Tabakian Pols 1 Fall/Spring 2014

1. Dr. Tabakian’s Political Science 1
US Government – Spring/Fall 2014
Week #4

2. COURSE LECTURE TOPICS
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America’s Elite Membership
Policy Changes and Innovations in America
Political Conflict
Stability & Instability
Power Of Exporting Corporate Elites
Corporate and Economic Power
Globalization
How Elites Exercise Power
John Locke’s “Second Treatise Of Government”
Capitalism & Democracy Are Similar

3. AMERICAN ELITE EVOLUTION
America’s Elite Membership & New Elite Membership.
• Early disputes were between propertied classes.
• Political parties emerged in the 1796 election.
• New Western elites were assimilated
• The new electorate included all White men.
• New industrial elites use Social Darwinism to justify wealth.
Policy Changes & Innovations in American Government
• Hamilton pays the national debt
• Establishes a national bank.
• Supreme Court expands necessary and proper clause.
• President Abraham Lincoln & Emancipation Proclamation.
• President Franklin Roosevelt & New Deal legislation.

4. NORTH VERSUS SOUTH
Political Conflict
1. Southern and Northern elite conflict over western land
led to Civil War.
2. Missouri Compromise was an attempt at compromise.
3. Southern elites seceded from the Union.
4. America lost its first war in Vietnam.
5. America regained its prestige in Persian Gulf War I.
• President George Bush had a 90 % approval.
• The military was the most trusted institution.

5. IMPACT OF VIETNAM
President Lyndon Baines Johnson
addresses the American people on
March 31, 1968. He begins his speech
with a review of current American
strategy regarding Vietnam, only to
later declare his decision to withdraw
from the presidential race. One can
argue that the move was purely to
maintain democratic control over the
presidency. He campaigned on behalf
of Vice-President Hubert Humphrey.

6. PRESIDENT JOHNSON ADDRESS

7. DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 1968
The Democratic National Convention of
1968 was held in Chicago from August
26 to the 29th. The divisive politics of the
convention, brought about by the
Vietnam War policies of President
Johnson, prompted the Democratic
party to completely overhaul its rules for
selecting presidential delegates. This
allowed millions to participate in the
political process. The violence between
police and anti-Vietnam War protesters
stands testament to the negative effects
of rampant instability.

8. 1968 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

9. POLITICAL CONFLICT – WATERGATE
President Richard Nixon announced
on August 8, 1974 that he will resign
the presidency. The primary goal of
the elite class is to maintain and/or
enhance their positions of power.
This requires maintaining the power
system in which they dominate.
Once the masses begin to lose
confidence in the system then the
system itself is in danger of
collapsing. Was the decision to
resign made to save his own skin or
to preserve the system?

10. NIXON RESIGNS

11. STABILIZATION
Sudden instability is the greatest threat to humanity for it
threatens to cause irreparable harm to the individual. One may
never consider harming another person in a state of nature.
Elimination of one’s sustenance throws the individual into a state
of war, because their survival is now threatened. Nation-states
consist of multiple spheres of interest in turn consisting of
individual units consisting of people. As survival is the primary
goal of man, so it is the ultimate pursuit of nation-states. The
primary concern is that of stability. This philosophy has prevented
a major war from taking place over the last sixty years. Instability
is the primary cause of all conflict both within and between
nation-states.

12. NIGHTMARE SCENARIO
Sudden instability results in the
potential
destruction
of
a
relationship.
Everyone
has
experienced the negative effects of
instability. Relationships between
loved ones is just one of many
examples. One major cause of
rampant instability is the breakdown
of communication between spheres.
This is a video documentary titled
“First Strike”. It presents a
nightmare scenario resulting from
souring relations between the
United States and the Soviet Union.

13. FIRST STRIKE

14. DEATH OF A PRESIDENT
President
John
Fitzgerald
Kennedy was assassinated in
Texas on November 22, 1963. The
President’s body was brought to
Love Field and placed on Air
Force One.
This video is of
Lyndon Johnson addressing the
nation from the airport.

15. DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

16. GLOBAL ELITES
Corporate and Economic Power is globalized and free from
national government restraints.
• Financial and industrial elites control America’s economic life.
• Exporting Corporate elites control America’s trade policy.
• WTO and IMF/WB facilitate international trade.
• NAFTA and FTA are institutionalizing global trade.
• Corporate Elites have earned a reputation for greed.
America’s Elites exercise power in many sectors of society.
• Elites move from government positions to corporate positions
through a revolving door.
• Elites are public-regarding and establishment-trained.
• An increasing number of neoconservatives and neoliberals are
in America’s elite.

17. GLOBALIZATION – 1
Globalization is a process that seems to create a more unified
world united in a single economic system. Globalization continues
to be cited as a cause for the withering away of the state.
Technology has allowed mankind to realize globalization.
Liberalism and its market-based order continue to be the primary
motivator for technological innovation that in turn has rendered
previous norms obsolete. One can argue that this constant drive
may in time render international strife, conflict and other assorted
calamities obsolete. Liberals would argue that globalization is a
trend toward the transformation of world politics with states no
longer remaining sealed units.

18. GLOBALIZATION – 2
Globalization may be seen as a homogenization process that
equalizes prices, products, wages, wealth, rates of interest and
profit margins. It is a movement that can spark resistance both
within the United States as well as around the world. This can
come from religious fundamentalists, labor unions and other types
of special interest groups. Globalization has so far only
encompassed western countries, Israel and certain Asian
countries like Japan, South Korea and China. Most of the world
has been left out, including Africa, Latin America, Russia, Middle
East and swaths of Asia.

19. GLOBALIZATION – 3
This political piece explores the
effects of globalization. One can
argue that globalization has
extended people’s buying power.
Dollars can be stretched must
further thanks to lower labor
costs found in distant lands. “Big
Box-Mart” argues that cheap
goods does present a serious
side effect. Does the message
relate to your personal belief
about
our
present
global
economy?

20. BIG BOX MART

21. JOHN LOCKE – 1
• Recognized as the first to anticipate the rise of liberal thought
in his time.
• Addressed the merits of exchanging certain natural rights or
liberties for civil rights as afforded by a social contract that
provides a foundation of laws assuring freedom and equality
for all citizens.
• One cannot have liberalism without capitalism.
• Embodies tolerance, freedom of speech and religion with
capitalism. Social contract is man’s way of establishing a
government to guarantee those identified fundamental rights.
• Argues that the law of God serves as the fundamental
example of what constitutes natural rights.

22. JOHN LOCKE – 2
• John Lock is very secular as his natural law argument
demonstrates. Adopted to make Christianity more
progressive, Locke argues that the law of reason is in
actuality the law of nature with natural law governed by God.
• No man has sovereignty by birth or any other greater
freedom, for all of man are seen in the same light under
God’s eyes. (Chap.1)
• Locke argues that man’s natural duty is to insure his selfpreservation, which he bases on two qualifications. First, men
do what is necessary for their pursuit of life, liberty and
prosperity. Second, man can only take from another if it is
dependent on preserving his own life, liberty and prosperity.
(Chap.1)

23. JOHN LOCKE – 3
• Self-preservation is absolute only in a state of war, for when
force without rights exists, it presents a theater through which
violence exists outside the reach of law. (Sec.17)
• Stresses that rights or duties accorded in a state of nature
are based on natural law, or reason. His whole theory is
based on the tenets of liberalism with a focus on relationships
and conflict. (Preface)
• Examines how one can and cannot morally possess material
goods. States that the law of nature demands that no one
shall waste or spoil anything that others could use. Arguing
that one’s claims to the products of the earth is in truth owned
in common by all, the right of subsistence cannot justify
waste, for one does not own the Earth. (Sec.36)

24. JOHN LOCKE – 4
• Self-regulating capitalism is the overriding purpose of the
establishment of this contract in order to insure that equality
and freedom continue to exist outside of the state of nature.
• Addressing the needy deficiencies of the state of nature,
Locke examines the need for common consent with the
people following the basic tenets of natural law. Man thereby
agrees to give up their natural rights in exchange for civil
rights in return for order in a civil society.
• Argues that the rule of law must apply to all in the same
fashion, fairly affecting all aspects of society. The state of
nature dictates that the law must treat all people equally for
no one has the right to control another absolutely.

25. JOHN LOCKE – 5
• From the beginning: Adam & Eve. Neither had total control
over their children or the Earth. (Chap.1)
• People must freely surrender some of their inalienable rights
in order for the construction of government. (Chap.1)
• All are charged with the responsibility of ensuring their
prosperity. None may willfully retreat from life to death.
(Sec.6)
• A state of war results when one’s survival is jeopardized.
Slavery produces a state of war. (Sec.8)
• No man shall do harm. Transgressors shall be punished
either by the state or individual. (Sec.11)

26. JOHN LOCKE – 6
• State of nature is a state of peace, good will, mutual
assistance and preservation. A state of enmity, malice,
violence and mutual destruction is in fact a state of war.
(Sec.16)
• When actual force ends then so does the state of war. Both
sides are then subjected to the faire determination of the law.
(Sec.20)
• Men willingly join a society to prevent a state of war. (Sec.21)
• Man shall not be under any other legislative power, but that
established, by consent, in the commonwealth. Only those
restraints placed by the legislature may apply. (Sec.22)

27. JOHN LOCKE – 7
• Only those powers willfully forfeited may be applied to man.
No one can give more away more power than he has
himself. He that cannot take away his own life, cannot
give another power over it. (Sec.23)
• Every man has a property in his own person. No power has
any right to this property except the respective
individual.(Sec.27)
• Adding labor or value makes the end product man’s.
(Sec.28)
• Ethics of converting or trading tangible products into
currency. This brings money, gold and silver, into the foray.
(Sec.50)

28. JOHN LOCKE – 8
The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting according to his
own will, is grounded on his having reason, which is able to instruct
him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him know how
far he is left to the freedom of his own will.To turn him loose to an
unrestrained liberty, before he has reason to guide him, is not the
allowing him the privilege of his nature to be free; but to thrust him
out amongst brutes, and abandon him to a state as wretched, and
as much beneath that of a man, as their's. This is that which puts
the authority into the parents hands to govern the minority of their
children. God hath made it their business to employ this care on
their offspring, and hath placed in them suitable inclinations of
tenderness and concern to temper this power, to apply it, as his
wisdom designed it, to the children's good, as long as they should
need to be under it. (Sec.63)

29. JOHN LOCKE – 9
MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and
independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and
subjected to the political power of another, without his own
consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his
natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by
agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for
their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst
another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a
greater security against any, that are not of it. (Sec.95)

30. JOHN LOCKE – 10
For when any number of men have, by the consent of every
individual, made a community, they have thereby made that
community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is
only by the will and determination of the majority: for that which
acts any community, being only the consent of the individuals of
it, and it being necessary to that which is one body to move one
way; it is necessary the body should move that way whither the
greater force carries it, which is the consent of the majority: or
else it is impossible it should act or continue one body, one
community, which the consent of every individual that united
into it, agreed that it should; and so every one is bound by that
consent to be concluded by the majority. (Sec.96)

31. JOHN LOCKE – 11
IF man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he
be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to
the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his
freedom? why will he give up this empire, and subject himself to
the dominion and control of any other power? To which it is
obvious to answer, that though in the state of nature he hath
such a right, yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain, and
constantly exposed to the invasion of others: for all being kings
as much as he, every man his equal, and the greater part no
strict observers of equity and justice, the enjoyment of the
property he has in this state is very unsafe, very insecure.
Protection of property is the primary motivator to join civil
society. (Sec.123)

32. JOHN LOCKE – 12
THE majority having, as has been shewed, upon men's first
uniting into society, the whole power of the community naturally
in them, may employ all that power in making laws for the
community from time to time, and executing those laws by
officers of their own appointing; and then the form of the
government is a perfect democracy: or else may put the power
of making laws into the hands of a few select men, and their
heirs or successors; and then it is an oligarchy: or else into the
hands of one man, and then it is a monarchy: if to him and his
heirs, it is an hereditary monarchy: if to him only for life, but
upon his death the power only of nominating a successor to
return to them; an elective monarchy. And so accordingly of
these the community may make compounded and mixed forms
of government, as they think good. (Sec.132)

33. JOHN LOCKE – 13
Though the legislative, whether placed in one or more, whether
it be always in being, or only by intervals, though it be the
supreme power in every common-wealth; yet,
First: It is not, nor can possibly be absolutely arbitrary over the
lives and fortunes of the people: for it being but the joint power
of every member of the society given up to that person, or
assembly, which is legislator; it can be no more than those
persons had in a state of nature before they entered into
society, and gave up to the community: for no body can transfer
to another more power than he has in himself; and no body has
an absolute arbitrary power over himself, or over any other, to
destroy his own life, or take away the life or property of another.
(Sec.135)

34. JOHN LOCKE – 14
Second: The legislative, or supreme authority, cannot assume to
its self a power to rule by extemporary arbitrary decrees, but is
bound to dispense justice, and decide the rights of the subject by
promulgated standing laws, and known authorized judges: for the
law of nature being unwritten, and so no where to be found but in
the minds of men, they who through passion or interest shall
miscite, or misapply it, cannot so easily be convinced of their
mistake where there is no established judge: and so it serves not,
as it ought, to determine the rights, and fence the properties of
those that live under it, especially where every one is judge,
interpreter, and executioner of it too, and that in his own case: and
he that has right on his side, having ordinarily but his own single
strength, hath not force enough to defend himself from injuries, or
to punish delinquents. (Sec.136)

35. JOHN LOCKE – 15
Absolute arbitrary power, or governing without settled standing
laws, can neither of them consist with the ends of society and
government, which men would not quit the freedom of the state
of nature for, and tie themselves up under, were it not to
preserve their lives, liberties and fortunes, and by stated rules
of right and property to secure their peace and quiet.This were
to put themselves into a worse condition than the state of
nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against
the injuries of others, and were upon equal terms of force to
maintain it, whether invaded by a single man, or many in
combination. (Sec.137)

36. JOHN LOCKE – 16
Thirdly, The supreme power cannot take from any man any part
of his property without his own consent: for the preservation of
property being the end of government, and that for which men
enter into society, it necessarily supposes and requires, that the
people should have property, without which they must be
supposed to lose that, by entering into society, which was the
end for which they entered into it; too gross an absurdity for any
man to own. (Sec.138)

37. JOHN LOCKE – 17
Legislative Powers Of The Commonwealth:
•
Govern by promulgated established laws, not to be varied in
particular cases, but to have one rule for rich and poor, for the
favorite at court, and the country man at plough.
•
Laws also ought to be designed for no other end ultimately, but
the good of the people.
•
They must not raise taxes on the property of the people,
without the consent of the people, given by themselves, or their
deputies.
•
The legislative neither must nor can transfer the power of
making laws to any body else, or place it any where, but where
the people have. (Sec.142)

38. JOHN LOCKE – 18
•
But because the laws, that are at once, and in a short time
made, have a constant and lasting force, and need a perpetual
execution, or an attendance thereunto; therefore it is necessary
there should be a power always in being, which should see to
the execution of the laws that are made, and remain in force.
And thus the legislative and executive power come often to be
separated. (Sec.144)
•
Executive and federative, though they be really distinct in
themselves, yet one comprehending the execution of the
municipal laws of the society within its self, upon all that are
parts of it; the other the management of the security and
interest of the public without, with all those that it may receive
benefit or damage from, yet they are always almost united.
(Sec.147)

39. JOHN LOCKE – 19
In a constituted common-wealth, standing upon its own basis,
and acting according to its own nature, that is, acting for the
preservation of the community, there can be but one supreme
power, which is the legislative, to which all the rest are and must
be subordinate, yet the legislative being only a fiduciary power
to act for certain ends, there remains still in the people a
supreme power to remove or alter the legislative, when they find
the legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them: for all
power given with trust for the attaining an end, being limited by
that end, whenever that end is manifestly neglected, or
opposed, the trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the power
devolve into the hands of those that gave it. (sec.149)

40. JOHN LOCKE – 20
WHERE the legislative and executive power are in distinct
hands, (as they are in all moderated monarchies, and wellframed governments) there the good of the society requires,
that several things should be left to the discretion of him that
has the executive power: for the legislators not being able to
foresee, and provide by laws, for all that may be useful to the
community, the executor of the laws having the power in his
hands, has by the common law of nature a right to make use of
it for the good of the society, in many cases, where the
municipal law has given no direction, till the legislative can
conveniently be assembled to provide for it. (Sec.159)

41. JOHN LOCKE – 21
Because the miscarriages of the father are no faults of the
children, and they may be rational and peaceable,
notwithstanding the brutishness and injustice of the father; the
father, by his miscarriages and violence, can forfeit but his own
life, but involves not his children in his guilt or destruction. His
goods, which nature, that willeth the preservation of all mankind
as much as is possible, hath made to belong to the children to
keep them from perishing, do still continue to belong to his
children: for supposing them not to have joined in the war,
either through infancy, absence, or choice, they have done
nothing to forfeit them: nor has the conqueror any right to take
them away. (Sec.182)

42. JOHN LOCKE – 22
AS usurpation is the exercise of power, which another hath a
right to; so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right,
which no body can have a right to. And this is making use of
the power any one has in his hands, not for the good of those
who are under it, but for his own private separate advantage.
When the governor, however entitled, makes not the law, but
his will, the rule; and his commands and actions are not
directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but
the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness,
or any other irregular passion. (Sec.199)

43. JOHN LOCKE – 23
Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be
transgressed to another's harm; and whosoever in authority
exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of
the force he has under his command, to compass that upon
the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a
magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed,
as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.
This is acknowledged in subordinate magistrates. He that
hath authority to seize my person in the street, may be
opposed as a thief and a robber, if he endeavors to break
into my house to execute a writ, notwithstanding that I know
he has such a warrant, and such a legal authority, as will
empower him to arrest me abroad. (Sec. 202)

44. JOHN LOCKE – 24
HE that will with any clearness speak of the dissolution of
government, ought in the first place to distinguish between the
dissolution of the society and the dissolution of the government.
That which makes the community, and brings men out of the
loose state of nature, into one politic society, is the agreement
which every one has with the rest to incorporate, and act as one
body, and so be one distinct commonwealth. The usual, and
almost only way whereby this union is dissolved, is the inroad of
foreign force. Thus conquerors swords often cut up governments
by the roots, and mangle societies to pieces, separating the
subdued or scattered multitude from the protection of, and
dependence on, that society which ought to have preserved them
from violence.. Besides this over-turning from without,
governments are dissolved from within. (Sec. 211)

45. JOHN LOCKE – 25
First, When the legislative is altered. Civil society being a state
of peace, amongst those who are of it, from whom the state of
war is excluded by the umpirage, which they have provided in
their legislative, for the ending all differences that may arise
amongst any of them, it is in their legislative, that the members
of a commonwealth are united, and combined together into one
coherent living body. (Sec.212)

46. CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY ARE SIMILAR – 1
For freedom to rein it is required for the market place to determine
the fate of all products, services and ideas. No interference can
burden this process. Oversight is not necessarily detrimental as is
the policy of the United States to regulate various industries. The
death kneel comes when powerful spheres of influence serve to
squash competition. John Locke argues it best when he suggests
that liberalism can never exist without capitalism. This is the
philosophy of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” where he explains
how markets determine the fate of all competing interests seeking
society’s acceptance. We are today living in a time of
unprecedented technological innovation that is helping to propel
humanity further the ladder of evolution. This would not be possible
if vested interests were prevented from pursuing market
acceptance.

47. CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY ARE SIMILAR – 2
John Locke and Adam Smith would agree that there is no fundamental
difference between a marketed product, service or even political idea.
All interest groups competing in the marketplace are engaged in the
same pursuit: acceptance. Companies competing for market dollars
strive to offer the most cost efficient product or service that is also the
most innovative. This in turn encourages competing peers to further
maximize efficiency while also stretching the bounds of innovation in
order to offer the best value. Marketing ideas is in essence the same
we have witnessed with political campaigns striving for societal
acceptance. Political organizations seeking for example the election of
a particular individual to office must secure a majority of the market
within a certain region. Competing campaigns offer different ideas to
the market that seek to offer a better value. This constant battle allows
all individuals to decide for themselves what “product” “service” or
even “idea” is best. We all benefit from conflict.

48. CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY ARE SIMILAR – 3
Let us look at the example of telecommunications to
understand the benefits of conflict. Prior to 1996, there
existed in Southern California like most other regions in the
United States, two cellular telephone companies. These were
the days of analog communications, or AMPS (Advanced
Mobile Phone System). Southern California was home to
Airtouch and LA Cellular prior to 1996. Both companies
maintained prices that prevented the average consumer from
fully utilizing their services, or even purchasing them at all.
Everything changed with the signage of the 1996
Telecommunications Act by President Bill Clinton. The bill
allowed for more efficient use of spectrum, thereby allowing
easier access for companies to compete in wireless
communications.

49. CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY ARE SIMILAR – 4
Various competitors entered to compete for market
acceptance, requiring all companies to strive for greater
efficiency, while also providing even greater services.
Consumers today face a wide selection of companies who
individually offer greater communication services that go
beyond voice services to encompass video calling and
broadband internet. The invisible hand eliminates those
companies that do not provide the greatest benefit for
consumers.

50. CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY ARE SIMILAR – 5
The ultimate nightmare may be the elimination of debate.
Many have unwittingly called for this in the halls of
government. It is not debate that threatens society, but the
lack of contesting ideas. Policies enacted to prevent overly
powerful monopolies help to maintain open competition. To
have one overly powerful sphere of interest prevent debate is
destructive to the system itself. Pluralism emphasizes both
conflict and compromise with interest groups engaged in a
constant pursuit of power that naturally results in established
alliances to compete with peer spheres that are doing the
same, resulting in the formation of two major spheres.

51. CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY ARE SIMILAR – 6
Public policy would thereby stall until reaching a compromise
between these two majority powers. This in turn helps to
protect the majority of those residing in society. Every policy
requires constant improvement for humanity to arrive closer
to perfection. Those that call for the elimination of special
interest groups or even the restriction of political debate are
ignorant for this process benefits society immensely.