Chapter 3 The Constitution Philosophy Behind the Constitution In the earliest governments the purpose was to gratify the lust of the ruler for power or wealth or glory o They had to prevent citizens from killing each other decide disputes between subjects so that mayhem would not break out o Had some kind of rudimentary justice system Thomas Hobbes drew the conclusion that government needed absolute power to keep society under control He outlined absolute monarchy 1650 John Locke 40 years later argued that human beings are rational and rationality leads to morality They are moral enough to live within a minimum of supervision within the context of government secured law and order o Also the first to argue human beings ALL have rights natural rights or o Protecting rights becomes one of the primary purposes of human rights government Political philosophy became known as liberalism because it regards the protection of liberty to be one of the first priorities of government We created government to protect our rights People will never agree on which religion is the true religion Locke argued that freedom of conscience and belief is one of the fundamental natural rights of individuals and that therefore church and state must be separated Communism takes the good of society as a whole to be more important than Confucianism regards society and family as more important than the the rights of individuals individual Fascist movements early 20th century held that the power of the nation was the purpose of government which overruled any individual rights The purpose of all governments is to maintain order and protect citizens from violence liberalism focuses on government protecting liberty or human rights Public Opinion in a Democracy Framers agreed on Lockean philosophy Locke was vague with the specific rights of people besides religion Locke said that government had to have some democratic component as taxes could only be levied with the direct consent of the people due to the importance of the right to property o Locke was fine with the British system which included a monarchy and a bicameral parliament Locke believed that many forms of government are fine as long as they protect rights The consensus among the U S constitution writers about the form of government had to be democratic but they didn t agree on the extent People have no direct role in passing legislation People play no direct role in proposing or passing amendments to the People elect representatives directly but cannot remove them from office Federalists who supported the proposed constitution and anti federalists constitution until next regular election opposed it o Anti federalists argued it was anti democratic o They worried it would establish some kind of elite oligarchy removing power of the people Federalists admitted they were establishing not a democracy but a republic where all decisions are made by elected representatives and the people have only indirect input on legislation Anti federalists wanted office terms to be one year Proposed constitution established terms of two years for house and six for Shorter terms are more democratic because they tie representatives more closely to the people and popular opinion The house is closest to the people while the senate has the greatest senate independence House present small districts by popular vote while senators represent states and were originally chosen by state legislatures Protecting people from each other and protecting them from the government Trustee understanding of representation representatives are entrusted to exercise independent judgment to defy public opinion when necessary James Madison argued the federalists hoped that the U S would become a large and diverse nation preventing the formation of homogenous majority that could oppress others US vs Texas Constitution Federalists won the debate of 1787 State constitutions are based on the anti federalist philosophy Texas s core was made by people who were suspicious of government Powers of government were limited term of office were short salaries were set by the constitution itself low level Texas legislature only meets once every two years for 140 days Executive branch is dispersed Governor is relatively weak He is elected statewide and separate elections are held for lieutenant governor secretary of state attorney general comptroller board of education and a host of less executive type positions These equivalent positions at the federal level are chosen by the president which gives the president a lot of control Framers of Texas constitution applied democracy even to the judiciary Federal judges are appointed and serve for life all Texas judges are elected Texas wrote a very detailed document specifying what the government could and could not do and how it was to conduct business Constitutional amendments are needed to accomplish things that at the federal level might be achieved through a simple act of congress or an executive order Other states have even more democratic institutions California allows initiatives whereby voters may put proposed laws on the ballot Popular recall allows voters to remove officials from office before their terms are up Texas doesn t have this Federal elections vote for president vice president every 4 years representative 2 years and senator every 6 years Constitutional Principles John Locke s basic liberal philosophy did not contain right to property religious liberty and the right to security from harm Federalists thought government to be created by the constitution was self limiting enough not to be a threat to citizen s rights and liberties as the checks and balances dependence on popular elections and other devices would prevent this government from becoming a threat Anti federalists thought this government was likely to trample the liberties of the people as well as the privileges of the individual states o They lost the debate over ratification o Won a major concession the Federalists agreed that as soon as the government was up and running they would propose a bill of rights Amendment 9 says that other rights should be respected even if they re not listed Privacy is not listed in the bill of rights though its somewhat implied by the 4th amendment s language 1965 Supreme Court officially declared that a right to privacy was protected by the constitution but it has been controversial 1973 Roe v Wade that privacy gives women the right to abortion The Supreme Court