DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
AND
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Posc 105
THE CONSTITUTION CONTEXT
- THIS MORNING:
- Additional remarks on state capitalism
- The American constitution system
- STATE CAPITALISM:
- A fundamental assumption: a capitalist economic system is not self-sustaining.
- It needs support from non-market factors.
- Besides making the nation safe for capitalism the state attempts to nurture and
protect capitalism.
- Economic stability or equilibrium:
- Promotes social peace
- Protects investment
- Enhances growth and profits
- "Corporate Welfare"
- Tools:
- Macroeconomic policy
- Heilbroner and Bernstein's arguments in Debt and Deficits rest
partly on this analysis.
- Goals: control aggregate demand to keep prices and interest rates
stable, employment high (but not too high), and profits sufficient
for growth.
- Provision of infrastructure:
- Physical
- Human capital: healthy, educated, contented labor force.
- Research and development.
- Regulation:
- Frequently regulations and controls promote business interests.
- Examples: tobacco, transportation, communications.
- THE CONSTITUTION AND THE POLITICAL SYSTEM:
- Proposition 1:
- The written constitution embodies many aspects of classical liberalism.
- Example: separation of powers, bill of rights.
- The "unwritten" constitution embodies many aspects of general (state)
welfare thought.
- Examples: acceptance and growth of social services, regulatory
activities.
- Proposition 2: these two constitutions are at odds with each other and
account for the particular (and peculiar) flavor of American politics.
- Proposition 3: In their zeal to guard against the abuse of power while protecting
the commonwealth the framers created a system that incapacitates the political
system and hinders accountability and hence weakens democracy as defined earlier
- THE FOUNDERS CONCERNS:
- Concern with centralized political power.
- Madison's two "tyrannies":
- Control "minority" in power to ensure that it does not abuse the rights of
its citizens. (Recall the early emphasis on liberalism.)
- Control majority: there was a perceived need to protect minorities (e.g,
property owners) from majorities and ochlocracy.
- The Constitution embodies these concerns, but in so doing it sets up a conflict
between the need to govern (capacity) and the need to protect liberties.
- WHAT THE CONSTITUTION DOES:
- Creates a republic, not a democracy.
- It also constructs a "moat" around "representatives"
- The electoral college and the indirect election of the president.
- A byproduct of the moat: divided power protects representatives from
being held accountable.
- In order to limit government the constitution fragments power:
- The shattered sword:
- Separation of powers
- Three semi-autonomous branches
- Look at the table on page 79 of Patterson, We the People
- Note in particular that many nations do not divide
power as extensively as the American constitution
does and yet remain "free."
- Checks and balances (e.g., veto, advise and consent, tax legislation,
etc.)
- Federalism
- National and state governments.
- See Patterson, We the People, Chapter 2.
- "Bicameralism" - two houses of Congress
- Independent constituencies (Pay attention to this item because it
is so important.)
- Geographical representation (very important!)
- Enumeration of specific powers; others left to the states.
- The Bill of Rights
- An independent judiciary
- Judicial review established gives the Supreme Court
extraordinary power.
- The bottom line: all of these work against capacity and democracy
- NEXT TIME:
- More on the constitution.
- Public opinion and the mass media
- Reading:
- As noted yesterday, class web site articles under public philosophy.
- "The Concept of a Public Philosophy"
- "Laissez-faire"
- "Main Ideas"
- "General-welfare in Practice"
- Patterson, We the People, Chapter 3.
- Read pages 65 to 84 reasonably carefully.
- The remainder of the chapter provides some historical background.
- Chapter 2 discusses federalism, the nuts and bolts of which we will only
touch on briefly.
- Important aspects of federalism will be discussed during the
semester as needed.
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