POLS 206 1st Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Last Lecture I Current Events a President rallies MC and public for support i 60 70 of Americans opposed the airstrikes II Articles of Confederation III Philadelphia Convention IV James Madison a Father of the constitution V Agendas Objective and Values VI Federalist Papers a Federalist 10 i Large republic a The system was designed to be slow and inefficient that does not mean that it is flawed b Is Madison s argument right i Does it keep representation faithful Outline of Current Lecture I In the News a President addresses the nation on Syria b Budgeting battle on the horizon as well Sept 30th II Federalist 51 a Ambition must be made to check ambition III House IV Senate V President VI Supreme Court VII Goals of the Founding Fathers VIII Pure Parliamentary System Not what we have IX Running for Congress a Primary b General Election c Implications of this system d Bottom Line Current Lecture X In the News a President addresses the nation on Syria b Asks congress to postpone the use of force while seeking diplomacy with Syria due to their relinquishing of chemical weapons i Why use of chemical weapons must be punished ii Did not say how long he was willing to wait for diplomacy to work c Budgeting battle on the horizon as well Sept 30th i Government will shut down if they don t have the funds by then ii Debt ceiling iii Hard line conservatives refuse to fund government unless they defund Obama care XI Federalist 51 a Ambition must be made to check ambition i Checks and balances are necessary ii Need institutions keeping an eye on each other iii Want a slow process without swift change 1 With institutional differences between each branch House 2 year terms local congress elects 435 members popular vote and proportional to the size of the state Larger states are over represented here Senate 6 year terms state election 100 members and popular vote 2 per state This allows smaller states to be equally if not over represented President 4 years up to 2 terms adding up to 8 years One president for the whole country nationally elected and partially popular Supreme Court A little different than the others this is the only judiciary mentioned Nominated by the sitting president and approved by congress XII House a Larger than the senate b More unstable and unpredictable c Requires more rules XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII d Popular vote e More responsive Senate a Moderating force b Supposed to be more deliberate c Elected by state legislatures so there is less of a response to popular passions d More collegial President a National constituency b Ceremonial head of sates but really only needed for decisiveness during a time of war which is why he is the Commander in Chief Supreme Court a Only court mentioned in the constitution b Life term to insulate from electoral retribution c Nominated by the president d Size of the court is set by congress Goals of the Founding Fathers a Produce institutions with different people with different interests b Increased diversity c Prevent swift policy change d Different institutions different outcomes Pure Parliamentary System Not what we have a Distinguishing features i Citizens vote for parties to represent them in the legislature ii Parties decide which candidate will be elected higher up on the list increases chances of making it into office iii Loyal members to the party do well iv People feel the need to earn respect of the party in order to get elected 1 Proportional representative system 60 of party X elected out of 100 means that top 60 on list will get elected and placed in office The other 40 will be the 40 from another party parties 2 Parliament elects a Prime Minister v Consequences 1 Party centered elections that are not candidate based 2 Unified government 3 More party loyalty among members of parliament 4 Swift change 5 Multipartyism Running for Congress a Primary any candidate can call himself or herself a democrat or a republican b c d e i Multiple democrats and republicans run 1 Need a plurality to win 2 Not the most just a majority 3 Doesn t really control how people behave in office once they get there due to the fact that anyone can run General Election Democrat with plurality versus the republican with plurality Implications of this system i Nominees will be the favorite of voters not the party ii Less party loyalty iii Candidate centered elections iv Independent MC v Divided government vi Gridlock Complaints i Difficult to get anything done ii Only care about re election iii Don t stand for anything just their personal gain in a lot of cases Bottom Line i Fundamental outcome of the US constitution ii Again this is not a flaw it was actually engineered to be this way iii Institutional rules are never neutral