Chapter 1
Principles of Government
Section 1--Objectives:
• Define government and the basic powers
every government holds.
• Describe the four defining characteristics of
the state.
• Identify four theories that attempt to explain
the origin of the state.
• Understand the purpose of government in the
United States and other countries.
Section 1--Why It Matters:
• Here, Senator Kassebaum tells us that a
democracy—which insists on the importance
of each and every person and, at the same
time, insists on the equality of all persons—
inevitably produces a political climate “both
frustrating and invigorating.”
Section 1--Political Dictionary
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Government
Public policy
Legislative power
Executive power
Judicial power
• Constitution
• Dictatorship
• Democracy
• State
• Sovereign
Section 1—Government and the State
• What is Government?
– How society makes and enforces public policies.
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Taxation
Defense
Education
Crime
Health
Section 1—Government and the State
• What is Government? (cont.)
– All governments exercise 3 kinds of power.
• Legislative
• Executive
• Judicial
– Can take many organizational forms
• Single—dictatorship
• All the people—democracy
Section 1—Government and the State
• What is Government? (cont.)
– Old, basic institution
– “Man is by nature a political animal”—Aristotle
– “Polis”—people
– Politics and government do not mean the same
thing.
– Politics is a process
Section 1—Government and the State
• The State
– “A body of people”—more than 190 now
– “Nation” really means ethnic grouping
– “Country” is a geographic term
– Population
• Can vary widely—San Marino 27,000, China 1.3 billion
& USA 300 million
• Homogeneous vs. diversified
– Language, race, religion, ethnic background, history
Section 1—Government and the State
• The State (cont.)
– Territory—land, a requirement of a “state.”
– Sovereignty—supreme and absolute power within its
territory.
• NOTE—US “states” are not “states” but divisions because they are
not “sovereign.
– Government—natural order
• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)—”the war of every man against
every man.” “Without government. . . There would be continual
fear and danger of violent death and life [would be] solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish, and short.”
Section 1—Government and the State
• Major Political Ideas
– Four theories about the origin of government
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The Force Theory—power/conquest
The Evolutionary Theory—extension of the family
The Divine Right Theory—ordained by god
The Social Contract
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Thomas Hobbes
James Harrington (1611-1677)
John Locke (1632-1704)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Theory behind the US Constitution
Section 1—Government and the State
• The Purpose of Government
– Preamble of the US Constitution
• “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a
more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure the
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.”
– Articles of Confederation—1781
– Constitution--1787
Section 1—Government and the State
• The Purpose of Government (cont.)
– Establish Justice—law must be reasonable, fair
and impartial.
– Insure Domestic Tranquility—order and peace
– Provide for the Common Defense
– Promote the General Welfare—education, water,
air, roads, etc.
– Secure the Blessings of Liberty
Section 1—Government and the State
• John Locke---Second Treatise of Government
Section 2--Objectives:
• Classify governments according to three sets
of characteristics.
• Define systems of government based on who
can participate.
• Identify different ways that power can be
distributed, geographically, within a state.
• Describe a government by how power is
distributed between the executive and
legislative branch.
Section 2--Why It Matters:
• Governments come in many different forms—
democratic or dictatorial, unitary or federal or
confederate, presidential or parliamentary.
But, whatever its form, government has an
impact on nearly every moment and nearly
every aspect of your life.
Section 2--Political Dictionary:
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Autocracy
Oligarchy
Unitary government
Federal government
Division of powers
Confederation
Presidential government
Parliamentary government
Section 2—Forms of Government
• Classifying Governments
• Who Can Participate
– Democracy
• Direct—all participate
• Indirect—representative
– Dictatorship
• Autocracy—single person
• Oligarchy—small elite
Section 2—Forms of Government
• Geographic Distribution of Power
– Unitary—single, highly centralized
• Great Britain
– Federal government—division of powers
• United States, Canada, Mexico, India, Germany
– Confederate government—”alliance” of
independent states.
• EU, early US, Confederacy
Section 2—Forms of Government
• Relationship Between Legislative and
Executive Bodies.
– Presidential Government
• Independent selection of president
• Checks and balances
– Parliamentary Government
• Leader chosen is a member of parliament
• Sometimes there is also a weak figurehead
Section 3--Objectives:
• Understand the foundations of democracy.
• Analyze the connections between democracy
and the free enterprise system.
• Identify the role of the Internet in a
democracy.
Section 3—Why It Matters:
• Democracy insists on the fundamental
importance of each and every individual. The
free enterprise system is a natural counterpart
to democracy—for it, too, is built on the
concept of individualism.
Section 3—Political Dictionary:
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Compromise
Free enterprise system
Law of supply and demand
Mixed economy
Section 3—Basic Concepts of
Democracy
• Foundations
– Churchill: “No one pretends that democracy is
perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that
democracy is the worst form of government
except all those other forms that have been tried
from time to time.”
Section 3—Basic Concepts of
Democracy
• Foundations (cont.)
– American democracy rests on these basic notions:
• A recognition of the fundamental worth and dignity of every
person.
• A respect for the equality of all persons.
• A faith in majority rule and an insistence upon minority rights.
• An acceptance of the necessity of compromise, and
• An insistence upon the widest possible degree of individual
freedom.
Section 3—Basic Concepts of
Democracy
• Foundations (cont.)
– Worth of the Individual
– Equality of All Persons
• Equality of Opportunity
• Equality Before the Law
– Majority Rule, Minority Rights
• Not “best or right” but “satisfactory” solutions
– Necessity of Compromise
Section 3—Basic Concepts of
Democracy
• Foundations (cont.)
– Individual Freedom—not “complete” freedom
• Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The right to swing my
fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.”
• President John F. Kennedy: “The rights of every man
are diminished when the rights of one man are
threatened.”
Section 3—Basic Concepts of
Democracy
• Democracy and the Free Enterprise System
– Often called Capitalism
– Law of Supply and Demand—scarcity driven
– Government and the Free Enterprise System
• Mixed economy
• Abraham Lincoln: “The legitimate object of
government, is to do for a community of people,
whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at
all, or can not, so well do, for themselves—in their
separate, and individual capacities.”
Section 3—Basic Concepts of
Democracy
• Democracy and the Internet
– Abundance of data
– 180 million participants
– Rapid movement of ideas
– OFTEN inaccurate.