Chapter 1

Government

 Public Policies- all the things a government decides to do

 The institution that rules on the citizens
 Must have authority, or power
 The ability to command or prevent action
 They make enforce and interpret public policy
 Legislative, executed, judicial

Three kinds of power

 Legislative-make laws
 Executed-execute, enforce, administer law
 Judicial- interpret laws and settle disputes

Public policy
 All the things the government does for its citizens
 Taxes, defense/war, education, immigration

STATE - (country)
 The body of people living in a defined territory, organized with a government that has power
 More than a hundred ninety states in the world today
o 1 world, 7 continents, 190 states
 4 characteristics of a state
o Population-people
o Territory-land with recognized boundaries
o Sovereignty- absolute power over itself to decide domestic and foreign policies
o Government- the group of that makes the public policies for its people

Three Levels of government

 National/Federal government
o The law applies to everyone
 State government
o The law applies to just that individual state
 Local government
o Laws apply to each individual city, town, county, borough

Theory of the state

 Force theory
o One person claimed control of an area and forced all within to obey that person’s rule
 Evolutionary theory
o Developed like a family
o One family had a leader, that family merged into a clan, into a tribe, etc.
 o When they became farmers instead of nomads, the state was born
 Divine right theory
o 1400s-1700s
o God created the state
o God gave “divine right” to rule through that family
o People had to obey the king like they were obeying god
 Social contract theory
o Thomas Hobbes
 State of nature
 No government
 The strongest survived
 The weak suffered
o John Locke
 People want government
 They agree to a contract with the state
 People will pay their taxes, follow the rules, and recognize the power of the ruler
 Government will protect the people nature rights
 Life, liberty, and property

o Government comes in forms

o Democracy, dictatorship, unitary, confederate, federal, presidential, or parliamentary
o Government impacts your daily life

Three branches of gov

 Legislative – make the laws – congress
 Executive – enforces the law – president
 Judicial – interprets the law – supreme court

Citizens and power

 Democracy – supreme political authority rests with the people
 Representative – a small group of representatives is chosen by the people
 Direct – the will of the people is translated into law by the people themselves
 People have a lot of power
 Tells the government what to do
 Tell the government can only do what the people consent to
 Can be voted out
 Dictatorship - those who rule are not held accountable to the will of the people
People have no say in dictatorship, there is no will of the people, the government does what it
wants to do and no what the people want, oldest and most common
 Autocracy – a single person holds unlimited political power
 Oligarchy -the power to rule is held by a small, usually self-appointed elite
Have absolute power over the people/
 Totalitarian – use fear and force to get and maintain power
Fascists in Italy, Nazi Germany, Iraq

Unitary
 The national government has all of the power
 States are created by the national government for its benefits
  State government has no power
 Uniform – laws that apply to everyone
 Inflexible – does not consider local needs
 Most governments in the world are unitary

Confederate
 A government in which the states have all the power
 National government has no power
 Opposite of unitary
 Article Of confederation and confederate states of America

Federal system
 A government in which both national and state levels have power
 The national government can only do what the constitution says it can
 10th amendment – if it is not in the constitution, it’s the states job
 Article IV says the national government trumps states government

Presidential system

 The executive and legislative branches are independent and coequal

 The president is chosen independently of the legislative
 The president holds office for a fixed term
 President is not directly controlled by legislative, not does the president control the legislative

Parliamentary government

 The executive is made up of the prime minister, or premier, and their cabinet
 PM is chosen by legislative, is part of it, and subject to direct control
 The PM can be told to resign at any time
 Not a fixed term

Concepts of American Democracy

 Worth of the individual
 Each person is important
 No regard for “station” in life
 Equality of all persons
 Equal opportunity and equal under the law

1. Majority rule, minority rights

 People agree to the decision of the longer half
 A means for organizing government and deciding public issues
 Unchecked, the majority could destroy its opposition
 The minority still has the right to argue, criticize, object and offer suggestions to majority
 The majority of the people will be right more often than wrong

2. Compromise
 Give and take
 Find the position that is most acceptable to the most people

3. Individual freedom
  Each individual must be as free to do as they please as far as the freedom of all will allow
 NOT complete/absolute freedom
 (anarchy – No government)

4. importance of individual
 Each individual is a separate, distinct being and together make up society

5. equality of all persons

 “all men are created equal”
 Equality of opportunity and equality before the law

Democracy and Free enterprise system

 Democracy – political system
 Free enterprise system – economic system
 Capitalism
 Both based on idea of individual freedom
 Governments has little to no involvement
 Supply and demand
 When supplies are high, prices tend to drop and vice-versa

Free enterprise system

 In short, the free enterprise system has four underlying factors:
1. Private ownership
2. Individual initiative
3. Profit
4. Competition

Mixed economy
 Government participates in the economy to protect the public
 Regulated by government
 Promoted by government
 Funding for roads, schools, post offices, etc.
 Preserve private interest
 Sherman anti-trust act