Government by Committee: Intense Competition: Campaign for the White House
The intense competition that surrounds the campaign for the White House intensifies as the general election nears. Robert Reich calls it "warfare without blood." It is difficult to predict what will make a presidential campaign successful. Despite t...
Precarious Experiment, A: Economic Upheaval
There is tremendous economic disruption after the war. The currency is worthless; Robert Morris' proposed 5% duty tax to pay for war debts fails. Under the Articles of Confederation economic problems fall to the states to resolve if a unanimous vote...
Precarious Experiment, A: Articles of Confederation Need Revamping
For most of the 1780s U. S. leaders try to come up with modifications to the Articles of Confederation that will strengthen the nation without creating a tyranny. They call for a meeting in Annapolis to discuss their ideas but only five states send ...
Pressure Politics: Interest-group Society, An
The history of the nation is full of examples of people with shared beliefs coming together to influence the rules by which we are governed. America is an interest-group society. From the time of the Boston tea party to the civil rights movement and...
Legal Precedent: Facts, Laws, and Original Intent
In any legal case a basic distinction is drawn between facts, the relevant circumstances of a legal dispute, and applicable laws. The court must consider common law, judge-made law, legislative statutes, and the Constitution which as the higher law ...
Legal Precedent: Judicial Review
The controversy over judicial power is intensified by the fact that federal judges are not elected. The balance of power among the three branches of government comes into particular focus in the exercise of judicial review. Whenever the Supreme Cou...
American Experiment, The: Two Roads to Philadelphia
Two sets of issues led to convention in Philadelphia: the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and the problems individual states were experiencing. When the Annapolis convention did not attract a quorum, a general convention was called for the...
American Experiment, The: Will the Philadelphia Convention Attract a Quorum?
As the Convention neared, George Washington's involvement in the proceedings was uncertain. His presence would be a real political asset, Madison knew, but the general would not be happy if the convention attracted too few delegates as had happened ...
Vision for a Nation: Ratification Strategy
It is one thing to get Convention delegates to agree on the Constitution; it's quite another matter to get states and opponents to go along with it. Perhaps the most revolutionary move of the Convention is the adoption of a ratification clause which...
Vision for a Nation: Controlling Federal Power
Historian Bernard Bailyn characterizes the construction of the Constitution as "something of a miracle." Delegates to the Constitutional Convention create a system for governing the country's large geographic area while maintaining the ideals of ind...