3 The Constitution Flashcards
constitutionalism
adhering to and a love for the constitution
constitutional democracy
generated by the codification and adherence to a constitution; the ppl’s representatives are constrained by the constitution
unconstitutional (parliamentary) democracy
doesn’t have a codified constitution so legitimacy rests in Parliament; the ppl’s reps determine what’s in the constitution
constitutional convention
unwritten practices and consequences that are accepted as norms
originalism
if you believe the constitution to be the best, then those who wrote it are the best and serve as guides
why are amendments difficult to make?
amendments have to be introduced in Congress and must be ratified by 3/4 of states, so majority of them die
what emerged out of the American Revolution?
- an idea of the USA and American ideals (which didn’t exist prior due to states having distinct, colonial identities)
- a fear of governmental control and skepticism of large gov’ts
what was the original design of the Founding Fathers?
they emphasized liberalism and individuality, so they aimed for a small gov’t with a written set of guidelines
3 types of systems
- confederal
- federal
- unitary
confederal systems
- power goes up
- central authority only has the power granted to it by the components
- ex. the UN, which is empowered by member-states
federal systems
- power is equal
- subnational and national components are separate but equal to each other
- ex. Canada, with its federal and provincial gov’ts
unitary systems
- power goes down
- a strong central/level of gov’t
- subnational components which derive power and authority from the central gov’t
- ex. the UK, whose Parliament is the privileged actor
The Articles of Confederation
- the first constitution that failed by creating a confederal gov’t
- the colonies had virtually all the power and the central gov’t basically had none
- America’s debt couldn’t be resolved since the central gov’t had no mechanisms to gain money
The Philadelphia Convention
- attempted to compromise between the larger and smaller states’ preferences
- introduced a bicameral legislature (where one chamber/House is based on representation by population, and the other/Senate protects states thru 2 appointed senators from each state)
Federalists
sought a national gov’t with more control
Anti-Federalists
distrusted a strong central gov’t
Federalists vs Anti-Federalists
the fight between these two camps led to the beginning of party politics in the USA
17th Amendment
made senators required to be elected
Bill of Rights (1791)
consists of the first 10 amendments to the constitution as a response to fears of the gov’t’s strength; amendments were to incentivize smaller states to agree
key issues of the Bill of Rights
- what happens if someone (person or state) breaks the Bill?
- what happens if a state or gov’t fight?
how did the Civil War determine the nature of the US?
- when the North won, it became clear that the US was more than the sum of its parts (states)
- central federalism (where federal gov’t eclipses state authority) was adopted
President Franklin Roosevelt
- proposed the New Deal, which required the federal gov’t to become bigger and infringe on areas in state jurisdiction
- made constitutional
- allowed the gov’t to grow in size and expand beyond the states
The Cold War
- after WWII, the Americans demobilized but mobilized again due to tensions with Russia
- wars can only be fought if there’s a lot of gov’t authority
- demanded the continual expansion of the size of the federal gov’t
President Landon B. Johnson
oversaw the largest expansion of the federal gov’t since the New Deal, wherein he proposed his Great Society Programs (medicare, Civil Rights Act, etc.)
