PLS 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Limited Government, Montesquieu, Richard Neustadt
7 Jun 2018
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Lecture 4: American History
Video Notes:
● French and Indian War (1756-1763)
○ War ends with the defeat of the French
● The Sugar Act (1764)
○ Represents the first time the English started to tax the colonists
○ Placed tariffs on coffee, sugar, other products
○ “No taxation without representation”
○ Actual representation vs. virtual representation
■ Actual: what England had
■ Virtual: being represented on behalf
● Stamp Act (1765)
○ Placed tariffs on stamps, documentation, etc.
● Quartering Act (1765)
○ Required colonist to provide British soldiers with barracks, bedding, fuel,
candles, beer, rum
● Declaratory Act(1766)
○ “Middle finger to the Colonists”
○ Parliament had ability to pass any law they see fit, regardless if the Colonies agree
to it, they have to obey
● Townshend Act (1767)
○ Levied taxes on import on tea, led, glass, paper, and paints
● Boston Massacre (1770)
● Boston Tea Party (1773)
○ British response to Tea Party
■ Port Bill
● attempt to get Bostonians to follow orders
● Order to shut down Boston Port, starve the people of Boston to
submission
■ Massachusetts Regulating Act
● Government replaces upper branch of legislature
● Replaces the process of electing people
● Took out any say of the people by getting rid of lower branch
■ Administration of Justice Act
● Gave royal governor power to point and remove judges
● Made it impossible for colonists to endite of capital offense
■ Quartering Act
Lecture 5: The Declaration of Independence
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Video Notes:
Lecture 6: The Critical Period
Video Notes:
Chapter 2: Constitutional Democracy: Promoting Liberty and Self-Government
Before the Constitution: The Colonial and Revolutionary Experiences
● The Declaration of Independence
○ Building on the writings of Thomas Hobbe, John Locke claimed that government
is founded on a social contract- a voluntary agreement by individuals to form a
government that is then obligated to work within the confines of that agreement
○ Locke asserted that people living in a state or nature enjoy certain inalienable
(natural) rights, including those of life, liberty, and property, which are
threatened by individuals who steal, kill, and otherwise act without regard for
others
○ Jefferson paraphrased Locke’s ideas in passage of the Declaration of
Independence
○ The Declaration was a call to revolution rather than a framework for a new form
of government
○ Contained the ideas: liberty, equality, individual rights, self-government, lawful
powers
● Articles of Confederation
○ A constitution is the fundamental law that defines how a government will
legitimately operate
■ the method for choosing its leaders, the institutions through which these
leaders will work, the procedures they must follow in making policy, and
the powers they can lawfully exercise
○ Adopted during the Revolutionary War
○ Created very weak national government that was subordinate to the states
○ Each state retained its full “sovereignty, freedom, and independence”
○ National government had no judiciary and no independent executive
○ Prohibited Congress from levying taxes, so it had to ask the states for money
Negotiating Toward a Constitution
● The Great Compromise: A Two-Chamber Congress
○ Virginia Plan: constitutional proposal for a strong Congress with two chambers,
both of which would be based on numerical representation, thus granting more
power to the larger states
■ Members of the lower chamber chosen by voters
■ Members of the upper chamber selected by members of the lower chamber
from lists of nominees provided by their respective state legislatures
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
