Political Science 1100, Introduction to American Politics, August 29, 2007

Federalism (continued)

3. WHO CARES ABOUT FEDERALISM?
 

A. States Affect Everyone's Lives

 

4. FEDERALISM AND THE ECONOMY:
 

States' Battle Over "Business Climate"

 

 

The Economic Shift to the Sunbelt
 

5. FEDERALISM AND NATIONAL POLITICS:
 

        The Political Shift to the Sunbelt:

Population Shifts Result In Shifts In ....

... The distribution of Seats In The House Of Representatives,

 

 

 
.... and Therefore in The Electoral College

 

 

 

ELECTORAL VOTE CHANGES, 1988 TO 2004
 

State	1988 Electoral Votes	1992 Electoral Votes	2004 Electoral Votes	Change, 1988-2004
California	47	54	55	+ 8
Texas	29	32	34	+ 5
Florida	21	25	27	+ 6
TOTAL	97	111	116	+ 19
NewYork	36	33	31	-5
Pennsylvania	25	23	21	-4
Illinois	24	22	21	-3
Ohio	23	21	20	-3
Michigan	20	18	17	-3
TOTAL	128	117	110	-18

1. Race in the United States: An American Dilemma

2. The Constitution: The Framers evade the issue of slavery

    Three Constitutional Provisions support slavery

    Result: An endless series of unanswered questions about civil rights
 

3. How Americans Answered Three Major Questions Evaded by the Framers

    a). Unanswered Question #1
        Do slaveowners hold the balance of power in America?

        How did we answer the question?
        Political Compromise (Missouri Compromise)
 

b). Unanswered Question #2

        Can slaveowners start their own nation?

        How did we answer?
        Civil War
 

c). Unanswered Question #3
    

      Are African-American’s civil rights protected by the states?
     

       How did we answer?

        At first, by letting states segregate the races by law (de jure segregation)

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 upholds Jim Crow laws

 

 

Voting Rights Restrictions in the south in the late 1800s:

• Literacy Tests
  
   
• Citizenship Tests
  
   
• Poll Taxes
  
   
• Grandfather Clauses
  
   
• White Primaries

    Then, de jure segregation was defeated in the mid-twentieth century by
        court decisions, social movements, and new national laws  

4.    How did politics change civil rights?
 

- Economic changes Politics as Blacks move North

 

 

- Congress Resists Change

 

 

- President Truman begins to dismantle legal segregation

 

 

- The Courts Act:
   Brown versus Board of Education (1954)
  undermines Jim Crow

The Civil Rights Movement

 

 

      - The 1964 Civil Rights Act

 

 

     - The 1965 Voting Rights Act

5. The Political Fallout of Civil Rights

    a). The Civil Rights agenda expands to de facto segregation
 

• Housing (Fair Housing Laws)
  
   
• Schools (Busing)
  
   
• Jobs (Affirmative Action)

... and to other groups

• Gender: The Equal Rights Amendment
   
• Other Minorities: Hispanics
   
• Disability
   
• Gays

    b). African-American voters strengthen ties to the Democrats

        while Southern white conservatives begin to
        abandon the Democrats

    c) and America has many issues left to address