Lesson 1.3 · Unit 1 · CA HSS 12.1.3
How the Constitution balances two political traditions
Two different traditions met in the founding, and they do not entirely agree. One asks what citizens owe the republic, the other asks what the republic may not do to citizens. The Constitution is built out of both, which is why it can be read in two ways.
- Classical republicanism holds that a free state depends on citizens who possess civic virtue and place the public good above private interest.
- Its characteristic worry is corruption: a republic dies when citizens pursue private advantage at public expense.
- Classical liberalism holds that individuals possess rights prior to government and that the purpose of government is to protect them.
- Its characteristic worry is oppression: government threatens the rights it was created to protect.
- The two produce different institutions. Republicanism produces representation, deliberation, civic education and public service; liberalism produces limited powers, enumerated rights and judicial protection.
- The Declaration joins them by grounding a people's collective right to govern themselves in the individual rights of the persons composing it.
- The phrase "self-evident truths" asserts that the premises need no argument, which is how the two traditions are fused without either being derived from the other.
- The tension is permanent, which is why unit 10 returns to it as the first of the six tensions the standards name.
Where students lose marks: treating one tradition as the real American one and the other as foreign. Both are in the founding documents, and the interesting analysis is where they pull against each other.
The source. The Declaration of Independence, 1776, and the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, 1787. Both public domain.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Step one: identify the liberal elements in the Declaration. Unalienable rights held by individuals, existing prior to government. Government instituted to secure those rights, which makes it an instrument rather than an end. Consent as the source of legitimate power. Every one of those is classical liberalism.
Step two: identify the republican elements in the Preamble. Establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense and promoting the general welfare are all statements of collective purpose. They describe what the political community will accomplish together, which is the republican frame.
Step three: notice the last clause. The Preamble ends by securing the blessings of liberty, which is the liberal aim, placed after four collective aims. The sentence contains both traditions and puts them in sequence rather than choosing between them.
Step four: examine "self-evident". The Declaration does not argue for human equality or for unalienable rights; it asserts that they require no argument. That move matters because the two traditions cannot both be derived from a single deeper premise. Declaring the premises self-evident allows them to be held together without one being subordinated to the other.
Step five: work a case where they agree. Trial by jury. A liberal defends it as a protection of the individual against the state. A republican defends it as the participation of citizens in the administration of justice. Both reach the same institution by different routes, which is why it is uncontroversial.
Step six: work a case where they conflict. Compulsory jury service and conscription. Republicanism supports both as obligations citizens owe the community. Liberalism is uneasy with both, since they compel an individual to serve purposes not their own. The Constitution contains the jury but is silent on the argument, which is left to be fought out.
Step seven: work a harder case. A community votes to prohibit an unpopular form of worship, believing it corrupts public morals. Republicanism supplies a reason: the public good as the community sees it. Liberalism supplies the answer: a right held by individuals that no majority may remove. The First Amendment settles this one in liberalism's favor, which shows the founders did not treat the traditions as equal everywhere.
Step eight: state the conclusion the standard asks for. The Constitution reflects a balance rather than a victory. Its structure, representation, deliberation and shared responsibility, comes largely from republicanism; its limits, enumerated powers and a bill of rights, come largely from liberalism. The Declaration joins them by grounding the people's collective authority in the rights of the individuals who compose it, and the joining is asserted rather than proved.
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- State the core claim of classical republicanism.
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That a free state depends on citizens with civic virtue who place the public good above private interest
- State the core claim of classical liberalism.
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That individuals have rights prior to government, which government exists to protect
- What does each tradition characteristically fear?
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Republicanism fears corruption; liberalism fears oppression
- Name two institutions each tradition produces.
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Republicanism: representation, deliberation, civic education, public service. Liberalism: limited powers, enumerated rights, judicial protection
- What does the phrase "self-evident truths" assert?
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That the premises require no argument
- Identify the liberal and republican elements in the two quoted passages.
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The Declaration is liberal throughout: unalienable rights held by individuals before any government exists, government instituted as an instrument to secure them, and consent as the source of just power. The Preamble is largely republican: establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense and promoting the general welfare are collective purposes of a political community. Its final clause, securing the blessings of liberty, is liberal, placed after the four collective aims. The Declaration is liberal; the Preamble is republican until its final clause
- Why does the Declaration need the premises to be self-evident?
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Because the two traditions cannot both be derived from a single deeper premise: republican civic obligation and liberal individual right start from different places and neither follows from the other. Asserting that human equality and unalienable rights require no argument allows both traditions to rest on them without either being subordinated. It is a way of joining incompatible starting points by declining to argue for either. It lets both traditions rest on the same premises without deriving one from the other
- Give an institution both traditions support, and explain their different reasons.
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Trial by jury. A liberal defends it as a structural protection of the individual against the power of the state, placing a body the government does not control between the accused and punishment. A republican defends it as citizens participating directly in the administration of justice, which is civic duty and civic education at once. Both arrive at the same institution by different routes, which is why it is uncontroversial in a way that other arrangements are not. Jury trial: protection from the state for one tradition, civic participation for the other
- Give a case where they conflict and say how the Constitution handles it.
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Compulsory service, whether jury duty or conscription. Republicanism supports both as obligations owed to the community that sustains one's freedom. Liberalism is uneasy with both, since each compels an individual to serve purposes not their own. The Constitution establishes jury trial without resolving the argument about obligation, so the tension is built into the document and left to be fought out politically rather than settled by text. Compulsory service: the Constitution establishes the institution and leaves the argument open
- State the balance the standard asks you to explain.
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The Constitution's structure comes largely from republicanism: representation, deliberation, shared responsibility and a government capable of pursuing collective aims. Its limits come largely from liberalism: enumerated powers, a bill of rights and courts able to enforce them against majorities. The Declaration joins the two by grounding the people's collective authority to govern in the individual rights of the persons who compose them, a joining asserted as self-evident rather than proved. Republican structure inside liberal limits, joined by the Declaration's asserted premises