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The Original Beltway boys

Backdrop 1:o Colonial views about democracy, who should govern, and

representation not the same as today

Limited View of Democracy Automatic Suspicion of leadership (same?) Automatic inclination to defer to states as political

units of analysis

Automatic inclination to defer to the state as politicalunits of analysis

States and Legitimacy:

legitimacy 1only source of geographic governance that had ahistory (later, Texas)

o Texas, according to them, still has the right to secede fromthe United States because they originally started out as their

own country

Legitmacy 2: States were generally grants of land by the crown toindividuals. State chartersgranted by the kingstates as

legal/perhaps divine entitiestraceable units of governance

National Indeinty (if not British) Not yet strong motivatorU.S.ARE: Is it a state collectively doing something or is it a country in

which case it is singular Remember: even HOUSE (apportioned within states) AND

PRESIDENT (chosen by state selected electors) WERE TO BE

ROOTED IN STATE REPRESENTATION (States not equal)

o Each state shall appoint so many electors Not the original 13, but many of the state that came in afterwards

in the original territoriesthey were granted a certain number of

seats in the HOR based on population.

Consensual versus Majoritatian Democracy:

The politics of Mutual accommodationo It wasn't so much that the framers were not thinking in

terms of democracy, but rather there was a different view

that the general view of democracy as it was developing, is

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that it did not originally have the perspective that you could

make policy decisions based on who won elections.

o We had HOPED that it would be a noble set of elites whowould deliberate.

Legitimay 3Broadly acceptable, not just accepted by majorityo The idea that we would have virtuous men running our nation

that would do whats in the BEST OF PUBLICS INTEREST

rather than what will get me reelected by the majority

o Auxilary precautions: what makes it necessary to have checksand balances, etc in order to fight against some of those

who are not virtuous

o Even structure of ConstitutionExample3 alternatives (A, B, C)

Idea: No perfect method of democracy

Backdrop 2 (The Wirls Brothers):

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AS NESTED COMPROMISES, CONSTRAINED BY

POLITICS:

Reforms are a set of domestic comrpomises Once you reach a consensus on one set of issues, you almost

constrain the next set of choices that might exist

Each compromise is constrained by previous decisions (VirginiaPlanneed for an upper House to check power of lower: originally

HR would select senators from a list of nominees chosen by state

legislaturesDouble Sifting Process)

o Idea that Senate would be selected by the House. Memberswould be one step removed from the public but indirectly

chosen by the public

o Original view was double sifting process Madison wanted particularly with the Senate was a

national body

Create a certain degree of independence in the Senate Some original thoughts on Senate --Life terms for

independence and institutional memory(that particular

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when you are creating a new set of institution, a new

national governing structure and trying to develop a

national political consciousness if you keep having

rotation in the officeWant to make sure that there are

people who are committed to the institution andnational government, and not committed to

themselves), Senate as a more key actor

o Madisons hopeSenate, if enacted, to be proportional, inorder that citizens as a national constituency would be

represented/not states as soverign entities (=meant states

are separate and equal)

o Break the notion that Senators and State were connectedo Once Madison agreed the Senate should be a smaller, more

elite body than the HoR

o Madison originally intended to give Senate more power thanthe HOR

o W&W: Once the senate was to be equally apportioned (desirefor small size), the functions of that senate would be limited

from what many had originally intended

Senators seen more as presidential than legislature

Whats why the VP sits and basically runs the Senate and can be thetie-breaker

The Genius and Problems (failures) with the constitution

1. A vague and brief document--no majority or minority dissenta. POSITIVE: vagueness leaves open future changes

2. National government originally viewed as limitedpublic willing to try out

this Grand Experiment

Vagueness leaves open the possibility of national governmentgrowth (Commece clause, necessary and proper clause)

3. A broadly acceptable documentnot just one accepted by a majority with

fierce minority opposition

but acceptance becomes more problematic as details get fleshedout or demands are made explicit

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Lacks middle ground If you allow open debate on non-comprisable issues, this is a worse

system of government

4. Promise of a Bill of Rights to protect against national government tyranny

over basi rightsand a 9th and 10th amendment as a catch all 10th amendment states that: that which is not reserved for the

national government or prohibited to the states is reserved to the

state. (Reserved clause)

One could argue that the 10th amendment is a states rightamendment, one could also argue that's a way for the people to

override their state and make decisions that are nationally based.

Together, with rest of document, subject to interpretation,particularly by the courtsthe least democratic branch (recently

2nd)

Congress cannot raise its salary until after the next election Not ratified until 200 years later One failed BoR out of 12 (the most AF):

o Apportionment30k per HR member with never any largerthan 50k

Where would this lead?

Most changes at state levelo Most of the 19th century decisions occurred with Stateso Central role of states left in Constitutiono Most power by design or assumption left to states

Those who first took over the office because theConstitution was so vague, to what their responsibilities

were, and how they would carry out their jobs on a

daily basis, they were the ones who basically

determined how their office was going to run and how

the national government was going to operate it.

Vagueness and brevity of Constitution means: Original actorsdefined roles

o President v. Vice Presidento Vice President does not have a very large role. Except with

a place in the Senate

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o AndCourt decisionso How do you define what you are doing?o How do you define this constitution when someone challenges

something that Congress does/

o How do you take a vague document and put bones, andmeat, and flesh on it.

Think about the structure of government, the limited direction theywere given, and how their isolation (platos cave) influences how

they behave

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