9/19 Historical Foundations

Class Recap:

Ideologies Primer:
Economic Ideologies
-Libertarianism
-Marxism
-Fiscal Conservatism
-Socialism
-Fiscal Conservatism and Socialism are both based on the economic model of Keynesianism
-Keynesianism is an economic theory, put forward by John Maynard Keynes, that argues that economies go through booms and busts--times of growth and recessions/depressions--and a government can help alleviate this by taking a deficit during recessions and a surplus during times of economic growth
-All of these ideologies post-date the founding of the US. At the time of its founding, the primary influences on economic and political ideas was that of Adam Smith, John Locke, and contemporary European Governments.

Private Ideologies
-Individualism
-Communalism

History of the Founding of the US
-The Declaration of Independence
-The Articles of Confederation
-States delegate authority to a democratically elected confederation of states
-Didn't have enough authority to raise revenues (taxes) to pay debts
-Couldn't muster a military force quickly enough to take care of military threats
-Established a system by which new states could be created--breaking away from the colonial model
-The US Constitution
-A group, meant to write amendments to the articles of confederation, secretly drafted an entirely new document that would establish a profoundly stronger federal government
-This set off a debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists
-Federalists: Largely from the Merchant Class, and from Urban populations. Argued for a system of government that had a strong central government that had authority over the state government
-Anti-Federalists: Largely plantation owners and from Rural populations. Argued against a strong central government. Saw it as a move towards the kind of government they rebelled against when they broke away from Britain. Wanted the States to maintain authority over any central government. Feared a central government would take away their Civil Liberties.
-As a result of these debates, the Bill of Rights (a set of ten amendments) was added to the Constitution, specifically to protect the people's Civil Liberties from this new strong central government

The Great Compromise:
-During the debates over what this new government, under the new Constitution, should look like, the issue of representation came up
-The Virginia Plan argued for state representation by population
-The New Jersey Plan argued for equal representation for each state
-They settled on a compromise where the Legislature would have to parts, a House (based on population) and a Senate (equal representation for each state). This is call a Bicameral Legislature (as opposed to a Unicameral Legislature--only one group)

Vocabulary:
Marxism: an economic and political philosophy based on an idea that it is better for humanity if they own things collectively, not individually. Famously, "from each according to his/her abilities, to each according to his/her needs."
Libertarianism: an economic and political philosophy that government should be completely uninvolved in economic matters. The governments job is to protect people's right to property, and the free market will take care of everything else.
Socialism: an economic and political philosophy that favors government involvement in economics, to help redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, to provide basic services to all citizens, and to take care of citizens in need.
Fiscal Conservatism: an economic and political philosophy that favors the free market, and strives to involve the government as little as possible in economic matters. The care for individuals should be left to families and communities.
Keynesianism: an economic theory, put forward by Jon Maynard Keynes, that argues that economies go through booms and busts--times of growth and recessions/depressions--and a government can help alleviate this by taking a deficit during recessions and a surplus during times of economic growth
Confederacy: a government model where states delegate certain authorities to a central government, but retain authority over that central government.
Federalism: a government model where a central government has authority over state governments.
Legislature: a political body which exists for the purpose of making laws
Unicameral Legislature: a legislature that consists on only one group of people
Bicameral Legislature: a split legislature, with two independent decision making groups

Homework:

Read: chapters 2 and 3 from Wilson's American Government

Ask a Question: You are required to ask at least one question, as a comment on this post, about the textbook reading, by Sunday at 9:00pm. Try and think of a something you are really curious about or confused about from the reading.

Watch: Episode 4 of Harvard Professor Michael Sandel's Series on Justice:
http://www.justiceharvard.org/2011/02/episode-04/#watch
-This is a recorded Harvard class about John Locke's theory of Inalienable Rights, and how it relates to government taxation. It might be a bit difficult to understand, but if you can make sense of it, then you know you could hold your own in a Harvard classroom. If you really like this philosophical background to ideas in American Government, I recommend watching the rest of the videos from this series on your own. Episode 3 is a really good explanation of the basic ideas of Libertarianism.

Write: Write a 300-600 word response to Sandel's video lecture, or a response to the question "is it ok for governments to tax the people; if so, why, and how much?" Email your short paper to me by 9:00pm Sunday.

Decide: Talk to your parents and make a decision about wether or not you plan to take the American Government CLEP test. Let me know by email before next class. If you decide you do want to take the CLEP test I will be assigning you extra reading every week and you should start practicing the vocabulary listed on the website along with each class recap.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment on this post, email me at dylanhglenn@gmail.com, or call me anytime before 10:00pm at 215-756-5181.

Good luck. I'll see you next Monday,

Dylan Glenn