POLS 1101 1st Edition Lecture 5 Outline of Previous Lecture I The Articles of Confederation is full of collective action failures II Electoral College Outline of Current Lecture I II III IV V VI VII VIII The Confederation s Troubled Peace Drafting a New Constitution The Economy Protests Constitutional Convention The Virginia Plan Madison and Nationalists Blueprint Opposition New Jersey Plan Stalemate Substantive Issues Foreign policy and trade coordination problems under articles solved Interstate Commerce Slavery Amending the Constitution Logic Underlying the Constitution Current Lecture I II The Confederation s Troubled peace The articles were designed due to the history that led up to those articles and there were numerous issues o All collective action Economy did not function well The government did not help o Free Riding and Coordination problems Drafting a New Constitution The Economy o The economy was extremely bad close to the great depression These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute III IV o Soldiers come home and their homes and farms are gone o Not enough food for everyone Protests o Shays rebellion protested on the Massachusetts state capitol They were mad and they told the government to stop taking away the soldiers land o The government dealt with shays rebellion but the rebellion spread across the country and other people started rebelling o This caused 55 delegates to meet in Philadelphia in 1787 to fix the articles At the very least they figured they could make some minor changes Others thought they should toss all the articles out and start fresh o Philosophical Influences Popular Sovereignty Sir Isaac Newton James Madison s Vices of the Political System of the United States Constitutional Convention o Getting down to business It became clear quickly that the men had to haul the articles Patrick Henry resigned Convention opened May 25 1787 The men could only see George Washington becoming President Washington convinced a lot of troops to not storm congress The Virginia Plan Madison and nationalists blueprint o Bicameral Legislature Lower Chamber controlled by the population Upper Chamber elected by state legislatures o New Government would have veto power over the states o Use of military power if states do not fulfill obligations to the government o Council of Revision could veto laws from congress Opposition o Small states The New Jersey Plan Stronger constitution and stronger government Hastily drafted Did not propose an executive branch or judiciary Had congress and gave them the power to tax V A simple majority to enact national policy rather than a supermajority Stalemate James Madison is the most vocal about overhauling the articles Compromise o The blueprint of what we have today Each side got something that they wanted o Senate had two delegates from each state legislature and the senator would serve a 6 year term This made the smaller states happy o Madison s population based became the house of representatives o Unanimous agreement rule gone Need only majority in each chamber to pass new laws o Article 1 Section 8 gives congress the right to regulate interstate commerce Congress has the necessary and proper clause o Madison did a 180 turn Checks and Balances The three branches of government checked each other o The executive branch was created they didn t know how to structure it though They knew what they kind of wanted but they didn t want to end up with someone like King George President power Veto laws coming from local legislature Appoint political officers ahead of each cabinet with approval of senate Enforce laws to take care of laws Required a supermajority of each house to override a presidential veto They know that Washington will be the first president but they didn t know who would come after him Because they were afraid the people would elect a bad president they created the electoral college o The larger the states the more electoral votes they have o Created a supreme court o Federal Judiciary Supreme Court When there is a dispute between the states and the national government than the court will step in Supremacy Clause Judicial Review Can strike down anything that is not allowed under the constitution Judicial Review is not in the Constitution the Supreme Court took the power and no one stopped them The judges are chosen by the President Substantive Issues o Foreign policy and trade coordination problems under articles solved Foreign policy under the president Congress regulates commerce National government responsible for defense and security o Interstate Commerce Article 1 Section 10 prohibits state discrimination against other states in various commercial endeavors o Slavery Southern states threated to walk away and not sign the constitution if the slaves were not counted in the voting census Northern states argued that since slaves couldn t vote they shouldn t be counted 3 5ths compromise Amending the Constitution o There was more arguing between small and larger states o Compromise either one would work 2 3rds of both houses must agree to the amendment 3 4ths of the states must agree to it Logic Underlying the Constitution o The constitution was an imperfect solution When does the national authority end and the state authority start o What really helped get everyone on board to pass the constitution was checks and balances o Federalist No 10 Responds to the strongest argument of the Antifederalists that a large republic cannot long survive Factions can be a problem It is set up where the people elect state representatives and they elect higher people so things will not happen quickly when things need to be fixed or changed o Deal with tyranny Federalists no 51 Checks and balances Ambition is made to counteract ambition Separation of powers The President cannot create an amendment Minority and majority factions controlled in different ways A war torn economy Trade Barriers at home and abroad Popular Discontent Shay s Rebellion