YKY: Part Two of the Political Science/American National Government Final Exam Study Notes

Mapp v. Ohio(1961)

Dolly Mapp, Cleveland, Ohio; The Police had her house under surveillance reference suspicion of harboring a fugitive and illegal gambling activity. The police knocked on the front door, flashed papers and claimed to have a search warrant. Ms. Mapp snatched the papers, jammed it into her brazier, a scuffle ensued, police subdued Ms. Mapp and performed a CUSTODIAL SEARCH (blanket search). Everything was searched from top to bottom and no evidence of illegal gambling or harboring a fugitive was found…but pornographic material was found in a trunk in the basement. Ohio prosecutors received evidence: “nudey magazines”. A violation of the 4^th Amendment? Search and Seizures! Mapp was convicted in Ohio. Mapp appealed to the USSC with a writ of certiorari (a type of writ seeking judicial review). By “rule of four” the USSC agreed to hear her case. The USSC ruled in favor of Mapp. POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE ? The USSC created a legal concept known as the EXCLUSIONARY RULE. The court said evidence that is seized unconstitutionally under the 4^th Amendment must be excluded from trial. Evidence that has been seized unconstitutionally under the 4^th Amendment is “fruit from a poisoned tree”; therefore it can not be admitted. They declared blanket searches to be unconstitutional. Now judges issue a search warrrant that specifies what they are looking for.

Concurring opinion- agreed with ruling, disagreed with reason. The concurring opinion was that the case should have been argued under the 1^st Amendment (Religion, Speech, Assembly, and Politics). You have a right to possess pornographicn material—with only one exception: if the pornographic material contains minors. Child porn is unconstitutional; Minors do not have consent!

Liberals are big supporters of the EXCLUSIONARY RULE…technicallity where people walk out of court. Rhenquist argued that the exclusionary rule should be overturned. There is an entire law course on the 4^th Amendment. Some lawyers specialize in 4^th Amendment. There are 1000’s of cases every year that involve the 4^th Amendment.

Keynesian Theory (“priming the pump”)- a macroeconomic theory based on
the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. Keynesian economics argue that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and therefore advocates active policy responses by the public sector, including monetary policy actions and fiscal policy actions by the government to stabilize output over the business cycle. This is a form of liberalism. The theory is if there is an economic downturn, government wants to spend money and therefore stimulate the economy. FDR used a Keynesian approach (New Deal). To make $ you have to spend $ ! The economic stimulus was a recent example.

Justia.com…USSC center

Supply side economics- Trickle down economics. (AKA “Reaganomics”)

Republican party supports this. Government cuts taxes on supply-side, to the businesses and the wealthy…money is freed-up to be filtered down through the economy; money is re-invested into the economy. That is the theory anyway! The idea is that it creates job growth also. This has more support in the US than Keynesian economics theory. Economists refer to the “Laffer curve”. Liberals laugh at that, say that it does not work, that that is how we have tripled our federal budget. We cannot have our cake and eat it too. Conservatives argue that you also decrease government services that way. The burden is shifted from the federal to the state level when taxes are cut at the national level.

Moderates

Liberals Conservatives

Socialists Libertarians

Radicals Reactionary

Ra S Lib’l M C Lib’t Re

LEFT-WING RIGHT-WING

Ra-S-Ll-M-C-Lt-Re…note “a” before “e” (alphabetical)

Mainstream Liberals are too conservative to Socialists.

Conservatives are too liberal to Libertarians.

QUICK:…WHO’S the Majority Leader in the HR?

Eric Cantor…remember Dr. Decker said that he said that the budget bill, HR-1, would pass even if the Senate did not act on it?!

A quick refresher:

HR, 112^th Congress… Republicans control the House (right now).

Speaker- John Boehner, Republican…3^rd in line to be president.

Majority Leader- Eric Cantor, Republican

Minority Leader- Nancy Pelosi, Democrat

Majority Whip- Kevin McCarthy, Republican

Minority Whip- Steny Hoyer, Democrat

When I worked at Upson EMS, John, Eric and McCarthy (McCarty actually) all worked the same shift! Moreover, I am not talking about these majority Republicans either. We would be at the station…in the “House” together.

Nancy and Steny…sitting in a tree, left alone, where would they be? IN the minority!!!

Prepare yourself; this may be too obscene:

Skip this part if you are easily offended!

Democrats control the Senate:

Joe Daniel’s Harry Dick…get over it!

Speaking about the Senate, or Senators, that is…controlled by Democrats.

President- Joe Biden, Democrat, 2^nd in line to be president, casts the tie-breaking vote.

Pres. Pro Tem (pore)- Daniel Inouye, Democrat, 4^th in line to be president

Majority Leader- Harry Reid, Democrat…see a trend here?

Minority Leader- Mitch McConnell, Republican

Majority Whip- Dick Durbin, Democrat

Minority Whip- Jon Kyl, Republican

Or you could think about a BIRD in the Senate (Biden, Inouye, Reid, Durbin).

Minority (small)…try some M&M, or KY

What I mean is, minorities in the Senate: Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl

Leader and Whip, respectively.

Speaker of the House and Majority Leader of the Senate…they have the most power in their respective houses.

Wondering who is 5^th in line to be president?

Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton

I missed Tuesday, April 5^th due to a tornado that prevented me from getting out of my driveway, kept me up all night, left me w/o power…but here (boxed) are the notes which I copied from a classmate:

UN= United Nations

WHO= World Health Organization

NGO= non-governmental organization (Red Cross is an example)

S-C-M-C-L (ideological continuum)

Libertarians-

Individualistic – support individual civil liberties
Pro private property- if you own property, then do whatever you wantot on that property
Anti-morality laws- any law in which govt is dictating behavior
Anti-tax / low govt = low tax because govt doing less
Very limited govt
Laissez faire economics- hands-off capitalism, no FDA, w/o govt regulation
Isolationalists- idea that you shouldn’t be involved politically militarily or economically with any other country

Socialists-

Higher tax burden because: merge public sector and private sector
Tax the rich at high rates and redistribute the wealth to the poor
Anti private property- property should be owned collectively
Lower defense spending because shift that $ to federal social programs

Socialism and Communism linked to Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Marx’s ideas associated with countries that we don’t get along with (Cuba, N. Korea, former USSR)
Born in Germany , lived in London during Industrial Revolution, saw a move from agricultural to mechanized production (factories)
Was an economists; argued that capitalism evolved into Communism
Believed Communism was a perfect economic system
How do we move from one stage to another? DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
FLAW- When reach Communism, dialectical materialism stops because utopia reached—but there is no such thing as utopia
Marx says there are two groups in a capitalistic society: proletariat, the working class, and bourgeoisie, the owning class

Proletariat- the working class (laboring class)…AKA capitalist class (capital is anything of intrinsic value)

Bourgeoisie- owning class; owning the means of production

Intelligentsia; part of bourgeoisie, includes educators and clergy

· Marx was down on religion: “ Religion is the opiate of the masses”. Western Europe used to be all Catholic. Henry VIII wanted a divorse. The Pope refused, so he left and created the Anglican Church—which he became head of.

· Marx would have argued against the “don’t worry if you don’t have…”. He didn’t want to have to wait to get rewards.

· Marx said it’s inevitable they’ll feel exploited, we’re on our way to a communist system.

· Marx said: “Communism is a system in which we live from each according to our abilities, for each according to our needs”. (According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs there is a difference in needs and wants; that was a big criticism against Marx’s theory—there is a big difference in wants and needs)

· There has never been a truly Marxist society. Lenin and Mao twisted Marx’s theory in their practice. Kim Jon Ill (N. Korea) professes to be a Marxist, but he obviously in not!

· Karl Marx spent an exorbitant amount of time talking about capitalism, criticizing it (book: Doss Kapetal). IN London they charge $ to see his grave—ironic? Professor has a picture in his office of him at Karl Marx’s grave.

Public Policy Change- anything the government does.

Know why each group fits into each group!

Incremental change Major Change

Redistributed (redistributing resources from one segment of the population to another )

Liberals Socialists

Non-redistributed change

Mainstream Libertarians

Conservative

Interest Group- collection of people who share common interests and attitudes and seek to influence the govt for specific ends.

Political party- essentially the same definition as above, the fundamental difference is they do not run their own candidates for office. Ask yourself: “Does the group run their own candidate for office?” If the answer is yes, then it is a political party. Examples:

Libertarians- they are a political party; they run their own party candidate for office. They have their own ideological views.
AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)- that name, AARP, is not on a ballot; it is NOT a political party! They do not run their own candidates. They may, however, ENDORSE a particular candidate.

Factions- AKA: pressure groups (older term), interest groups (like AARP), organized interests (like IBM)

Federalist #10; (the seminal writing on interest group theory in the US) written in 1788 by James Madison to encourage people to support ratification of the USC; “the single most important paper written to support the ratification of the

Constitution”. ( John Jay and Alexander Hamilton also wrote Federalist Papers).

“Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an ailment (something which nourishes) without which it instantly expires.”

Read Federalist #10 and plug-in “interest groups” and “political parties” whenever you see the word “faction”.

OBSERVATIONS

The main problem with popular govt (like a democracy) is violent factionalism.
This has caused the collapse of many governments.
People already complain govt is too unstable and divided.
Laws in society tend to reflect the power of the strongest.

SOLUTIONS

Remove the causes of factions.

Abolish liberties
Make all people the same-(fictional books:”1984” and “Brave New World”—where everyone was supposed to think alike)- This is an unworkable solution!

The govt must control the EFFECTS of faction w/o sacrificing liberty in the process. How do you control the effects of faction w/o destroying liberty? This is known as the “Madison Dilemma”. IN 1992 Ross Perot wanted to hem in the rights of public interests groups. Think about the 1^st Amendment. How do you do that w/o violating the 1^st Amendment? (“RSAP”-Religion, Speech, Assembly, Politics)

Party Functions: organize the competition, unify the electorate, help organize govt, translate preferences into policy, and provide loyal opposition. (from the text)

Political

Parties are organizations that seek

Political

Power by electing

People to office who will help

Party

Positions and

Philosophy become

Public

Policy.

(Period)

Piss on that definition; the

Professor did not

Prefer to

Patiently

Practice

Perfecting it!

Pardon, just

Punitively

Passing

Pun.

OK, back to the serious stuff:

Rational Choice Theory (cost vs. benefit theory)

Mancur Olson wrote a book entitled “The Logic of Collective Action”. The book was important in the field, but it did not create the theory. See your handout (students). Theory involves more than just money. There are other benefits such as psychological, time and costs, among others. IN Chapter 6 the author talked about the correlation between group size and cohesion. Not always true with political groups. The Republican party is larger, but there is more cohesion in the NRA. The Tea party supports the Republican party. The most important work in Congress in done in small groups, in committees. 435 members vs. maybe 27 or so on a committee—which group do you think can agree more on issues?! Consider the law of diminishing returns. The more people involved, the less there is to share. If there is a pie being divided, each member gets a smaller piece if there are several people sharing the pie.

Remember: Cost Vs. Benefits…Rational Choice Theory. People join groups to achieve collective benefits through group action. The benefits gained from joining must therefore outweigh the costs involved. Due to the nature of group formation, smaller groups will be more attractive than larger groups because the contributor/member will receive a larger share of the total gain.

“Free rider” problem- Organizations must provide enough free incentives to compensate for the attraction of free riders. Examples include services, discounts, memberships, strike pay, legal services, insurance, etc. Free riders gets (some of) the benefits, but do not pay the costs. Why buy the cow when you get the milk free?

Open shops- a labor union is present, but you don not have to belong to the union to be hired.

Closed shop- you have to belong to the union to be hired; the union bargains for benefits in both cases.

Selective incentives (perks)- term used under rational choice theory; organizations must provide enough perks to compensate for the attraction of free riders.

AARP is an interest group that lobbies on behalf of ALL older Americans. They provide for discounts on fees, insurance, traveling, etc.

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY drives the political economy in large-part—in terms of cost vs. benefits.

David Easton, Systems Theory, AKA “Black Box Theory”, or closed loop theory

David Easton created systems while looking at other disciplines such as biology, where we typically study things systemically…by systems.

Policy input (bills and court cases)

National The Anything

State (public sector) Public that

Local Policy govt

Process does

(LEJ branches)

policy output: laws

Feedback feeds from the laws which are the output of the black-box.

Feedback can be + or –

It is considered a closed-loop, hence the term; closed loop/black-box theory…AKA David Easton’s Systems Theory.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) is an example where there was policy input over segregation based on skin color being unconstitutional because of the 14^th Amendment. It was unconstitutional (to discriminate based on skin color) because

the 14^th Amendment guarantees CITIZENSHIP, DUE PROCESS and EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS. The law violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954),^[1] was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which allowed state-sponsored segregation. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement.

Where do you find information that refers to amending the USC?

Article V- The Amending Article.

Congress, whenever 2/3rds of BOTH HOUSES deem it necessary shall propose Amendments to the USC or, on application of the legislatures of 2/3rds of the states, Congress shall call for a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid when ratified by the legislatures of 3/4ths of the states, or by conventions in 3/4ths of the states. (As best I could interpret it!)

READ THE CONSTITUTION; AND DO NOT FORGET TO READ THE ARTICLES SECTION, TOO….AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, and maybe even the Federalist Papers, especially #10.

PLURALIST Theory (David TrUman) book: “The Governmental Process”

Pluralist would add an addition to David Easton’s Systems Theory:

Interest Groups! IG interests add all kinds of pressure to the “black box”.

Pluralists argue that organized interests, not elites or bureaucrats, control the legislative/public policy process. Pressure points in the legislative, executive and judicial branches, as well as in the states, lead to competing groups in society. No single group can provide a monopoly on any issue which leads to broad-based, moderate public policies.

Robert Dahl, in a study of New Haven, Ct., found that a clashing # of competing interests led to compromises and more moderate public policy.

The Pluralist Theory is one of two “Grand Theories”. The other one is the Elite Theory.

ELITE THEORY- (C. Wright Mills)- book: “The Power Elite”

Mills argued that a small # of people actually make the majority of important decisions (oligarchy).

E.E. Schattschneider- “The Semi-Sovereign People”- American interest group system has upper class bias; involves only 10% of the people; drawn from upper income and well-educated class.

SES= Socioeconomic Status…can not be measured; must be operationalized by measuring

Income
Education

“The Irony of Democracy”- book by Dye and Ziggler, Elitists; an actual American Government textbook that argued that America is actually an oligarchy, not a democracy.

More to come…I hope!