Constitutional Democracy Flashcards
What is the Social Contract?
Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the ruler, or to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order
The starting point for most social contract theories is an examination of the human condition absent of any political order (termed the “state of nature” by Thomas Hobbes)
What is Popular Sovereignty?
Popular sovereignty is the principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives (Rule by the People), who are the source of all political power.
What is Political Equality?
Political equality refers to the equality of each citizen’s individual rights and liberty. In a politically equal society, citizens who are unequal socially or financially still possess identical voting rights and have the right to expect equitable treatment under the law
John Locke’s ideas
1632 - 1704
Political theory was founded on Social Contract theory. Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature allowed people to be selfish.
Locke also advocated governmental separation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances. These ideas would come to have profound influence on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Thomas Hobbes’ Ideas
1588 - 1679
Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, which expounded an influential formulation of social contract theory
Created the term “State of Nature”
The main practical conclusion of Hobbes’ political theory is that state or society can not be secure unless at the disposal of an absolute sovereign. From this follows the view that no individual can hold rights of property against the sovereign, and that the sovereign may therefore take the goods of its subjects without their consent
He postulates that without government, a condition called the state of nature, it would lead to a “war of all against all”. “Life would be nasty, brutish, and short”.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Ideas
1712 - 1788
“The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said ‘This is mine’, and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”
Rousseau criticized Hobbes for asserting that since man in the “state of nature… has no idea of goodness he must be naturally wicked; that he is vicious because he does not know virtue”. On the contrary, Rousseau holds that “uncorrupted morals” prevail in the “state of nature” and he especially praised the admirable moderation of the Caribbeans in expressing the sexual urge
Rousseau believed that the more men deviated from the state of nature, the worse off they would be.
Outline the features of a Constitutional Democracy
In a CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY the authority of the majority is limited by legal and institutional means so that the rights of individuals and minorities are respected
What is Tyranny of the Majority?
The tyranny of the majority (or tyranny of the masses) is a weakness alleged to be inherent[citation needed] to majority rule in which the majority of an electorate pursues exclusively its own interests at the expense of those in the minority. This results in oppression of minority groups comparable to that of a tyrant or despot, argued John Stuart Mill in his 1859 book On Liberty
Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776
Thomas Jefferson built the structure based on John Locke’s ideas. The declaration was a call to revolution, rather than a new framework of government. It set the basis, 11 years later, for the constitution.
Federalist Papers
Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym “Publius” to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution.
In Federalist No. 10 Madison discusses the meaning of preventing rule by majority faction, and advocates a large commercial Republic.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
It establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority, constitute the “supreme law of the land”, and thus take priority over any state conflicting laws.
It provides that state courts are bound by, and state constituents subordinate to, the supreme law.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution
A part of the constitution that allows Congress to pass laws that is needed to actually act on it’s power.
