1. Week 2 Lecture The U.S. Constitution and Federalism

2. The Declaration of Independence In 1776, the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. It asserted that “unalienable rights” – including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – could not be denied by government. These ideals sought to create a common national identity and promote unity among the colonists.

3. The Articles of Confederation In 1777, having declared independence, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the United States’ first written constitution, which was the basis for the U.S. national government until 1789. The governmental model was a confederation, a system in which the states retain sovereign authority except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government.

4. The Second Founding: From Compromise to Constitution Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was unable to enforce treaties unless the states agreed to them. This made the national government illegitimate in the eyes of other nations and vulnerable to threats from them. Because of the weakness of the Articles, in 1786, the Annapolis Convention sought to devise a constitutional revision that would meet the needs of the union.

5. The Constitutional Convention The delegates convened to revise the Articles of Confederation in Philadelphia in May 1787. These delegates soon recognized that the issues they wanted to address were fundamental flaws of the Articles and abandoned plans to revise them, instead attempting to create a new, legitimate and effective government.

6. The Great Compromise During the Constitutional Convention, a controversy between the large and small states threatened to destroy the nation. In order to get over this rivalry, the Great Compromise, which is also called the Connecticut Compromise, Congress would comprise two houses organized as follow: one branch, the House of Representatives, would be apportioned according to the population of each state. In the other branch, the Senate, each state would have an equal vote regardless of size.

9. The Question of Slavery: The Three- Fifths Compromise While some representatives to the convention found slavery morally reprehensible, the real concern was whether slaves would count as part of the population for representation purposes (which would dramatically inflate the representation of the southern states). The two sides reached the Three fifths Compromise, by which seats in the House of Representatives would be apportioned according to a “population” in which every slave would be counted as three fifths of a person. Through this compromise, the issue of slavery as a political threat to the nation was essentially postponed.

10. The U.S. Constitution Through the U.S. Constitution, the new government would promote commerce, protect individual property, limit excessive democracy, promote widespread public support of the Constitution, and limit government power abuse. Several constitutional principles would help achieve these goals: Bicameralism Checks and Balances Electoral College Bill of Rights Separation of Powers

12. Fight for Ratification and Changing the Constitution Federalists vs. Antifederalists. Tyranny of the Majority Governmental Power Amendment Process: 1.Passage in House and Senate, each by a two thirds vote, followed by majority ratification by three fourths of the states’ legislatures. 2.Passage in House and Senate, each by a two thirds vote, followed by ratification by three fourths of the states’ conventions (used only once – to repeal Prohibition).

13. The System of Federalism The Constitution provides the United States with federalism, a system of government in which power is divided between a central government and regional governments. In the federal system, the national government shares power with lower levels of government, such as the states. The Constitution limited national government by creating a second layer of state government power. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights recognized two sovereign powers by granting a few expressed powers to the national government and reserving all others to the states.

15. Powers of the National Government and the State Governments The seventeen express powers of the Congress include the power to collect taxes, to coin money, to declare war, and to regulate commerce. The necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8, provides an important source for the national government: implied powers. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution is also called the reserved powers amendment. It states that the powers not delegated to the national government or prohibited are “reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

16. The Changing Relationship between the Federal Government and the States Restraining National Power with Dual Federalism Federalism and the Slow Growth of the National Government’s Power The Changing Role of the States

17. Public Spending and the Federal Framework The Constitution does not answer the question of how to divide responsibilities between the states and national government. The New Deal Federal Grants Cooperative Federalism Regulated Federalism and National Standards New Federalism and State Control