + - When James Madison's sealed notes released after 50 years, + (1788+50 -> 1840) it was revealed that huge compromises were + made for SC and GA. + +American Constitution is oldest national constitution in the world. +- Essentially an usurpation of authority by the Phil. Convention +- Incredibly stable, not even second convention because of worries about + weakening it + - Permanent in the minds of citizens + - State constitutions, by contrast, are unstable, long, and lightly + changed +- Ambiguities that were left in constitution -> judicial leeway (room + for much more fluid changes than a constitutional amendment) +- Tested by constitutional crisis of 1860 (civil war/secession) + +Democratic constitutionalism implies concerted effort of the citizens. diff --git a/rich/10_electoral_connection b/rich/10_electoral_connection new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e12505a --- /dev/null +++ b/rich/10_electoral_connection @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +"Congress: The Electoral Connection" by David R Mayhew + +The Congressman's primary goal is to get reelected. +Their "electoral needs" are serviced well by the structural institutions +of Congress: +- There is very little zero-sum conflict in Congress, so congressmen can + make headway for their constituents' issues without infringement +- Congressional offices provide a useful base of operations for campaign + management and for developing platform/research. Staffed evenly. +- Committees act severally + - Position-taking committees: let congressmen claim platform + - House Un-American Activities Committee + - House Education and Labor Committees + - Foreign Policy Committee + - Particularized benefits: + - Diffuse cost, concentrated benefits (taxes -> farm, e.g.) + - Usually universalist: everyone gets their share of spending on + urban renewal, or tax cuts, or public works + - Divide up labor and allow credit-claiming: + - "I put that bill through committee" + - "That was my amendment." + - Also allows speaking on the floor based on bills +- Parties + - Fluid bodies that help with bloc-making. + - Party leaders are brokerers and agenda-setters + - But individual congressmen "vote their constituencies." + +Edmunk Burke's Speech to the Electors of Bristol + +He wasn't elected by the people, instead by his friends in the +government, since the people don't have a vote and power flows from the +crown. +But he does feel responsible to the people in a half-related sense. +He will deeply consider their issues and consider their opinions with +weight, but he will exercise his own judgment for he believes the +parliament is a body of deliberation, not inclination. + +Burke also believes that national weal takes a front seat to local +interests, so he is also disconnected from his voters in that way. + +The American system somewhat models this, but is now more direct. |