PSC 1002 Exam 1 Study Guide Why Government The behavior of homo sapiens Human beings pursue their own interest incentives moti vate human behavior i e State of Nature Collective Action Problem Emerges when individuals in society behave in ways that are self interested but when the behavior leads to a result that is detrimental to society at large Indi vidual rationality leads to collective irrationality i e Cows Enticement Give people something or take away something in order to achieve public inter est i e Tax breaks for hybrid cars Coercion The enforcement of laws and rules Prisoner s dilemma A situation in which two or more actors cannot agree to cooperate for fear that the other will find its interest best served by reneging on an agreement Free riding A situation in which individuals can receive the benefits from a collective activity whether or not they helped to pay for it leaving them with no incentive to contribute 17 Tragedy of the commons A situation in which group members overexploit a common re source causing it destruction 18 Politics The process through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common or collective action even as they disagree on the intended goals of that action Representative government A political system in which citizens select government offi cials who acting as their agents deliberate and commit the citizenry to a course of collective ac tion Private Goods Benefits and services over which the owner has full control of their use Public Goods Goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone s con sumption Founding and the Constitution No taxation without representation Phrase that served as a rallying cry for Ameri can colonists who were frustrated by taxes imposed by the British without their consent This il lustrated the colonists beliefs that a government in which they had no representation was not le gitimate and it sowed the seeds for the American Revolution Restraining Acts and Coercive Acts Closed ports of Boston to all commerce dissloved the MA assembly decreed that british troops in Boston must be quartered in American homes and ordered that Americans charged with protest crimes and British Soldiers charged with crimes against colonists be sent to England for trial Colonist viewed these last provisions as ensuring serious punishment for the first group and lax punishment for the second 47 Declaration of Independence The document drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4th 1776 declaring the independence of the thirteen colonies This was a list of grievances against King George Government by the people People have to agree to be governed and people can over throw government i e Declaration of Independence Principles emerged from British rule main tain order of society has to be approved by the people Tyranny A form of government in which the ruling power exploits its authority and permits little popular control Fear of tyranny Monarch s can become tyrants and people have no ability to challenge There needs to be able to limit power of government and have the ability to over throw it Articles of Confederation The compact among the thirteen original states that formed the basis of the first national government of the US from 1777 to 1789 when it was sup planted by the Constitution This was basically the rough draft if the Constitution Weakness Result No regulation of commerce Economic quarrels among states little foreign trade No authority to tax citizens Gov t always short of money No judicial system No executive No authority to force states to provide military troops Dispute among states not re solved Coordinating work of gov t is almost impossible No standing army Shay s Rebellion Uprising of 1786 led by Daniel Shays a former captain in the Continental army and a bankrupt Massachusetts farmer to protest the state s high taxes and aggressive debt collection policies The rebellion demonstrated a fundamental weakness of the Articles of Con federation its inability to keep the peace and simulated interest in the strengthening the national government leading to the Philadelphia convention that framed the Constitution He mounted his own militia If there was a national government to mobilize a militia they would have been able to shut down Shay Separation of power s The distribution of government powers among several political in stitutions In the United States at the national level power is divided between the three branches Congress the president and the Supreme Court Checks and Balances A constitutional mechanism giving each branch some oversight and control of the other branches Examples are the presidential veto Senate approval of presidential appointments and judicial review of presidential and congressional actions Big states vs Small states No proportional representation in Constitution Great com promise solved this so that bigger states had more representation Large states wanted it to based on populations and small states wanted it to be based on equal representation Virginia Plan Constitutional blueprint drafted by James Madison that sought to reform the Ar ticles of Confederation Introduced at the Constitutional Convention 1787 the plan proposed a tripartite national government but unlike the subsequent Constitution it provided for a provided for a popularly elected legislature that would dominate national policymaking New Jersey Plan NJ delegate William Patterson s proposal for reforming the Articles of Confederation Introduced at the Constitutional Convention the NJ plan was favored by the dele gates who supported the states rights Great Compromise The agreement between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention that decided the selection and composition of Congress The compromise stipulated that the lower chamber House be chosen by direct popular vote and that the upper chamber Senate be selected by the state legislatures Representation in the House would be proportional to a stat s population in the Senate each state would have two members Three fifths compromise Northerners had a stake in recognizing the humanity of slaves if slaves were people their numbers should be fully counted in apportioning tax obligations South erners had countered that since they marketed slaves as property slaves should be counted no more than any other property After extended haggling the groups agreed to ass three fifths of the number of slaves to state