POLI 310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: United States Constitution, Parliamentary Sovereignty, Anti-Federalism
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POLI310
Class of September 18th
Lecture:
Part 1:
Constitutional :
Constitutional contestation
- Number approaches to looking at US constitution
o Structure, history, comparison with canada, and theoretical
- Constitution is one of the three very important founding documents, the other 2 are the bill of
rights and the Declaration of independent.
History:
- Determined by the colonial era and the relations to the UK
- People felt unrepresented by the UK so they went to war and that led to the American
Revolution.
- I the idst of this a , the Aeia ote the Delaatio of idepedee: all e ae
eated eual. Important documents looked into Human Rights
- 1781; Articles of Confederation, Americans not yet independence are establishing their laws,
consisting of 13 states. Inviting Canada to join.
- 1787 Constitution is drafted in Philadelphia: they teared up the Articles of Confederation and
came out with the New Constitution
- Which is eventually ratified
- 1789 it becomes into effect with George Washington as president
- 1791 : Following of that : Bill of Rights came along
Structure:
- Diffeet fo othes outies’ i eig shot ad eig e ague
- Very ambiguous
- It still really matters, and drives the US politics and it really constitutes structure in US Politics
- Signed by 40 people
- Fear of centralized power
- Divisions of parts and then dividing those parts into other parts
- Division between federal and the states
- Federal system giving some power to states
- And then federal level splitting that into 3 parts: Executive, Legislative, Judiciary.
- Legislative split in two: House and Senate
- What is the constitution: are the first 10 amendments somehow special ? Does it include
somehow the declaration of independence? Does it include the preamble?
- The courts argued that the preamble is enforceable.
Theory
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- What does a constitution do? It describes an area of legitimate rule, it provides a limit,
boundaries
- Does a constitution only solidify existing arrangement? Is it a strict blue print or a rough idea?
- Is it a opat aog the people? Thee states? e the people the ostitutio is set as a
relation between the people and the state.
- Does a constitution create power? Or limits power?
- For some people the constitution is a form of nationalism
things that the constitution does:
- It establishes the rules of the game, and limit the power of the government ,it provides a limit to
what a democratic group can and cannot do
- List of things that the government CANT do
- Negative rigths: government cannot do that to me
- Positive rights: things that the government can do
- Demands on governments
Constitutional choices
- Presidential system or parliamentary system
- Need majority to get elected or not
- Upper and lower house
- Separation between powers
- Parliamentary sovereignty or constitutional courts?
- Written or not
- Election systems
- Unity between the powers or divided body
- In the US no hypothetical cases
- Ease of amendments, how hard or easy should it be to change the Constitution? In the US it is
very hard to change an amendment, some would say maybe too hard.
3 images of the US constitution
- The idea of it being an anchor to the ship of the country (left – democratic, or right- republican)
stabilizes the ship
- The constitution is a machine that would go over itself , based on the scientific popular views.
Keeps us going in the right way
- Organic image, needs to adapt, needs to grow to the needs of the country
2 big principles of the US constitution
- Separations of powers: the three branches – separate institutions that share power
- Checks-and-balances between the branches
Arguments in favor of the Constitution
Federalism – the Federalist Papers
- Written by: James Madison, Hamilton, John Jay
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Number approaches to looking at us constitution: structure, history, comparison with canada, and theoretical. Constitution is one of the three very important founding documents, the other 2 are the bill of rights and the declaration of independent. Determined by the colonial era and the relations to the uk. People felt unrepresented by the uk so they went to war and that led to the american. I(cid:374) the (cid:373)idst of this (cid:449)a(cid:396) , the a(cid:373)e(cid:396)i(cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:449)(cid:396)ote the de(cid:272)la(cid:396)atio(cid:374) of i(cid:374)depe(cid:374)de(cid:374)(cid:272)e: (cid:862)all (cid:373)e(cid:374) a(cid:396)e (cid:272)(cid:396)eated e(cid:395)ual(cid:863). 1781; articles of confederation, americans not yet independence are establishing their laws, consisting of 13 states. 1787 constitution is drafted in philadelphia: they teared up the articles of confederation and came out with the new constitution. 1789 it becomes into effect with george washington as president. 1791 : following of that : bill of rights came along. Diffe(cid:396)e(cid:374)t f(cid:396)o(cid:373) othe(cid:396)s (cid:272)ou(cid:374)t(cid:396)ies" i(cid:374) (cid:271)ei(cid:374)g sho(cid:396)t a(cid:374)d (cid:271)ei(cid:374)g (cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455) (cid:448)ague.
