POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Signing Statement, Just War Theory, Nuclear Weapon
Commercial services stopped
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Bridges / tunnels closed
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Manhattan closed to street traffic for almost 2 months
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George Bush's approval ratings raised to 90%
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Had lost popular vote in election to Al Gore by .5 million
votes --> barely became president
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Rest of world willing to listen to US foreign policy
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President given more authority
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Secret orders sanctioning torture, etc. if involving
'Homeland Security'
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Power of office of president increased dramatically by 9/11
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Political fall-out
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German émigré
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"the best joke of democracy is that democrats provide
their enemies with the means to get rid of democracy"
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Only way to avoid is to develop measures to limit political
rights of dangerous areas of the population (fascists)
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Concentrate power in executive (office of president)
▪
Use emergency powers
▪
Pass ad hoc legislation to restrict rights of
expression, participation and assembly to prevent
fascist movements from exploiting democratic
freedoms to undermine democracy
▪
Three components of militant democracy --> George Bush
implemented after 9/11
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Who are legitimate targets of restrictions on rights
and freedoms
▪
When is it legitimate to intervene? (what level of
threat is threatening enough to warrant militant
democracy?)
▪
How to safeguard against the abuse of legal provisions
for partisan gain?
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Concerns
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More government powers
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Intercept communications of citizens and non-citizens
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Wire tapping
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Overwhelming support from house of representatives
and senate
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Patriot Act
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Bush authorized (secretly) the NSA to eavesdrop without
court orders on calls and emails from the US to other
countries
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Negates laws banning torture etc.
▪
Avoid complying with laws and provisions that did not
have any direct bearing on 'war on terror' -
whistleblower, affirmative action
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Abusing legal provisions not only for national
protection but also partisan gain
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Long term institutional problem: long-term power in
executive undermines system of check and balances -
undermines presidential democracy --> office of
▪
Quietly challenged 1100 laws that had already been passed
using 'Signing Statements'
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Militant democracy : use of legal restrictions on political
expression and participation to curb extremist actors in
democratic regimes
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Lecture 1.11: 9/11
December 5, 2016
12:09 PM
LECTURES Page 29
