Early Governance

May 12, 2010

Copyright 2006 Prentice Hall

The rules of the game and the structures that make and enforce these rules


Government

Power

The ability to get individuals, groups, or institutions to do

something [they would not otherwise

do]

Authority

The recognized right for a particular

individual, group, or institution to make binding decisions


Monarchy (Constitutional or not)

Dictatorship

Oligarchy

Pluralism

Pure Democracy

Representative

Totalitarian

Authoritarian

Constitutional


Mayflower Compact• Legalized the Pilgrims’

position as a body politic

Colonial Assemblies• Every colony in the New

World had an assembly


If the royal governors were responsive to the concerns of the assemblies,

why did the colonists become dissatisfied with British rule?


Two developments upset the balance

1. Debate over the extent of royal authority in government

2. Financial pressures of the French and Indian War


Financial causes

Great Squeeze

Townshend Acts

Stamp and Sugar Acts


In 1765, the Sons of Liberty organized in resistance to the Stamp Act

Held rallies, sponsored “committees of correspondence,” and recruited community leaders to their cause


Ideological Motivations

Creation of government with voice for all (white, male, propertied) citizens

“No taxation without representation”

Debates over nature of self-governance


First Continental Congress• Many still hoped for compromise

Second Continental Congress• Battle of Lexington showed that

compromise was impossible


Not really…


By December 1776, the British seemed to be winning the war

Three developments turned the war in favor of the colonists

1. High-profile victories2. Thomas Paine’s “Crisis” papers3. French government supported revolution


“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

-Thomas Jefferson, 1787




Goal: to bring the thirteen states together while allowing each state to remain independent

Adopted on March 1, 1781 Under the Articles, each

state issued its own currency


No power to regulate interstate commerce-States could erect trade barriers against each other

No executive No federal courts No tax power

-Congress could only request money from the states No ability to draft citizens for military service No power over foreign policy


Shays’s Rebellion• Economic

depression of mid-1780s

Daniel Shays • Rallied farmers to

demand change from government


Early Governance

Documents