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(Describer) Titles: Founding Principles - American Governance in Theory and Action. Chapter Fifteen: Final Principles.
By a statue of a polar bear...
Welcome back to Bowdoin College
in beautiful Brunswick, Maine.
I'm Andy Rudalevige, professor
of government at Bowdoin.
I'm sorry to say
we've reached
the last episode
of Founding Principles,
our series introducing you
to American government
and how it works.
Last is not least.
We're gonna go out
with fun and games,
rock and roll, and better yet,
some Federalist Papers.
♪
(Describer) Against a parchment background, title: Chapter Fifteen - Final Principles.
(Describer) Red Curtains close behind Rudalevige.
Welcome to our countdown show,
American Top Six.
It's the show
that concludes our series
by summing up
the top six things
to remember
about American government.
Ready?
Let's get started.
(Describer) The curtains open.
Coming in
at number 6,
going out to loyal viewer
Publius in New York,
an entry that has been
on our chart.
You can't imagine
American government without it.
Yes, it's the separation
of powers.
This is at the heart
of checks and balances
at the national level
and across levels of government.
More accurately,
though not quite as catchy,
we might call it separate
institutions sharing powers.
It's the fact
that different institutions
share powers that enables them
to check and balance each other.
Veto power makes the president
part of the legislative process.
Power of the purse gives
Congress a lot to say
about presidential
behavior.
The states carry out
federal policies,
but they can also resist
national initiatives.
Remember
Federalist 51...
Let's link that to number 5
in our countdown...
There are opportunities
to participate
in every level
of government--
town hall
to the White House.
Elections are
only the start,
and legal and institutional
barriers to getting involved
have been dramatically lowered
across American history.
That participation is
more important than ever before.
Think about the rise
of primary elections
and the permanent campaign.
Think about the pervasiveness
of technology and new media.
All those intersect with new
and newly empowered groups,
all eager to mobilize
on behalf of their interests.
For that to work
in the public interest instead
requires that everyone
get involved.
Otherwise the mischiefs
of faction
James Madison warned about
in Federalist 10,
well they become
very mischievous indeed.
Alright, welcome back
to our countdown,
where our next entry
builds on our first two.
Take lots of institutions,
lots of interests,
lots of ways to be involved,
what do you get?
Well probably
a fight.
Indeed, American politics are
often described as conflictual.
This is true,
but the conflict is
of a certain kind.
That brings us
to number 4.
To borrow
a metaphor
from political scientist
James Q. Wilson...
A prize fight
has clear rules--
only two people in the ring,
don't punch below the belt,
each round
only lasts so long,
an outside panel of judges
determines who won,
and that person is the champion
until the next scheduled fight.
But--not that I know firsthand--
a bar brawl is pretty different.
It doesn't start
at any set time,
no real rules
about who can participate,
where the fighting
takes place,
no limits
on tactics or weaponry.
Though the fight's winners
declare victory
and seek
to move on
to other items on their agenda,
there's no settled end point.
When everything
seems quiet,
it starts up
in the alleyways,
pulling in combatants
with new energies.
The fight could be in Congress
and move to the courts,
or regulatory arena
and move to state capitals.
As soon as a policy is proposed,
a bill becomes a law,
it also becomes
a target.
Pool together
those first three entries,
and we get number 3
on our chart.
That great song
of policy activist heartbreak--
the status quo
usually wins.
If you have a chance
to put money
on an American policy outcome,
the odds are in your favor
if you put it
on "nothing will happen."
That's because
to pass major policy,
you need to muster
concurring majorities
across very different
institutions.
House, Senate, White House,
courts, bureaucracies--
they all draw their power
from different constituencies.
Is this
always bad?
Well, a nicer synonym
for gridlock is stability.
Stability was a major aim
of the framers.
Alexander Hamilton defended
the presidential veto power
in The Federalist, of course,
by arguing that we should...
Thomas Jefferson
likewise observed that...
If you don't like changes
that are being proposed,
the fact those proposals
can be stopped
might strike you, well,
as a very happy fact.
And yet our next entry,
a long-distance dedication
going out from Teddy
to Frank and Ronnie, is...
This series has traced
huge shifts--
not just in the size,
scope, and expectations
of American government,
but the hard-won expansion
of rights and liberties
to more
of our fellow Americans.
A sea change in who
is part of "we the people."
As then-senator Barack Obama
put it in 2008...
The system doesn't just have
stability, it has energy too.
And as James Madison
wrote in Federalist 37...
Part of that energy
comes
from the very openness
of the process.
A permeable system
means fights can go on,
but also change can happen
in all sorts of different places
from all sorts
of different directions.
Rights movements are often
both top-down and bottom-up--
social movements,
and courtroom strategies,
legislative lobbying,
and presidential leadership,
all at the same time.
If one avenue is gridlocked,
try another.
Charles Beard's summary
of the early New Deal
helped sum up
the American history
of crisis
and consensus...
It's easy to complain
about American government,
and people
certainly do.
In a September 2015 poll,
72% of Americans said
that most people in politics
cannot be trusted.
Nearly 2/3 said
the political system overall
is dysfunctional.
Half, in fact, said
strongly dysfunctional.
Now the framers
would be the first to admit
that the government
they framed has faults.
Jefferson warned
about looking...
About ascribing to the preceding
age a wisdom more than human.
Alexander Hamilton in the very
last Federalist Paper said...
The Constitution
was no exception.
But Hamilton
added that...
In thinking
about dysfunction,
let's keep in mind
various functions we're dissing.
There are lots of dimensions
we judge government on.
Some are
mutually exclusive.
Great things that don't go
so great together.
We want liberty
and equality,
a small government
that leaves us alone,
but also big government
that fixes things.
We want lots
of accountability,
participation,
and responsiveness,
but we also want
a government
that gets things done fast,
effectively, efficiently.
We want
long-term benefits
but aren't too fond
of short-term costs.
In finding a balance
across all of these dimensions,
American government
is not perfect,
but it is, upon the whole,
a good one.
Put it another way, you
don't always get what you want,
but as a certain
elderly rock band once said,
"Sometimes you get
what you need."
♪
Back in 1790, the Gazette
of the United States
proclaimed the great machine
of government
has been set
in motion.
Now the job was to adjust
its various movements
to produce the best good
of the whole.
So it remains.
As the authors
of the Constitution
filed out of Independence Hall
in Philadelphia,
someone in the crowd spotted
the elderly Ben Franklin.
"Dr. Franklin," he called,
"One question."
That question
still speaks to us.
"What did you do
in there?"
What did you
actually create?
The answer
still speaks to us too.
In fact, it tops
our charts.
(Describer) Back outside by the bear statue....
A republic,
if you can keep it.
If we
can keep it.
"The vigor
of government
is essential
to the security of liberty,"
says the first
Federalist Paper.
That's a challenge.
To get informed,
to get involved,
to start a civil conversation
about what's happening
and what you want to see happen
in your neighborhood, state,
in Washington,
around the world,
and listen to others
when they take part.
Because the American system
requires compromise.
It requires moderation.
It requires we work together
if it is to work at all.
It requires citizens to do more
than shout about rights.
It requires them to act
on their responsibilities.
We may be at the end
of our series,
but with our ambitions
working in concert,
our founding principles
will long endure.
(Describer) Titles:
Written and Preformed by Andrew Rudalevige, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, Bowdoin College.
Editorial and Production Assistance by Abigail McBride and Scott Schaiberger.
Special Thanks to Clayton Rose, President, Bowdoin College.
Special Thanks to Barry Mills, President Emeritus, Bowdoin College.
Andy Rudalevige would like to add special thanks to his own teachers of American government, including but hardly limited to:
Matt Dickinson, Mo Fiorina, MArk Hansen, John Myers, Dick Neustadt, Paul Peterson and Paul Pierson;
The basement dwellers of Littauer Hall, now scattered;
Senator Mike Barrett, the denizens of the Massachusetts State House and the voters of Watertown.
Title: produced by Emerson Productions.
Bowdoin.
Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.
Accessibility provided by the
U.S. Department of Education.
♪
