Today

• Lecture: Founding Values and Philosophies of Government

    - The values of the Founding
    - How they relate to the nature of government (from August 27/28)

• (Continued next time)

    - Problems in the Founding and why the values of the Founding matter today (anyway!)
    - A Criticism of social contract theory

• Top Hat Quiz

    - Top Hat Quiz: Declaration of Independence and Chapter 1

Next class:

• Continued from last class

    - Problems in the Founding and why the values of the Founding matter today (anyway!)
    - A Criticism of social contract theory

• Lecture: Constitutional Safeguards

    - Checks and Balances
    - Separation of Powers

• Top Hat Quiz: Previous 2 Lectures

    - Origins of Government
    - Founding Values and Philosophies of Government

Announcements and Reminders

• Last week’s Top Hat points were short, so I added 2.6 points for everyone who took the quiz
• September 10 (Wednesday): Module 0 due
• September 22: Module 1 due
• CASA reservations for Midterm will be available around September 30.
• There are several people that have half the points needed for an A already. Keep up the good work!

Questions

Review - What is government?

• Legitimate

• Organized

• Armed

• Coercive

• Force or Violence

What do these lack that government has?

• Churches
• Families
• Charities
• Businesses
• Volunteer Groups
• Community Associations
• even groups of friends or casual acquaintances

Top Hat Bonus

They all have:

• organization
• leadership
• money
• rules
• goals

Some may even have

• charters
• voting
• hierarchical structures

They lack:

• general: legitimate use of violence
• specific: police and prisons

Understanding American Constitutional Development

Two basic concepts:

1 - What is the proper purpose of government? 2 - How do we limit government to only those purposes?

Understanding American Constitutional Development

Two basic concepts:

1 - What is the proper purpose of government?

Understanding American Constitutional Development

Two basic concepts:

1 - What is the proper purpose of government?

    - When we look at Constitutions, this is most related to the lists of government powers especially legislative powers
    

Understanding American Constitutional Development

Two basic concepts:

1 - What is the proper purpose of government? 2 - How do we limit government to only those purposes?

    - This is central to the next three topics

Understanding American Constitutional Development

Two basic concepts:

1 - What is the proper purpose of government? 2 - How do we limit government to only those purposes?

    - This is central to the next three topics
    - This is still important today!

Philosophies of Government in America

Questions:

1. What were the early ideas about government in America?
2. What drove those ideas?
3. How did those ideas develop and what other ideas became important?

Early ideas about government in America

Philosophies of Government in America

Government and Society

• Society always good
• Government sometimes necessary
• Government \(\neq\) Society

Philosophies of Government in America: Classical liberalism

Philosophies of Government in America: Classical liberalism

• limiting power of government
• expanding political participation
• allowing the flourishing of individuals and voluntary associations

Modern Take on Classical Liberalism

(close paraphrase of lectures by Dr. Chris Coyne, George Mason University)

Organized Violence and the Proper Role of Government

Organized Violence and the Proper Role of Government

• One relatively common concept is that government gets its powers on loan from the people for the common defense. It’s just a pooling of individual rights and powers for the common good.

So….

Organized Violence and the Proper Role of Government

Organized Violence and the Proper Role of Government

• Pooled defense - no extra powers
• Monopoly on violence: State has extra responsibilities and therefor has extra powers derived from its responsibilities.

Organized Violence and the Proper Role of Government

• Pooled defense - no extra powers

• Monopoly on violence/State Responsibility

• Various forms of extreme state power

    - divine right of kings
    - totalitarianism
    - militant democracy
    - theocracy

Organized Violence and the Proper Role of Government

Legitimate goals of government

Protection of fundamental rights

    - life
    

Legitimate goals of government

Protection of fundamental rights

    - life
    - liberty
    
    

Legitimate goals of government

Protection of fundamental rights

    - life
    - liberty
    - pursuit of happiness
    
    

Legitimate goals of government

Protection of fundamental rights

    - life
    - liberty
    - pursuit of happiness
    - property (product of labor = product of life and liberty)
    
    

Defining limits on government force

Most restrained

    - Pacifism 
    - Non-aggression principle    
    
    

Defining limits on government force: most restrained

Defining limits on government force: most restrained

Pacifism: violence is never legitimate

• anarchism
• 100% consensual government (no government?)

Defining limits on government force: most restrained

• Pacifism
• Non-aggression principle

Defining limits on government force

Non-aggression principle: violence is only legitimate in self defense or the defense of another’s life, liberty, and property (product of labor)

• libertarianism
• minarchism

Defining limits on government force: Moderate Restraint

Defining limits on government force: Moderate Restraint

Moderate restraint

    - Minimalist Violence 
    - Constitutional Limits on Violence
    - Social contract theory
    - Humanitarian intervention (maybe)
    

Defining limits on government force

Defining limits on government force

Constitutional Limits on Violence: “Constitutional Restraint” or “Limited Sovereign Coercion”

    - The notion that the use of force by the government should be strictly limited by a constitution, whether formal or informal, which outlines when and how the government may act.
    

Defining limits on government force

Constitutional Limits on Violence: “Constitutional Restraint” or “Limited Sovereign Coercion”

    - The notion that the use of force by the government should be strictly limited by a constitution, whether formal or informal, which outlines when and how the government may act.
    - James Buchanan, Nobel prize winning economist and constitutional theorist, argued that setting the Constitutional limits should be done with near unanimity, while "ordinary politics" can be done with majority rule or other agreed standards. (We will return to this idea when considering why we don't just disregard the Constitution when it is inconvenient.)
    - This is closely related to social contract theory, but constitutional constraints are more specific and formal than the general principles of social contract theory.
    

Defining limits on government force

Social contract theory: Individuals consent to give up some freedom (submit to some coercion) in exchange for protection of their rights.

    - Thomas Hobbes, argued that the social contract is necessary to prevent the "war of all against all" and that the government should have nearly unlimited power to prevent this.
    - John Locke, argued that there are still basic rights not subject to coercion and people have the right to revolt against a government that violates these rights.
    - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, argued that the social contract should be based on the "general will" of the people, which is closer to unanimous consent than majority will.

Defining limits on government force

Humanitarian intervention:

    - preventing or stopping human rights abuses
    - large scale action in natural disasters
    - coercive action to correct or prevent economic crises
    - scale redistribution of wealth or other resources to prevent suffering or promote equality.
    - may include military intervention in other countries.
    
    

Humanitarian intervention and the Founders:

    - The Founders were generally opposed to foreign entanglements, though Jefferson ordered attacks on the Barbary pirates to protect American shipping. 
    - The Founders were also opposed to large scale redistribution of wealth or resources by government, though they did support some limited social safety nets such as public education and poorhouses at the local level.
    - This was the upper limit of tolerance of government action by the Founders as a whole with one major exception: enforcement of slaver.
    

Defining limits on government force

Militant democracy: suppression of political opponents perceived or labeled as threats to democracy

    - The idea that it is legitimate for a government to use force to prevent the rise of anti-democratic forces or to suppress political movements that threaten the democratic system.
    - Often used to justify the suppression of political parties or movements that are seen as a threat to democracy.
    - May actually be suppression of threats to the established party system. 
    - This is one of the outcomes of majoritarian Democracy which James Madison writing as Publius in the Federalist Papers warned against.
    
    
    
    

Defining limits on government force: Realpolitik/Pragmatic Statecract

Vance reply to statement that illegal use of force against foreign civilians constitutes war crimes

Defining limits on government force

Realpolitik/Pragmatic statecraft: Pragmatic results matter more than idealism

    - The government should use force to pursue its national interests, regardless of moral considerations.
    - Often used to justify military intervention in the affairs of other states, or the use of force to protect the economic interests of the state.
    - May be used to justify the use of force to suppress dissent or to maintain the power of the ruling party.
    - Order is more important than justice or rights.
    
    
    

Defining limits on government force

Theocracy: government derives its powers from a divine mandate

    - Use of force is morally justified for any reason chosen by the divinely mandated rulers. 
    - Often used to justify the use of force to suppress dissent or to enforce religious laws.
    - Still not completely unlimited, as ideals of the religion may still limit the actions of the rulers.
    

Defining limits on government force: Totalitarianism

Defining limits on government force: Totalitarianism

Defining limits on government force: Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism: unlimited power over all aspects of life.

    - The idea that the government should have unlimited power to control all aspects of society, including the use of force to suppress dissent and maintain control.
    - Often used to justify the use of force to maintain the power of the ruling party or to enforce ideological conformity.
    - Government rule extends into all aspects of life, including the private sphere even the home and family. 
    
    
    

Philosophies of Government in America: Classical liberalism

Philosophies of Government in America: Classical liberalism

• limiting power of government
• expanding political participation
• allowing the flourishing of individuals and voluntary associations

Modern Take on Classical Liberalism

(close paraphrase of lectures by Dr. Chris Coyne, George Mason University

Flaws in the Founding

Flaws in the Founding

Flaws in the Founding: Resolution

• Slavery: Constitutional problem fixed*

    - 1865: 13th Amendment
    - 1868: 14th Amendment
    - 1870: 15th Amendment

• not the same as “problem fixed”

• Status of Women

    - Voting: 19th Amendment (1920)
    - Equal Protection Clause (14th Amendment) applied to women by Supreme Court (1971)
    - Equal Rights Amendment (failed ratification)

Flaws in the Founding: Resolution

• Equal Protection: Constitutional Enforcment

    - Civil Rights Act (14th Amendment) of 1964
    - Voting Rights Act (15th Amendment) 1965
    - Civil Rights Act of 1967 (Fair Housing Act)
    - Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967)
    - Title IX of Education Amendments (1972)
    - Equal Employment Opportunity Act (1972)
    - Rehabilitation Act (1973)
    - Civil Rights Restoration Act (1987)
    - The Americans with Disabilities Act (1991)
    - Civil Rights Act of 1991

• Work to do? Always

Why does the Constitution matter today?

• Until we replace it officially, it is the formal guard against abuse of power and the formal list of limits on power
• While still a human made document, it has followed the classical liberal ideal of expanding the circle of those protected and those participating in government
• It puts into expression an aspiration to a political ideal that is still worth a look

Classical Liberalism: Questions

1. Given the modern restatement, does classical liberalism have anything to teach us today?
2. Given the early take on political liberalism, what does it have to teach us today?
3. Aside from explicitly violating individual rights, are there any ways that government can hurt rather than promoting a peaceful society of dignified equals, a society where individuals and voluntary associations can flourish?

The Constitution as Social Contract: Is it?

• No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority by Lysander Spooner (1870)
• A contract requires the consent of the parties
• The original signers and ratifiers are dead
• New citizens are compelled to participate, there is no opportunity to consent
• The Constitution failed to protect natural rights especially with regard to slavery
• US government rules by coercion, not consent
• Without individual, explicit, continuous consent, the US government is a band of robbers and murderers who use the Constitution as a pretext

The Constitution as Social Contract: Is it?

• Writing in 1870 after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, I think we can consider his slavery argument shaky
• What about the other arguments?
• If he is right, is there a solution?

Authorship and License

Do not share to Chegg, Coursehero, or similar commercial websites.

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.