Enshrined Mistakes or Enlightened Compromises

* Historical Background

- Articles of Confederation (1777) were too clunky

-> a wartime necessity, it made many compromises

-> unity brought by war hid weaknesses

-> Confederation structure

=> congress only, one vote per state

=> could wage war and negotiate between states

=> many weaknesses of Confederation:

+> one vote per state unfair to big populations

+> “National Gov.” couldn’t tax

+> no executive power to enforce law

+> no national courts to have final say

+> no amendment without 100% approval

+> 9/13 super-majority required to pass laws

- The inter-state struggles of 13 jealous little countries at end of war (1781)

-> states withheld support from federal government

-> state pursuing independent foreign policies

-> separate armies

-> taxes on trade between states

- 1787, a meeting called to improve, fix the Articles of Confederation

-> becomes a new constitutional convention

-> met secretly to avoid outside pressure

* Useful compromises (or cancers?)

- bicameral (2 room/house) legislature

-> “The Connecticut Compromise”

-> small states feared being crushed by a population based representation

=> Delaware would be crushed by a big state like NY

-> big states didn’t want to be on equal terms with small

=> why should all of NY have same power as Delaware?

-> allowed small states to agree to a strong central gov.

-> legacy:

=> massive inequality of representation

+> Texas, Florida, NY, and Cali have only 8 senators of 100, while having 80 of 260

million (30%) of the nation’s population

+> States with largest non-White population have lowest Senate representation

=> small-state senate races bought with out-of-state money (non-local representation)

=> small-state Senators can pull in unrepresentatively big bucks