Chapter 1 Flashcards
For government to work
Must have active participation by citizens
Without active participation, the govt becomes skewed because of who’s voting and who’s not
Government
Authority and institutions that run society
Who was a big believer in the idea that everyone should participate in politics
Jefferson; many other founding fathers believed only elite people should be able to participate
Direct democracy
Like Greece
Decisions of govt made by all the people
Founders didn’t want this because they were elitists
Examples of direct democracy
Intiative-laws that start with the people
Referendum-law from govt but is voted to be passed by voters
Direct primaries
Recall elections-states can kick governors out of office
Representative democracy
- also know as republicanism
- vote for people to make decisions on our behalf
- ruling elite–Plato
- 537 reps/300 million citizens
Majoritarian vs Elitism
Majoritarian-house of reps
Elitism-to begin with we were set up this way; pres and senate (this was later changed) were not directly voted for
Constitutional democracy
Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism was
- separation of powers
- rule of law
- federalism
- bill of rights
Interacting values
- natural rights-life liberty property
- liberty-self determination
- respect for the individual-not statism
- equality of opportunity-the one the us fails at the most (everyone gets education)
- popular sovereignty
Interrelated processes
- free and fair elections
- majority rule(must win more than 50% of votes) / plurality rule(just win more votes than other guy)
- free expression/right to assembly
- rule of law
Rules of law
-generality-laws should not target certain groups
•prospectively-laws should apply now and now on
•publicity
•authority- supremacy
•due process
Political structures
- federalism
- separation of powers
- checks and balances
- bicameralism
Conditions conducive for democracy
- Education-leads to more and better voters
- economic-distribution of wealth
- social-right of association
Reinforcing cleavages
Keep groups separate based on something
Cross cutting cleavage
Things that separate a normal unified group
Ideological
Democratic consensus-things all political parties agree are important
Contributions to constitutions
- magna carta-limited government
- petiton of rights
- English bill of rights
- social contract theory
Shays rebellion
- tax revolt in MA
- MA couldn’t put revolt down and the natl govt couldn’t help
- helped states realize the articles weren’t working
Articles created a confederal system
Had a congress but could not tax and struggled to pass laws
States had the power
VA plan
Bicameral -1 house by pop election by citizens -2 house picked by house #1 Representation based on population One executive-picked by congress
NJ Plan
Unicameral
Equal representation
Plural executive-picked by congress
Supremacy clause
Connecticut Compromise
•Bicameral
-1 house-pop. Based➡️picked by popular election
-1 house-equal rep➡️picked by states (changed by 17th amendment in 1918)
•1 executive
•Supremacy clause
3/5 compromise
Slaves count as 3/5 a person
