PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS

1. PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS Summer I (2014) Claire Leavitt Boston University

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS • Syllabus • What is politics? • What is political science? • Governance and Collective Action • Tools of US government • Articles of Confederation • The Constitution • American Exceptionalism (liberalism)

3. POLITICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE What is politics? Regulation of conflicts over the allocation of material and social goods What we’re used to: http://college.cqpress.com/sites/logic6e/Home/chapter1/Multimedia.aspx

4. POLITICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE What is political science?  Research that attempts to reveal the laws that govern political behavior Research that provides objective, empirical evidence for the rules of politics that should help policymakers effectively solve problems

5. POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH Research question: What is the effect of negative advertising on the voting population?Hypothesis: Negative advertising will both help and hurt a campaign—highly-partisan voters will respond positively to the negative ad while more moderate, independent voters will respond negatively But how do we know?

6. POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH We can test our hypothesis using a controlled experiment, effectively applying the scientific method to political questions Gather participants Randomly divide into two groups Have both groups fill out identical questionnaires  What is your partisan affiliation?  On a scale of 0-100 (0 = completely negative; 100 = completely positive), how do you feel about President Obama?  How likely are you to vote in November? [1=not at all likely, 5=very likely

7. POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH  Show Group X a news broadcast, including two neutral political ads Show Group Y the same news broadcast, including one neutral ad and one negative adattacking Obama) Have each group fill out the same questionnaire after 1 hour. Any differences?

8. RESULTS How do you feel about Obama? (0-100) How likely are you to vote in November? (1-5)

9. SO WHAT?  Has political science become too “scientific”? Good in practice, but how does it work in theory?  Academics versus policymakers/politicians

10. THE FRAMERS: AMERICA’S FIRST POLITICAL SCIENTISTS  Framers wanted to understand political and social life in a scientific way Framers wanted to base a new government on universal political laws (inspired by Newton)  Madison (especially) believed human societies and humans themselves were pluralistic—composed of competing interests, values and preferences

11. THE FRAMERS: AMERICA’S FIRST POLITICAL SCIENTISTS Thus, a successful government would have to effectively regulate the interaction of all these varied interests

12. WHAT CAME BEFORE GOVERNMENT? THE STATE OF NATURE:  A world without government  No laws regulating human action No enforcement of rules to ensure human rights and liberties are protected  Scarce resources  Highly competitive environment In other words: anarchy

13. WHAT CAME BEFORE GOVERNMENT? Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)  British political philosopher; author of Leviathan  Life in a state of nature was “nasty, brutish and short”; humans not naturally evil/bellicose, but unable to trust one another  Strong monarch/government necessary for enforcing law

14. WHAT CAME BEFORE GOVERNMENT? John Locke (1632-1704)  British political philosopher; “father of liberalism” State of nature mostly peaceful; government necessary to protect against the few bad apples

15. THE PROBLEM OF COLLECTIVE ACTION (#1)  Cooperation impossible without an enforcement mechanism • Illustrations of the collective action problem: • Prisoner’s Dilemma • Stag-and-hare parable (Rousseau)

16. THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA Best Option: Both stay silent Problem: Neither prisoner can trust the other one to stay silent Non-Optimal Solution: Both testify against the other and each get five years Net Loss: 4.5 years

17. THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA  Golden Balls (British TV game show)

18. Best Option: Both cooperate to catch the stag (more meat) STAG-AND-HARE PARABLE Problem: Neither hunter can trust the other to work together rather than grabbing the hare Non-Optimal Solution: Both catch hares (less meat)

19. EXAMPLE: SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM • Research shows Social Security will go bankrupt in 2033 • Both parties know reform is necessary, but reform is deeply unpopular • Reelection still most important goal • Democrats cannot trust Republicans to cooperate and make concessions, and vice versa • Result: No reform

20. THE PROBLEM OF COLLECTIVE ACTION (#2)  In large groups, people have the incentive to free ride off the contributions of others  Examples: Voting  Membership in a voluntary organization  Labor unions and “right to work” legislation

21. THE PUZZLE OF COOPERATION  So why do people cooperate at all?  Carrots and Sticks:Rewards for cooperation/participation Examples: AARP special benefits for members; individual social and psychological rewardsPunishments for non-cooperation Examples: The IRS; Obamacare penalties; mandatory voting (e.g. Australia)

22. WHAT CAN GOVERNMENT DO?  Collective action problems can be solved through creative and prudent institutional design  What kind of institutions ensure that…. Everybody cooperates when necessary  Everybody contributes his or her fair share  Free-rider problem is minimized  Individual rights and liberties are still protected

23. THE TOOLS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT  Powers granted to each institutionmust be able to check each other and balance against each other1) Command2) Veto power3) Agenda Control4) Voting Rules5) Delegation

24. THE FIRST ATTEMPT(S)  Post-”Declaration,” Congress under the draft Articles of Confederation governed the colonies during the war  Authority to coordinate the national army and war effort  Mandated that each state supply troops individually  Authority to borrow money, but no authority to tax the colonists

25. PROBLEMS  Classic prisoner’s dilemma: States agreed to sacrifice for the war, but only if they could be assured other states would make equivalent efforts! Small states could veto efforts to centralize power to pay for the war Rhode Island vetoed taxation authority for Congress  French loans saved the US war effort

26. THE FIRST ATTEMPT(S)  Articles of Confederation officially ratified in 1781 Authority derived not from the citizens but from the states  No executive  No judiciary  Unicameral legislature  Representatives selected by the states  Each state had veto power over major laws

27. POSTWAR (1781-1789)  US had crushing war debts ($25 million to Americans and $10 million to foreign governments) Debt belonged to the Congress but the states had power of the purse; still no Congressional authority to tax  Little to no state repayment: States worried that others would refuse to contribute their fair share

28. POSTWAR (1781-1789)  Congress had no authority to negotiate debt settlements with other nations  States took advantage of each other: New York charged New Jersey exorbitant fees to use its ports, e.g.  Each state had own currency and used tricks to inflate its currency value relative to others  To raise money, states cracked down on individual debtors; many Americans forced to sell their homes or serve jail time

29. THE CASE FOR A NEW CONSTITUTION  Locke Claimed all men were equal and entitled to the same rights and liberties  Limited government & individual rights  Endorsed popular sovereignty and principal- agent delegation Montesquieu (1689-1755) Separation of powers and a three-pronged institutional structure  Limited government/small political communities

30. THE CASE FOR A NEW CONSTITUTION  Hume (1711-1776)  Politics as an adjustment around competing interests, similar to a free market Newton (1642-1727) Newton’s discovery of physical laws inspired the Framers to search for comparable political and social laws  “Force,”“balance,”“checking power,”“laws of politics”

31. CHECKS AND BALANCES  Congressional Authority: To make laws  To regulate interstate and international trade  To declare war  To organize and maintain standing armies  To tax citizens  To borrow money

32. CHECKS AND BALANCES  Executive Authority: To command the military and commission officers  To appoint judges and foreign ambassadors  To make treaties with foreign nations  To veto legislation  Inform Congress on the state of the union  Execute the laws made by Congress

33. CHECKS AND BALANCES What is the one executive power that cannot be checked? Presidential pardon

34. CHECKS AND BALANCES  Judicial Authority: To declare laws unconstitutional (settled in Marbury v. Madison)  SCOTUS only federal court  SCOTUS has supremacy over state courts

35. THE CASE FOR THE CONSITUTION  Federalist 10: James Madison  Warned against factions—special interest groups that would lead to anarchy  Two solutions: Get rid of factions, or use the government to control factions  Factions could be controlled by republican, representative government and by pluralism (in large political communities)

36. THE CASE FOR THE CONSITUTION  Federalist 51: Factions also a danger in Congress  Solution: Checks and balances; bicameral legislature  Congress must be watched most carefully, since it is the most powerful branch

37. AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM Liberalism:  Lockean political philosophy as the established American creed Material abundance ensured the absence of class conflict Danger of unanimity of liberal ideals?

38. AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM Liberalism versus Racial/Gender Hierarchies:  Two competing, still unresolved political traditions Racial and gender inferiorities justified through scientific language