1. British overreacted?

2. What is Confederation?

● A system of government in which states retain sovereign authority except for the
powers expressly delegated to the national government.

● Weak central government: no president, only a legislature / Congress members

were chosen & paid by states

● Impractical government; 1 vote/state regardless of population size. All 13 states had

to agree to make amendments

3. Virginia Plan

● A system of representation based on: state population, the proportion of each state’s
revenue contribution to national government or both

4. New Jersey Plan

5. The Connecticut (or Great) Compromise bridged V & NJ plans by creating a

bicameral legislature.

● The House: representatives apportioned by population in the state

● The Senate: equal representation for all states regardless of population.

***US is 1 of the only countries with 2 truly coequal

6. The Three-Fifths Compromise

● Seats in the House were apportioned by “polulation”, according to which 5 slaves

would count as 3 free persons
● The Southern delegates would not agree to the new gov if Northern delegates
refused to bargain on this issue

7. Excessive Democracy (caught up on the emotions)

2/2/2022

1. Discussion: What are perceived values/benefits & drawbacks of federalism (in terms
of power)?

Benefits:

● Promote diversity of opinions as citizens are encouraged to raise their voice and
share ideas to better society, e.g. new community policies
● Encourage political participation
● United law
● Benefits & services provided are secure & revolutionary

Drawbacks:

● Possible slow decision-making process: nation-wide issues must be thoroughly

assessed and evaluated and different states must have agreed solutions toward
them: congress
● A sense of equality as not all citizens have necessary means of voicing their opinions
● Variance in law => bring confusion

2. Thompson, Ellis, Wildavsky

Cultural bias: shared values & beliefs

Social relations: patterns of interpersonal relations
Way of life: a combination of social relations & cultural bias

3. Grid-group Typology

An individual’s variability in social life can be captured by 2 dimensions of sociality: group &
grid.

What is a Group?

The extent to which an individual is incorporated into bounded units. An individual accepts
constraints by belonging to a group

To exist: collective pressure to signal loyalty

E.g. a member of a religious group through annual participation in a simple ceremony or
daily participation & lifetime commitment.

The group dimension taps into the degree to which an individual’s life is absorbed in &
sustained by group membership.

What is a Grid?

The degree to which an individual’s life is circumscribed by externally imposed

prescriptions (structure).

The more binding & extensive the scope of the prescriptions, the less of life that is open to
individual negotiation.

An individual may conduct ad-hoc negotiations & adhere to a thorough & detailed process
of interaction.

The grid dimension identifies the degree to which social interactions…

What are the ways of life?

High Group + Grid: Hierarchical

● Individuals are subject to both control of other members of the group & socially
imposed roles.

High Group & Low Grid: Egalitarian

● Individuals strongly tied to group
● Individuals have no control over 1 & other

Low Group + Grid: individualistic

● All boundaries are provisional & subject to negotiation

Low Group, High Grid: Fatalistic

● Bounded by socially imposed roles but excluded from group membership
● Excluded from membership in the group responsible for making decisions that rule
their life
What is Federalism?

● System of government that divides power between the national government & the
state governments
● Some policy spheres may overlap & be shared
● States with diverse ethnic or language groupings most likely to have federal
arrangements (e.g. Switzerland & Canada)

How does Federalism differ from unitary systems & confederations?

● Unitary
- The central gov makes the most important decisions
- Lower levels of gov have little power
- Lower levels of gov implement the decisions made by central gov

● Confederation
- Most power located within the states of provinces with a weak central
authority
- Central gov typically charged with security & some economic

What is intergovernmental relations (one of the most characteristics of American gov)?

The process by which those levels of government negotiate & compromise over policy
responsibility.

What are the types of powers to Congress?

● Expressed powers: specific powers in the Constitution that are granted to Congress
& the President (Article I, section 8)

● Implied powers: enable Congress to make the laws that are necessary & proper to
execute the expressed powers

● In addition, the Constitution affirmed the power of the national government in the
supremacy clause

● Tenth Amendment (reserved powers amendment): powers that Constitution does

not specifically delegate to the national government or prohibit to the states (The
Antifederalists feared a strong central gov & pressed for this amendment?)
 What is coercion?

● The most fundamental power that the states retain is that of coercion (the power to
develop & enforce criminal codes to administer health & safety rules & to regulate
the family via marriage & divorce laws.

● States exercise coercion through police power (power reserved to state gov to
regulate the health, safety & morals of its citizens.

What is Concurrent power?

States share some powers with the national gov (e.g. federal pay)

E.g: states retain & share some power to regulate commerce & tax residents

Able to charter banks

Can grant or deny licenses for business or professionals
Can regulate the conditions of labor
2/7/2022:

A. Nevada Constitution

● Context

- Manifest Destiny (19th century): settlers destined to expand throughout the

continent because Americans & their institutions have special virtues & it
was their mission to spread these institutions

● Explorers & Immigrants

- 1822: Great Basin area transferred to Mexican possession after Independence

from Spain
- 1820/30/40s: Fur Trappers, California Immigrants & Explorers crossed
through Nevada / US gov led official expeditions into the region
- 1848: cession of territories to the US by Mexico
- Migration of Mormons into Salt Lake area
- Discovery of gold in California

● Settlement & History

- 1846-1848: Mexican/American war

+ Give US control over: California, Utah, Nevada, portions of Arizona,

New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado

- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)

+ 1846-47: Brigham Young leads 15K to Great Salt Lake area California
Gold
+ 1849: Sutter’s Mill Gold strike leads to thousands of people heading to
California
+ Influx requires supply stations in Nevada
● Establishing Governance

- Compromise of 1850: 5 laws passed in September 1850 dealing with issue of

slavery & territorial expansion
+ Established California as a free state
+ Divided remainder of Mexican cession territory into the territories of
New Mexico & Utah
+ Carson Valley: mormon settlement

- 1851: Seeds of discontent in Carson Valley

+ 500 miles from territorial capital (Fillmore City & Salt Lake City)
+ Brigham Young concentrated on organizing the territory closest to
him
+ Lack of law & order: settlers left to fend for themselves against attacks
from the natives & bandits
+ Lack of action from territorial gov

- Squatter Compact

+ 10 solutions adopted to deal with the survey & recording of land

claims
+ 11th resolution established a committee of 7 officers to act as the
region’s governing board
+ A magistrate’s court consisting of a justice of the peace and 4 others
was established as the region’s judicial body
+ Appeals could be taken to a court of 12 citizens that had the final say
on matters brought to them
+ The group adopted a petition to Congress seeking the establishment
of a distinct Territorial Government for the Western Utah Territory

- Brigham Young’s response was to make an attempt at establishing territorial

control over the area
+ 7 Utah countries became extended to the California border
+ County seats remained however in the east (now present day Utah),
leading to ineffective control
 + Petition ignored by California but seen as a threat to Utah & the
territorial legislature tried again to bind the western portion of the
territory closer to it
+ Jan 1854: the territorial legislature created Carson County
+ 1854: Squatter government hired William Cornwall to draft a
constitution for Carson Valley - the Cornwall Constitution/

- Las Vegas Valley

+ 1855: Orson Hyde, a member of the church’s governing board,
appointed as probate & country judge to organize the county
+ 1858: Missionaries returned to Utah

B. Nevada Territory & Statehood

● 1857-61: Anarchy & Confusion

● July 1857: President Buchanan removes Brigham Young and appointed new
non-Mormon gov led by Alfred Cumming
- Young declares martial law & issue an order prohibiting federal forces from
entering the Salt Lake Valley
● 1861: Western Utah territory becomes Nevada Territory
● Governor Nye chose Carson City as the home of the territorial legislature
● Nye issues 3 proclamations:
- Makes appointments to various territorial offices
- Establishes a functioning judiciary
- Calls for elections to select a delegate to Congress & members of the
territorial legislature

C. Statehood

● Based on California & NY Constitutions

● The Tax Issue
- Becoming a state would remove federal subsidies for the territory
- Mining Tax: John North “all property should bear alike the burdens of
society”
- Against Mining Tax: William Stewart “burden upon the miners…heavier than
what they could bear…whether they were productive or not.
● 1863 Constitution
- Single slate of Union Party office holders on the ballot
- Handpicked by Stewart
 - Amend the Constitution to provide taxation only on the net

● 1864 Constitution: National Forces

- 1861-65: Civil War

- Lincoln needed votes in both houses for passage of the 13th Amendment
(abolishing slavery)
- Lincoln would need 3 electoral votes to win the 1864 presidential election
- Racical Republicans sought additional Republican votes in Congress to
advance Congressional Policies
- Fear that the 3rd party candidate would place outcome of the election in the
House of Representatives.
+ Each state has 1 vote, decided by majority vote in the state bloc
members

● Taxes
- Resentment of the wealthy Caligornian mining companies
- Compromise allows for mines to be taxed on proceeds, up to the legislature
to determine net or gross
- Economic reality of Mining became a large-scale

● 3 conditions
- Banning Slavery
- Constitutional commitment to religious tolerance
+ Concern over dominant LDS influence
- Cede all unclaimed territory to the federal gov
+ 87%
2/14/2022

Discussion: What makes a social movement successful?

● It must address a rising pain point that society/citizens are facing.

2/23/2022

Does descriptive representation matter?

No because one of America's 3 political values are equality, liberty, justice.

Descriptive representation is concerned only with who a representative is, such as his or
her race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual identity. Substantive representation, by contrast, is
concerned only with what a representative does, such as crafting legislation, voting on bills,
and securing pork for the district.

3/2/2022

Legislative branch: create laws

Executive branch: enforce laws
Judicial branch: interpret the laws

***
3/21

The Supreme Court (C-Span)

(Home to America's Highest Court)

● Empire of Justice
● Lex means Law in Latin
● “Make sure people always want to come back on these steps because we are doing
the right way”
● History influences the way the court works
● Healthy for the court to have members from different background
● Learning curve is steep, sometimes vertical
● If you have questions, there will always be someone to walk you through the
answers
● Solving any questions on the subject of law (or any) and making it work
● Each has an office and works with other 4 members (not disturbed by the
protestors)
● Jefferson & Taff’s architect
● Marble content in construction
● West Plaza: place to express citizens’ feelings
● Equal Justice Under Law
● Designed to calm lawyers down => make a fair decision
● Institutional importance
● Courtroom is not too big in order to create intimacy (close enough to shake hands)
● Questions are designed to understand both sides of the arguments (every question
has a purpose)
● Virtue - Charity - Peace (applying both traditional & modern values - e.g. pen)
● Dining room is well-furnished and the food comes from a public cafeteria
● No one speaks twice until everyone has spoken once
● Library (science - law - industry)

3/28

Having 2-3 variable parties increase voter turnout?

● That means equality & diversity

●