Notes for Test 1: Part A
Government 12
Government and the People
I.
II.
The Meaning of Politics and Government
A. What is Politics?
1. Most formal definitions of politics begin with the notion of
social conflict—the idea that people in a society disagree over
beliefs, values, and what the society’s priorities should be.
2. A civilized society must have a system that allows for the
resolution of conflict.
3. Politics can be defined as a way to resolve social conflict. It
determines the “who gets what, when and how” in our society.
B. What is Government?
1. To a social scientist, government is a permanent structure
composed of decision-makers who make society’s rules about
“who gets what” and who have the power and authority to
enforce those rules.
2. So, politics and government are related.
3. Politics is the process for resolving conflict; government is a
structure in which people make and enforce decisions about how
conflicts will be resolved.
C. Why Study Politics and Government?
1. Political participation occurs whenever a person says or does
something that affects politics or government.
2. Voting is the most common form of participation.
3. People with common interests join together to participate—
ethnic, age, cause, or industry.
The Purposes of Government
A. Resolving Conflicts
1. Conflicts arise due to scarcity—unlimited wants, limited
resources.
2. Governments have power—the ability to cause others to change
their behavior.
3. Examples are compulsory education and obeying traffic laws.
4. Governments also have authority—the right to cause citizens to
behave in particular ways.
5. Governments have authority only if their power is legitimate—
meaning that it is recognized and accepted by society as legally
and morally correct.
III.
IV.
B. Providing Public Services
1. Governments undertake projects that individuals usually would
not or could not do on their own, such as building and
maintaining roads, providing welfare programs, operating public
schools, and preserving national parks.
2. Governments also provide such services as law enforcement, fire
protection, and public health and safety programs.
C. Providing for National Security and Common Defense
1. The government provides for defense and security with its Army,
Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. In addition, the CIA
and NSA contribute to the defense network as well.
D. Setting Goals for Public Policies
1. Governments design public policies—plans of action—to
support their goals.
E. Preserving Culture
1. A nation’s culture includes customs, language, beliefs, and
values of its people.
2. One way is to establish official holidays like Independence Day.
Nations and Origins of Government
A. Characteristics of Nations
1. Population
2. Territory
3. Government
a. Unitary: all authority vested in the central government
b. Federal: divides its power and authority between state and
national governments
c. Confederal: made up of a group of independent states
4. Sovereignty: the right, power, and authority to govern itself
B. How Did Government Begin?
1. Evolutionary theory: government developed step by step
2. Force theory: strong persons or groups conquered territories and
then forced everyone living in those territories to submit to their
will
3. Social Contract theory: developed by John Locke and Thomas
Hobbes in England and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France.
According to this theory, individuals voluntarily agree with one
another to create a government and to give that government
enough power to secure the protection and welfare of all
individuals.
a. John Locke argued that people are born with natural rights to
life, liberty and property
b. Purpose of government is to protect natural rights
c. Influenced many leaders of the American Revolution
How Do Governments Differ from One Another?
A. Rule by One: Autocracy
1. Monarchy: government controlled by a king, queen, emperor, or
czar
a. Divine Right theory: God gave those of royal birth the
unlimited right to govern others
2. Dictatorship: a single leader rules; authoritarian—absolute
power and is not subject to constitutional restrictions. Can also
be totalitarian—leader seeks to control all aspects of social and
economic life
B. Rule by Many: Democracy
1. Supreme political authority rests with the people
2. Direct democracy: people participate directly in government
decision making through mass meetings; practiced in ancient
Greece
3. Representative democracy (indirect democracy): the will of the
majority is expressed through a smaller group of individuals
elected by the people to act as their representatives.
4. A republic is another term for representative democracy
5. Two types
a. Presidential: lawmaking and law-implementing branches are
separate
b. Parliamentary: lawmaking and law-implementing branches
overlap (i.e., in the UK, the PM and the Cabinet are members
of the legislature, or Parliament, and enact laws as well as
carry them out)
C. Principles of Democracy
1. “This country, with all its institutions, belongs to the people who
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing
government, they can exercise their constitutional right of
amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or
overthrow it.” –Abraham Lincoln
2. Five principles
a. Equality in voting
b. Individual freedom
c. Equality of all persons
d. Majority rule and minority rights
e. Voluntary consent to be governed