Unit 4 Lesson 7: Foundations of the American Political System

Question 1

federalists

Answer 1

Led by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists wanted a strong national government to unite the states. This group denounced the Articles of Confederation, the country’s first constitution, as they felt it promoted a weak central government.

Question 2

What was the Anti-Federalists’ important achievement?

Answer 2

They successfully got a Bill of Rights added to the Constitution.

Question 3

What did Federalists hope to achieve with their writing?

Answer 3

They wanted Americans to support ratifying the Constitution.

Question 4

Anti-Federalists

Answer 4

Meanwhile, the Anti-Federalists, led by Patrick Henry and George Mason, warned that a strong federal government could abuse power, much like the British government they had just ousted. They championed the Articles of Confederation, as it encouraged states’ rights.

Question 5

Which faction was most successful in achieving its goals during the Great Debate? Use evidence to reason effectively.

Answer 5

The Federalists got the Constitution ratified. The Anti-Federalists created a Bill of Rights. In my opinion, the Anti-Federalists were more successful in achieving its goals. Three states—Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York—decided that they wanted a Bill of Rights as a condition of ratifying the Constitution. The Anti-Federalists started a national conversation that resulted in the Bill of Rights. It is used to this day, in addition to later amendments.

Question 6

As the debate raged on, it was clear a compromise was needed.

Answer 6

Once the Constitution was ratified, or made official, in 1788, a Bill of Rights was tacked on in 1791. These first 10 amendments were designed to protect personal freedoms like religion and speech.

Question 7

Democracy was not a new concept in the late eighteenth century. The Greeks first proposed the idea of democracy around 507 BCE. The Greek word demokratia meant “rule by the people.” It was the idea that people in a society could govern themselves. However, not all the people were intended to participate in government. Only people who fit a certain criteria were expected to participate.

Answer 7

The ancient Greeks limited political participation to free male citizens over the age of 18, or about 10% to 20% of the population. Around 25% of those living in Greece were enslaved at the time.

Question 8

Ancient Greek demokratia was an egalitarian form of government.

Answer 8

Greece did not have a king or a single ruler. Instead, the people ruled together. It was a direct democracy because people directly voted on the government and participated in it. They did not elect representatives to speak for them. T

Question 9

The Greek government was divided into three parts:

Answer 9

• ekklesia – the lawmakers
• boule – a council of representatives from the various tribes in the city-state of Athens
• dikasteria – the court system

Question 9

ekklesia

Answer 9

Any free male citizen over 18 could participate in the ekklesia. The ekklesia wrote laws, changed them as needed, and handled foreign policy. They made decisions by simple majority. They met only about 40 times per year, or less than once per week. The boule, however, met each day. They did most of the work to make the government function each day.

Question 10

boule

Answer 10

The boule took care of most government affairs; they also decided which issues the ekklesia needed to handle. A random lottery selected the 500 men chosen to serve in the boule. These men were members of the ten tribes of Athens. The boule had an equal number of men from each tribe. The Athenians believed that a lottery was democratic because everyone was chosen by chance. Everyone had the same chance of being chosen.

Question 11

dikasteria

Answer 11

The dikasteria, the court system in Athens, used juries selected from a group of citizens. Potential jurors had to be men at least 30 years old. Every day, 500 citizens were chosen to serve as jurors. Beyond that, the court system was not very firmly structured. Citizens could take each other to court for any reason. Jurors got paid for their time, but not very much money.

Question 12

The Roman Republic included a Senate and four other government assemblies.

Answer 12

The Roman Republic included a Senate and four other government assemblies. These assemblies offered political roles for a large variety of Romans. Any adult male who was present in Rome could vote in the Roman assemblies. The Roman Republic also had a type of executive branch, including two elected consuls, who oversaw the rest of the government. Like Athens, there was also a court system in the Roman Republic, but trials were not run by government officials.

Question 12

The Romans also used democracy in their government around the same time. There were some differences in how the two city-states practiced democracy, however. The Romans called their system a rēspūblica, a word we know today as “republic.” At that time, the term literally meant “thing of the people.”

Answer 12

Romans were born as citizens. Other individuals in the Roman Republic could become citizens or become citizens by choice when freed from slavery. Women and enslaved people could not participate in the government. Between 20-30% of people were enslaved in the Roman Empire. Like ancient Greece, only free men were included in political activity.

Question 13

Rome divided citizens into classes, including the patricians and the plebeians:

Answer 13

• plebeians – the common people of the Roman Republic
• patricians – the upper classes, like an aristocracy of the Roman Republic; they held power in the Senate

Question 14

This class-focused approach to dividing the government’s power also set the Roman government apart from Athens’. Rome was not simply a democracy where every man over a certain age could participate in government. Rather, it was a

Answer 14

Rather, it was a republic, where people were elected to certain roles, and those elected were often from the upper classes. Although there were opportunities for plebeians to participate in the government, they had less power than the aristocratic patricians.

Question 15

Classical republicanism

Answer 15

Classical republicanism developed during this period. As Enlightenment thinkers engaged with classical Greek and Roman works, they began thinking about how Greek and Roman political ideas could shape their world. The British became very interested in classical republicanism. This occurred during a period when their own government was changing. Many British thinkers in the seventeenth century were interested in the role of government. They also wrote about the relationship between government and the people in a society. Classical republicanism included an emphasis on characteristics such as integrity and virtue. Enlightenment thinkers used these ideas to argue for ways to improve government. Some believed that government would be better with a foundation in classical republican ideals.

Question 16

The belief in the connection between political participation and independence led to a Constitution based on the separation of powers. Both ancient Athens and Rome had used this approach, dividing governmental power into specific arenas. In the American model, separation of powers included the creation of three branches:

Answer 16

• executive branch – the office of the president of the United States
• legislative branch – the Senate and House of Representatives
• judicial branch – the Supreme Court and the federal court system

Question 17

Yet these men worried about majority rule and were cautious when it came to democracy. They believed that some political voice was important for citizens. However, democracy on its own seemed problematic. They were concerned about unchecked democracy and did not trust most Americans to focus on public interest.

Answer 17

A mixed government was one way to address this concern. Allowing Americans to elect representatives, while state legislatures selected senators, helped control the people’s power. Having judges selected by the president and confirmed by the Senate also limited the use of democracy.

Question 18

electoral college

Answer 18

The electoral college perhaps best represents how early Americans focused on a republican form of government. While all citizens could vote for the president, the Electoral College developed as an additional way to check the power of the people’s will. Individual Americans vote for a president every four years. However, a small number of representatives from each state form the Electoral College. The people in the Electoral College determine the president. A presidential candidate must have a certain amount of electoral votes in order to become president. A candidate can win the popular vote election, but lose the Electoral College.

Question 19

As Americans debated whether to ratify the Constitution, many began to call for the addition of a Bill of Rights. Ultimately, the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, was added. The Bill of Rights drew from ancient Roman ideas of natural law.

Answer 19

Cicero developed the concept of natural law in the first century BCE. The idea of natural law is that rules for human behavior are not based on changing criteria. There are rules for how humans should behave, particularly toward one another. Those rules are based in objective, unchanging truths or norms.

Question 20

By the time of the Enlightenment, these ideas had developed in a number of ways. During the Enlightenment, natural law became the foundation of natural rights.

Answer 20

John Locke, for example, argued that natural rights included life, liberty, and property. During the 1770s, Thomas Jefferson adapted this idea in the Declaration of Independence.

Question 21

Rule of Laws

Answer 21

The Founding Fathers adapted the ideas of rule of law from Ancient Greece and the philosopher, Aristotle, in his writings, Politics, he asked if laws or people are better at ruling. Aristotle wrote that there are benefits to both methods, but that ultimately it is better to be ruled by laws because they can be applied equally to all citizens.

During the Enlightenment, John Locke took Aristotle’s idea of being ruled by the best laws and developed the concept of Rule of Law. He wrote that it was important for all members of society to be held accountable to the same laws. It does not matter if you are a monarch, a religious leader, or a farmer. The law should be enforced equally. This is referred to as Equality before the Law.

Question 22

1.

Where was democracy first used as part of a government?

Answer 22

Ancient Greece/Athens

Question 23

Describe how rule of law has changed over time?

Answer 23

During Ancient Greece, Aristotle started to develop the idea of citizens being ruled by laws instead of people. However, the ideas was not implemented by the Greeks. John Locke took the idea of being ruled by laws to develop the rule of laws, the idea that all people in society are held to the same laws. The United States and many other countries have continued to follow the rule of law, ensuring their courts equally enforce all laws for all individuals.

Question 24

What is one similarity in how the Greeks, Romans, and the U.S. structured their government?

Answer 24

All three divided their government into separate parts.

Question 25

# 1. Identify two ancient thinkers, one Greek and one Roman, who helped to develop the concept of “equality before the law.”

Answer 25

The Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his work Politics, promoted the idea that it was better to be ruled by laws than by people (e.g., kings). The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius called for a society of “equal rights and equal freedom of speech.” All these concepts fed into the Enlightenment ideal of equality before the law.

Question 26

Why did the American political leaders find Greek and Roman political ideals useful?

Answer 26

They were inspired by Enlightenment thinkers who applied Greek and Roman political ideals to modern government, such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

Question 27

Summarize some fundamental ideas and institutions from Greece and Rome that influenced Western civilizations.

Answer 27

The traditions of democracy and republicanism in Athens and Rome were fundamental to later Western civilizations. The idea that the people should have representatives, and should choose those representatives themselves, became the basis of democratic-republicanism in the United States and elsewhere.

Question 27

The men who created the U.S. Constitution set up a bicameral legislative branch:

Answer 27

* Senate – two individuals representing each state in the U.S., elected for six-year terms. * House of Representatives – 435 elected representatives (number per state determined by population), elected for two-year terms

Question 28

The judicial branch of the U.S. government is a system of courts that covers the country.

Answer 28

* Supreme Court – the highest of all the courts in the country; nine Supreme Court justices have the final word on legal cases they hear * Federal courts – 13 courts of appeals and 94 district-level trial courts; focus on federal laws; smaller role called limited jurisdiction * State courts – most court cases happen in the state court systems; focus on state laws

Question 29

How many government branches does the U.S. Constitution include for the federal government?

Answer 29

three

Question 30

Why did the creators of the U.S. Constitution only implement some elements of Greek and Roman democracy into the Constitution?

Answer 30

While the creators of the U.S. Constitution admired many of the things the ancient Greeks and Romans did, they worried about some things. For example, they did not want to have people in government for life, so they limited the length of time that senators and representatives could be in office. They made intentional differences that reflected their interest in a balanced government.

Question 30

What is one difference between the U.S. Senate and the Senate in the Roman Republic?

Answer 30

U.S. senators serve for six-year terms; Roman senators held lifetime terms.

Question 31

The U.S. Constitution, democratic Athens, and the Roman Republic all established court systems with jurors. Why are jury systems so important to these democratic court systems?

Answer 31

ury systems are democratic because they give the people a voice. Although the specifics of each jury system are different, these jury systems created a way for citizens to work with each other to solve problems. It makes them all participants in government.

Question 32

Identify some legal traditions that inspired the legal principle of the trial by a jury of your peers.

Answer 32

Trial by jury has clear predecessors in both Greek and Roman legal systems. However, the “jury of one’s peers” specifically was not guaranteed in these earlier systems: in Roman law, jurors had to be property holders, whereas in the present-day U.S. there is no such restriction.

Question 33

Identify some theoretical traditions that inspired the legal principle of the presumption of innocence.

Answer 33

Presumption of innocence in U.S. law can be traced back to Greek and Roman legal traditions as well as the legal precepts of the Abrahamic religions. The Talmud, the Hadith, and (by the thirteenth century) the teachings of Catholic legal scholars all attest to the presumption of innocence.

Question 34

While the U.S. Constitution was being ratified, the people of France had begun a revolution of their own.

Answer 34

In 1789, Thomas Jefferson supported the work of French leaders writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This document served as part of the basis for the French Revolution. One of the men who wrote the document was the Marquis de Lafayette, Gilbert de Motier, who fought in the American Revolutionary War. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen took inspiration from the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Additionally, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was written at the same time as the amendments that would become the U.S. Bill of Rights. James Madison, who wrote the Bill of Rights, also provided input on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Question 34

Explain classical Greece and Rome’s impact on the development of contemporary democratic-republican governments.

Answer 34

Each branch of the U.S. government shows the influence of Greek and Rome. In the executive branch, the president of the United States can be compared with a Roman consul: both were elected to serve as heads of state, and both also commanded the armed forces during their term. The U.S. legislature also has many of the same powers that the Roman Senate and legislative assemblies had, such as declaring war, ratifying treaties, and controlling government spending. The judicial branch also follows Greek and Roman examples in allowing any citizen to bring a case to court and conducting trials by jury.

Question 34

What was unique about the government created by the U.S. Constitution in 1787?

Answer 34

It was a democratic-republic.