Video Lecture : American Government : Representative Government

"We the People” are the opening words of the U.S. Constitution. Yet, the Constitution in its original form made only limited provision for direct popular influence. The House of Representatives was the sole popularly elected institution and voting eligibility was left to the states to decide. That system was gradually altered, but substantial barriers to popular participation remain, mainly in the form of state laws that restrict voting.
This session will explore the reasons that the framers felt it necessary to limit popular influence, will describe how and why the original system changed, and will look at contemporary barriers—gerrymandering, voter registration, and voter ID laws—that inhibit voting.
Introduction:
https://learning.edx.org/course/cours...

Representative Government
This session will explore the reasons that the framers felt it necessary to limit popular influence, will describe how and why the original system changed, and will look at contemporary barriers—gerrymandering, voter registration, and voter ID laws—that inhibit voting.

Essential reading
Letter of Richard Henry Lee, October 16, 1787. In this letter, Lee, a leading American of the time, expresses his reservations about the recently written Constitution’s omission of a Bill of Rights and its limited provisions for popular rule.
https://teachingamericanhistory.org/d...

Suevon Lee and Sarah Smith, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Voter ID Laws,” ProPublica, March 9, 2016.
https://www.propublica.org/article/ev...

Rucho v. Common Cause (2019). The Supreme Court decision that declared partisan gerrymandering, however unfair, is not subject to judicial remedy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rucho_v...


Text reading
Thomas E. Patterson, We the People, 13th edition, pp. 52-60, 197-208. If you are using an earlier edition of "We the People" or some other text, read the pages on constitutional provisions for elections and voting.

Reading:
https://learning.edx.org/course/cours...


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