Lec 4- Failed Coups

Question 1

definition of coup

Answer 1

• a quick violent and illegal overthrow of a government by a faction of the armed forces or other powerful group in society

Question 2

why the coup failed

Answer 2

• relates to the number of strategies deployed: trump tried to influence so many institutions because there were multiple actors on multiple levels who could, in theory, overturn the election: state and federal courts, the SCC, the states, the electoral college, and the two houses of Congress
• power is highly diffused and decentralized in the U.S.

Question 3

U.S. institutions

Answer 3

• defined by the separation of powers: between different branches of government and between different levels of government
• checks and balances
• multiple veto points
• offer the clearest division between the executive and the legislature
• executive system where the president is the most powerful person in the world is formally weak because they cannot propose bills, demand party loyalty, ensure votes, appoint to committees, or authorize spending. so their main power is the “power to persuade”

Question 4

main powers of the president

Answer 4

1. the veto of legislation
2. the appointment of federal judges with a lifetime tenure
3. the appointment of members of their cabinet
4. executive power

Question 5

constitutional basis of executive orders

Answer 5

• def: a form of “presidential legislation” or “executive lawmaking” in the sense that they provide the president with the ability to make general policy with broad applicability akin to public law
• they allow the president to bypass the legislature and execute laws

Question 6

the electoral college

Answer 6

• where the president is indirectly elected through a majority to the candidate who loses the popular vote.
• the candidate with the largest amounts of electoral college votes win but even when there is a decisive win, the EC can greatly exaggerate it

Question 7

fighting against distortion

Answer 7

-according the states responsibility gave states an interest in defending the integrity of their systems where even Republican governors were affronted by the suggestions that they operated fraudulent systems

• institutions as rules vs. institutions as value generators.

Question 8

party systems

Answer 8

• duverger’s law: single-ballot plurality systems lead to two-party systems
• corollary: proportional representation leads to multi-party systems
• broad churches: where two members of the same party possess opposing views
• U.S. is a classic two-party system where the weakness of the parties + the electoral system explains why we have not seen the emergence of a third party

Question 9

democrats

Answer 9

• founded as a split from democratic-republican party in 1828 by populist Andrew Jackson (closest historical example of trump)
• was the party of slavery, segregation
• shifted in the 1960s where LBJ (lydon b. johnson) passed the civil rights act along with other influential changes
• today: party of urbanites, workers, and progressives

Question 10

republicans

Answer 10

• founded in 1860 to oppose slavery
• dominated until the 1930s when electorates never forgave it for the Depression.
• regained power under Nixon through a Law and Order and race based strategy

Question 11

Race and the U.S.

Answer 11

• ultimate cleavage and what the U.S. was founded on
• has arguably never confronted this history like the germans has
• racism has influenced/ poisoned southern democrats and republicans
• post 1860 republicans use race as main electoral propaganda

Question 12

congress

Answer 12

• meant to be the most powerful body because the president cannot introduce legislation and it can
• has the power of the purse where only Congress can initiate spending
• is bicameral:
  1. house of rep
  2. senate
• individual house members represent relatively small constituencies
• result: tends to be highly politicized and partisan body causing dramatic power shifts

Question 13

the senate

Answer 13

• 2 per state
• elections are staggered: 1/3 elected every 2 years for 6 years
• can initiate legislation except tax & spend
• has exclusive powers over treaty ratification & appointment
• 6 year long term encourages higher degree of deliberation
• trump changed this but the body tended to be more collegial.

Question 14

the courts

Answer 14

• U.S. has a highly legalistic system where it is common-law and precedent based
• judicial review not written in constitution but USSC established the doctrine in 1803 (Marbury vs. Madison) case
• multiple layers of courts where decisions can be appealed
• two paths of appealing
  1. if starting in the state court, then state court of appeals, then state SC, and the USSC
  2. if federal: then U.S. district and then up to the USSC

Question 15

bureaucracy

Answer 15

• hardly envisioned by founding fathers
• massively expanded through war
• runs day to day operations; organized thematically

Question 16

judicial review and the courts

Answer 16

• three broad schools: original intent, strict constructivism, and judicial activism
• appointments are lifetime, giving great freedom from those who gave them their jobs and can act quite independently

Question 17

the coup thus failed because

Answer 17

• faced overwhelming opposition of legislature, controlled since 2018 by the democrats (open denunciation of coup efforts, second impeachment)
• states defended their electoral systems and efforts to delegitimize them and to overturn results
• the courts, including the SC and Trump appointees, rebuffed efforts to undermine the democratic process
• result: a defeated trump departed
• the final factor was the military’s declaration of loyalty