American Heritage Midterm 1 Study Guide PDF

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American Heritage with Professor Karpowitz...

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American Heritage Midterm 1 Study Guide

Concepts: Founding: ● Deals with fundamental questions ○ Human nature, what form of government Liberalism: ● Individual freedom ● Lockean Liberty ● Tolerant of different beliefs and traditions ● Libertarianism falls under the umbrella of liberalism ● Disadvantages ○ Inability to think in terms of community ○ Possibility for significant economic inequality Libertarianism ● No paternal laws ● No moral laws ● No redistribution of wealth ● Welfare: Individually responsible ● Virtue: Individuals choose ● Freedom: Most important Republicanism: page 8-9 (APT) ● Community, common good ● Freedom is active participation in the community ● Civic virtue=a willingness to sacrifice self-interests and private goods for public good ○ Voting ● Advantages: ○ Rich notion of civic life ○ Shared understanding of virtue ● Disadvantages ○ More active government ○ Private goods less important ○ To what extent can the majority force minority? Utilitarianism: ● Maximize pleasure, minimize pain ○ Government decides ● Decide greatest utility based on cost-benefit analysis ● The ends justify the means ○ Problems:

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Lack of individual rights No common currency (can’t put monetary value on a human life)

Human Predicament Cycle: ● Tyranny, revolt, anarchy, competing factions ● Usually doesn’t lead to a good society ● How do we break out of this cycle? Political Legitimacy: ○ What gives you the right to rule ■ Ex.: aristocracy, theocracy, divine right of kings, democracy (people) ○ Power and organization stem from assumptions about human nature Puritanism: ● Covenant community ○ Glorify God ● Importance of civil liberty ● Emphasized virtue ● John Calvin ● State and religion connected ● Freedom is the ability to make the right choice Natural vs. Civil Liberty: ○ Natural liberty=freedom to do what you want ○ Civil liberty=freedom to do what is right Lockean Liberty: ● Power in the hands of the individual ● Social compact limits liberty but provides protection ○ Civil liberty ● Natural rights ○ Life, liberty, property ○ Government’s purpose is to protect those rights ■ Based on consent of governed ○ Right to revolt Rule of Law: ● Principles to keep laws fair ● 5 parts ○ Generality ■ Does not specify a group of people ○ Publicity ○ Prospectivity ○ Consent

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due process ■ Laws administered fairly Comes from John Locke’s ideas

Mercantilism/Capitalism: ● Mercanitilism=king controls economy ○ wealth=amount of money in treasury ● Capitalism=limited government involvement; wealth based on economic activity Good/just society (Know how they broke out of predicament cycle and ordering of FVW) ● Have freedom, virtue, welfare ● How we view human nature determines our decision about government organization ○ Greeks ■ Welfare=time and means to participate in politics, freedom=participate in civic affairs, virtue=cultivate civic virtue and award the right honors to the right people ■ Welfare→freedom→virtue ■ Need politics to fulfill telos of human being ● Deliberate about common good ● Practice acquiring political judgement ● Share in self-governance ● Care about the community as a whole ■ We are only human and happy if we contribute to society ■ Political legitimacy comes from civic virtue and common good ■ Those most able to promote telos of government should rule ■ Virtue is the ultimate goal of government, preconditioned by welfare and made possible by freedom ■ Advantages: ● Learn to do the right thing ● People who know what they’re doing have power ■ Disadvantages: ● Decrease in choice ● No democracy ● Slaves ● People are replacable ● Individuals lost to society (killing Spartan babies) ○ Libertarianism ■ Minimal state ■ Any state that goes beyond minimal is illegitimate ■ No moral legislation ■ welfare=minimalist state; no redistribution of wealth, virtue=morality is defined by individual, FREEDOM=people own themselves and define good ■ welfare→virtue→FREEDOM

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Disadvantages: ● No common good besides protection of individual rights ● No development of common virtues Utilitarianism ■ virtue=ability to calculate costs and benefits, maximizing pleasure, minimizing pain ■ freedom=conditions to think clearly and rationally about utility ■ WELFARE=greatest good for greatest number ■ virtue→freedom→WELFARE Puritanism ■ Freedom is the ability to do what is good which leads to Virtue, living Gods law to glorify His kingdom, which leads to the Welfare of the community ■ Freedom→VIRTUE→Welfare

Modern liberty=freedom from society Ancient liberty=freedom to participate in society ● Jury duty ● Develop human capacities and happiness

Economics ● Specialization ○ Division of labor; do 1 thing better ○ Lower cost, increase efficiency ○ Disadvantages: ■ No self-sufficiency ○ Stage of nation’s economy=stage of division of labor ○ Adapts as economy changes ○ How does it work? ■ Increased dexterity ■ No loss of time from switching tasks ■ Invention of machines ● Opportunity cost ○ Value of the next best thing ● Law of comparative advantage ○ Everyone has a low-cost thing they can make ○ Choose to make good with lowest opportunity cost ○ Has to do with cost ○ Benefit: ■ full employment of resources ■ Widest possible gains from exchange ■ Economic interdependence? ○ Costs:

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Economic interdependence ● Issues elsewhere effect us Bad if your country does not have a good good to produce

■ Law of supply ○ As price increases, people want to produce more Law of demand ○ As price increases, demand decreases Role of profits/prices ○ profit=excess revenue over cost ○ More profits=more people want to supply ○ Fewer profits=people exit the market Equilibrium price ○ Amount buyers want to buy=amount sellers want to sell Scarcity ○ Limited resources, unlimited wants ■ Forces people to make choices Competition: ○ No seller or buyer has major influence over prices ○ Keeps self-interest in check ○ Increases efficiency ○ Disperses gains from exchange

Invisible hand ● Prices and profits regulate the economy ● Ration scarce goods, send signals to suppliers ● Incentive to change behavior Command economy ● Power of government to create cooperation, set prices, and allocate resources ● Ex: communism, mercantilism Market economy ● Free exchange creates cooperation and market-determined prices create incentives ● Ex: capitalism ● Both parties made better off by trade ● Assumptions about human nature: ○ Self-interest ■ Leads to cooperation ○ Logical 18th century Mercantilism ● Success of economy=amount of money in the treasury ● America exists to serve Britain ● Increase exports, decrease imports ● Keep laborers in country

Role of government in economy ● Prevent coercion and fraud ● Provide money ● Provide communication/transportation ● Enforce trade agreements ● Define property rights Origins of the revolutionary war ● French-Indian war led to England’s debt ● Mercantilism to raise money ○ Intolerable acts ■ Stamp act ■ Tea act ● Common sense ○ America should leave England ○ Sparked the revolutionary war Declaration of independence ● Opening ● Theoretical Core ● Evidence ● Conclusion Leading up to the Revolutionary War: ● Tensions over economic issues ○ Colonists resisting mercantilism ● Intolerable Acts Revolutionary War: ● American Crisis ○ Thomas Paine writes the American crisis ○ Wins battle of Trenton ■ Christmas against Hessians ● Washington’s Plea ○ Battle of Princeton ■ First win after ragtag army decides to keep going ● Trenton and Princeton turned tide by: ○ Renewed optimism ○ British driven from NJ ○ Increased enlistment ○ French assistance ○ Commitment to public virtue saved America

Covenant community ● Republic formed as covenant between the people for the purpose of glorifying God ● Build a holy community as an example to the world ● Freedom is the ability to make the right choices ● Curb bad uses of power ● Harmonize secular and religious thought ● Geography of US contributed to City Upon a Hill ○ New place, new rules Corporate communities ● Government forms to maintain peace and order John Locke and the Declaration of Independence ● Individuals have rights ● Government must operate by consent ● Sovereignty and legitimacy is in the hands of the people ● Government exists to protect natural rights ● Duty to revolt ● Power in the hands of individuals

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A School in Zion: ○ Jeffrey R. Holland ○ Do we need a School in Zion? ○ What makes BYU unique? ■ Gathering, community (ideas, values) ■ Christ-centered learning ■ General education ● Create well-rounded individuals ■ Focus on life-long service ■ Students pursue individual programs (choose-agency) ○ Connections with liberalism (individual autonomy) and republicanism (importance of community) ○ Honor code: sacrifice rights to better community ■ John Winthrop ● Honor code brings freedom ■ Roger Williams ● Individual conscience ● Not agree with honor code A Bloudy Tenent of Persecution: ○ Roger Williams ○ Disliked puritan idea of authority ○ Should separate church and state authority ○ Government authority comes from the people ○ Peace comes by allowing religious conscientiousness

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○ We do not need a particular religion to do good ○ God never specified unity of church and state Exposition upon the 13th Chapter of the Revelations: ○ John Cotton ○ One purpose of covenant communities is to curb bad use of power ○ only church members in good standing should vote ○ Individual congregations should govern themselves independently ○ condemned democracy ○ give people as little power as possible; they will become corrupt ○ full liberty does not bring peace Little Speech on Liberty: ○ John Winthrop ○ Natural and civil liberty ○ Freedom is submitting to God through covenants, not a freedom where “individuals” could do as they pleased ○ Real civil society is not possible without covenant relationships; between individuals and between God and people ○ By involving God in government, you ensure people will not try to throw off government ○ When you choose elected officials, let them do their jobs Mayflower Compact: ○ launched a self-governing colony ○ covenants to enact laws for the greater good and abide by those laws ○ government exists to bring order and security ○ God a part of the covenant A Christian at His Calling: ○ Cotton Mather ○ 2 callings; serve Jesus Christ and be the best at whatever your trade is (spiritual and material responsibilities) ○ work hard to glorify God and better the community ○ recreation can be done sometimes Letters of Freeman: ○ William Henry Drayton ○ politics should be left to the politicians ○ the legislature should be the only body capable of passing and enforcing laws and policies ○ non-legislature (common man)=committee ○ common people (committees) will pursue self-interest whereas aristocracy looks for the good of the community Slaves Petition to Massachusetts Governor: ○ ALL men are created equal ○ slavery does not allow slaves or owners to practice true Christianity ○ asked for legislative action instead of executive action (harder to overturn) On Civil Liberty, Passive Obedience, and Non-Resistance:

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Jonathan Boucher true liberty only comes by serving God (doing what is right) peace above personal opinion political equality does not exist; some are meant to govern, some are meant to be governed ○ Christian duty includes following secular law ○ Government by consent is irrational and unstable ○ government is instituted by God ○ if God and government disagree, follow God but submit to punishment from the government Jumping the Queue: ○ Sandel ○ Some things should not be allocated based on price ■ Certain goods degraded when treated as a market good (Congress, national parks, etc.) ○ Ability to pay does not equal how much a person values a good Line Up for Expensive Inequality: ○ Brennan and Jaworski ○ Using the market system will create the good society ○ Queues punish those with less time ■ More line-standing services would drive the prices down and make them more affordable ○ Markets transfer wealth ○ Innovation and efficiency ○ We value time more, so money should be used instead of wasting time in lines ○ Solves problems in the long-run ■ Queueing increases the time needed to leave a crisis ■ Increases innovation and rationing, draws more suppliers ○ The real issue is bad government design The Way to Wealth: ○ Benjamin Franklin ○ God blesses those that work hard ○ work hard to get rich and improve your condition ○ if you work hard, you won't want ○ prosper comes from working hard ○ telos of working hard is helping yourself Declaration of Independence: ○ Penned by Thomas Jefferson ○ Was important because: ■ Rights come from God and cannot be taken away ■ United all Americans ■ Defined American ideas ○ Lockean liberty at the core of the declaration ○ Liberty does not mean utter freedom from authority

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Idea of political unity inherent in the document Opening ■ Reasons why we need the declaration ■ ‘One people’ ■ ‘Equality’ ● Equal station by relation to God ○ Theoretical core ■ Self-evident truths ● Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness ■ Equality in the eyes of the law ● No natural political authority ● In a state of nature, everyone is free ● No one born to rule or be ruled ■ Rights given by God ■ Duty to revolt ● Not taken lightly ■ What does justice mean in this context? ■ Government exists to protect the rights of people ○ Argument/Evidence ■ Tried multiple times to warn ■ No rule of law ■ Repeated injury ○ Conclusion ■ Declared a new nation ■ All rights associated with a country (levy war, taxes, etc.) Common Sense: ○ Thomas Paine ○ Inspired American troops before the battle of Trenton ○ 1. Overview/design of government ■ government exists to protect people and make up for human faults ○ 2. Problem with monarchy ○ 3. Current state of American affairs ■ Be part of a grand cause and resist tyranny ■ America has no reason to stay with Britain and every reason to leave ■ American ideas have implications through time and globally ○ government is a necessary evil ○ analogy of far-off island (how would government evolve) ■ democracy is the most basic form of government Correspondence on Women’s Rights: ○ Abigail Adams/John Adams ○ AA: Cannot seek freedom while denying it to women ○ Men are tyrants (gender) ○ To be subject to male authority is unequal ○ True Christianity is to do unto others as you want done to you

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JA: How far would this revolution go? ■ Authorities would lose their power ○ Patriarchy keeps order ○ Says men are dominant in title only ○ AA: women will revolt. Notes on the State of Virginia: ○ Thomas Jefferson ○ Native Americans are basically Europeans ○ Blacks are a different species based on intellect ○ Obstacles to multi-cultural society ■ Repeated injuries ■ Natural distinctions Banneker Response: ○ All equal under God ○ Christian duty to promote equality ○ Do not live up to declaration ○ Blacks are equal in intellect ○ Ridiculous to demand freedom while denying it to others ○ TJ: no commitment to change beliefs or definition of equality ○ Claims to wish for more evidence blacks are the same species ○ Equality through merit Sandel Chapter 2: ○ Utilitarianism: Maximizing good and minimizing pain ○ Problems: ○ 1. No respect for individual rights ○ 2. Some things cannot be monetarily valued ○ Mill: ○ 1. Respecting individual rights maximizes utility in the long run ○ 2. Higher and lower pleasures Sandel Chapter 3: ○ Libertarianism: ○ Freedom of the utmost importance ○ no paternalism, moral laws, or redistribution of wealth ○ very connected with free market ○ Objections: ○ taxation is not as bad as forced labor ○ the poor need the money more ○ multiple people contribute to a single person's success ○ As citizens, we have a say in taxation and give our consent ○ some people make money because they're lucky Sandel Chapter 8: ○ Justice is teleological and honorific ○ Purpose of politics is to form good citizens ■ Laws innoculate good habits

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■ Those most virtuous should rule Man is a political animal Ancient liberty=freedom to participate in government and community life

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Luther: ○ Believed people have a personal connection with God ○ no need for church in salvation ○ Faith alone saves ○ Led to questions about government legitimacy ○ Separation of church and state Roger Williams: ○ Kicked out of Puritan community for dissenting beliefs ○ Founded baptists ○ Freedom of individual religious conscious ○ Much of his writing was in response to John Cotton ○ One of the earliest defenses of religious freedom in America John Cotton: ○ Puritan minister ○ Individual government of church bodies ○ Condemns the pope ○ Power corrupts John Winthrop: ○ Little speech on liberty ○ Puritan ○ Used expansive power as governor of Mass ○ Put on trial for exceeding his authority but acquitted Cotton Mather: ○ Pastor; grandson of John Cotton ○ Argued against Puritan belief that works didn’t matter ○ People have an obligation to serve one another and glorify God William Henry Drayton: ○ First Loyalist, then switched to patriotic ○ Switched when Britain violated constitution ○ Believed people should abide by the legislature and condemned committees Jonathan Boucher: ○ Loyalist ○ Anglican minister ○ Fought for British and American reconciliation ○ Peace above all else ○ World divided between those who govern and those who are governed Benjamin Franklin:

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○ Get rich for yourself ○ Founding father Jeremy Bentham: ○ Father of utilitarianism John Stuart Mill: ○ Utilitarianism, but emphasized individual rights for long-term prosperity Thomas Paine: ○ English Quaker who moved to America ○ Sided with French during French revolution ○ Believed in democracy ○ Believed America should separate from Britain Thomas Jefferson: ○ Wrote the declaration of independence ○ More secular than most ○ Active in the sciences ○ Believed in differences of the races Benjamin Banneker: ○ Free Black man; scientist ○ Sought freedom for slaves and equality John Locke: ○ Second Treatise of Government 1. State of nature ● But unstable, so need government ● Freedom and equality ● Natural rights 2. Social Compact a. Give up some liberties to protect rights 3. Consent of the governed 4. Government exists to protect natural rights 5. Duty to revolt if government does not protect rights George Washington: ○ General in major battles ○ Inspired troops before battles of Trenton and Princeton ○ American figure Aristotle: ○ Greek approach to justice ○ Justice is teleological and honorific ○ Purpose of politics is to promote virtue in citizens John Calvin: ○ All are fallen/depraved ○ “Elect” saved by grace alone ○ No rewards for good behavior ○ Union of church and state ○ Covenants between individuals and God promote peace and virtue

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John Adams: ○ One of the leading lawyers in the revolutionary movement ○ Politician and diplomat Abigail Adams: ○ Known as an active political presence ○ Had power as wife of a leading figure ○ Voice for women Adam Smith ○ Attacked mercantilism ○ Value of markets ○ Self-interest as motivation ○ Specialization ○ Invisible hand ○ Wealth of nation=economic activity ○ Increased welfare based on increased access to goods ○ Limited government involvement

Catholic Church ↓ Martin Luther ● Scriptures ● Direct relationship with God ● Saved by grace/faith ↓ John Calvin ● Predestination ○ Anxiety ● Want to look like the elect, do good even if not saved ↓ Covenant Communities ● Political covenants (society and state) ...