Chapter 1: People and Government
Chapter One – People & Government
Section 1 – The Principles of Government
1. Government is necessary but . . .
A. What is the proper function of government?
B. What form of government serves best?
C. Where or why did government originate?
2. The State
A. Aristotle
1) Scholar in ancient Greece.
2) One of the first students of government.
3) “Polis” – The ancient Greek city-state.
4) Terms such as politics, democracy, and republic originated in ancient Greece or Rome.
B. State
1) Country and state have basically the same meaning.
2) “A political community that occupies a definite territory and has an organized government with the power to make and enforce laws without approval form any higher authority.”
C. Nation
1) Often used to describe an independent state or country.
2) “ Any sizable group of people who are united by common bonds of race, language, custom, tradition, and sometimes, religion.”
3) Usually the territorial boundaries of modern nation states and those of nations are the same.
4) Example – France.
A) Although not all citizen of France are of French descent, the territories of both the nation of France and the state of France coincide.
B) Nation-state is a term used to describe a country/nation such as France.
5) Not all groups that consider themselves to be nations have their own states.
A) Quebec in Canada.
B) In Africa, the populations of some national groups are divided among several African states due to the artificial boundaries established during the colonial era.
3. Essential Features of a State
A. Four essential features: Population, Territory, Sovereignty, and Government.
B. Population
1) Most obvious essential for a state.
2) The nature of a state’s population affects its stability.
3) States where the population shares a general political and social consensus, or agreement about basic beliefs, have the most stable governments.
4) Mobility – affects the political organization of a state.
a) In the United States, millions of Americans change residences each year.
b) As a result, political power is slowly changing and being modified.
C. Territory
1) A state has established boundaries.
2) The exact location or shape of political boundaries is often a source of conflict among states.
3) Territorial boundaries may change as a result of war, negotiations, or purchase.
D. Sovereignty
1) Key characteristic of a state.
2) Political Sovereignty – The state has the supreme and absolute authority within its territorial boundaries.
3) It has complete independence, and complete power to make laws, shape foreign policy, and determine its own course of action.
4) In theory, no state has the right to interfere with the internal affairs of another state.
E. Government
1) Every state has some form of government.
2) Government – The institution through which the state maintains social order, provides public services, and enforces decisions that are binding on all people living within the state.
4. Theories on the Origin of the State
A. Evolutionary Theory
1) Belief that the state evolved from the basic family unit.
2) The head of the primitive family was the authority that served as the government.
3) As large, extended families grew, there was a greater need for more organization which caused the birth of government.
B. Force Theory
1) The belief that government emerged when all the people of an area were brought under the authority of one person or a group.
C. Divine Right Theory
1) The notion that a god or gods have chosen certain people to rule.
2) People believed that the state was created by God, and those who were born to royalty were hosen by God to govern.
3) To oppose the monarch was to oppose God and was considered both treason and sin.
D. Social Contract Theory
1) Beginning in the 1600s, Europeans challenged the rule of sovereigns who ruled by divine right.
2) The birth of the Social Contract Theory.
A) Thomas Hobbes (English philosopher)
1) In a state of nature, no government existed.
2) Without an authority to protect people from one another, life was nasty, brutish, and short.
3) By contract, people surrendered to the state the power needed to maintain order.
4) The state, in turn, agreed to protect its citizens.
5) Hobbes believed that people did not have the right to break this agreement.
B) John Locke (English philosopher)
1) Took the social contract a step further.
2) Believed that the people were naturally endowed with the right of life, liberty, and property.
3) To preserve their rights, the people had the right to break the contract (Right of Revolution).
5. The Purposes of Government
A. Today governments serve several major purposes for the state:
1) To maintain social order.
2) To provide public services.
3) To provide for national security and a common defense.
4) To provide for and control the economic system.
B. In carrying out these tasks, governments must make decisions that are binding on all citizens of the state.
C. Government has the authority to require all individuals to obey these decisions and the power to punish those who do not obey them.
D. Governments derive their authority from two sources – their legitimacy and their ability to use coercive force.
1) Legitimacy – the willingness of citizens to obey the government.
A) In democratic countries legitimacy is based on the consent of the people.
B) If elected officials fail to respond to the interest of the people they can be voted out of office.
C) People entrust their government with power.
2) Coercive Force
A) The second source of government authority.
B) Derives from the police, judicial, and military institutions of government.
C) Government can force people to pay taxes and can punish offenders by fines or imprisonment.
E. Maintaining Social Order
1) According to the social contract theory, people need government to maintain social order because they have not yet discovered a way to live in groups without conflict.
2) Governments provide ways of resolving conflicts among group members, helping to maintain social order.
3) Governments have the power to make and enforce laws and can require people to do things they might do voluntarily.
4) Governments provide structures such as courts to help people resolve disagreements in an orderly manner.
5) Government controls and contains conflict between people by placing limits on what individuals are permitted to do.
6) Governments provide a group with law and order.
F. Providing Public Services
1) One of the important purposes of government is to provide essential services that make community life possible and promote the general welfare.
2) Government undertakes projects that individuals would or could not do on their own.
3) Provides essential serve by making and enforcing laws that promote public health and safety.
G. Providing National Security
1) Protecting citizens from attacks and threats.
2) Protecting its national security is a major concern of each sovereign state.
3) In additional to providing national defense, governments also handle normal relations with other nations.
4) Provides economic security by enacting trade agreements with other countries.
H. Making Economic Decisions
1) No country provides its citizens with everything they need or desire.
2) Government often intervene to help deal with the problems of material scarcity to prevent conflicts.
3) Pass laws that shape the economic environment of the nation.
4) Make choices that distribute benefits and public services among citizens.
5) Governments usually try to stimulate economic growth and stability through controlling inflation, encouraging trade, and regulating the development of natural resources.
Section 2 – The Formation of Governments
1. Overview
A. The government of each nation has unique characteristics derived from how that nation developed.
B. In order to carry out their functions, governments are organized in a variety of ways.
C. Most large countries have several different levels of government.
D. These usually include a central or national government as well as the governments of smaller divisions within the country such as provinces, states, counties, cities, towns, and villages.
2. Government Systems
A. Unitary System
1) Gives all key powers to the national or central government.
2) It does not mean that only one level of government exists.
3) It means that the central government has the power to create state, provincial, or other local governments and may give them limited sovereignty.
4) Great Britain, Italy, and France developed unitary governments when they emerged from smaller kingdom.
B. Federal System
1) Divides the powers of government between the national government and state or provincial governments.
2) Each level of government has sovereignty in some areas.
3) The United States developed a federal system after the thirteen colonies became states.
4) Other nations with a federal system include Canada, Switzerland, Mexico, Australia, India, and Russia.
C. Confederacy
1) A loose union of independent states.
2) Weak central government, powerful independent states.
3) The United States was originally governed as a confederacy under the Article of Confederation.
3. Constitutions and Government
A. Constitution
1) A plan that provides the rules for government.
2) A constitution serves several purposes:
A) It sets out ideals that the people bound by the constitution believe in and share.
B) It establishes the basic structure of government and defines the government’s power and duties.
C) It provides the supreme law for the country.
3) Constitutions provide rules that shape the actions of government and politics.
4) Constitutions may be written or unwritten (most are written).
5) The U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution (1787).
6) All governments have a constitution in the sense that they have some plan for organization and operating the government.
7) Constitutional Government
A) A government in which a constitution in which a constitution has authority to place clearly recognized limits on the powers of those who govern.
B) Often referred to as “limited government”.
B. Incomplete Guides
1) Constitutions themselves are important but incomplete guides to how a country is actually governed.
2) They are incomplete for two reasons:
A) No written constitution by itself can possibly spell out all the laws, customs, and ideas that grow up around the document itself.
B) A constitution does not always reflect the actual practice of government in a country. (Example - Chinese constitution).
C. A Statement of Goals
1) Most constitutions contain a statement that sets forth the goals and purposes to be served by the government.
2) Preamble – the name given to this statement.
D. A Framework for Government
1) The main body of a constitution sets out the plan for government.
2) In federal states, such as the United States, the constitution also describes the relationship between the national and state governments.
3) Most written constitutions also describe the procedure for amending the constitution.
4) Articles and Sections
A) Parts of the main body of the constitution is usually subdivided into these two categories.
B) U.S. Constitution has 7 Articles containing 21 Sections.
E. The Highest Law
1) Constitutions provide the supreme law for states.
2) Normally accepted as a superior, morally binding force.
3) Draws its authority from the people or from a special assembly chosen by the people to create the constitution.
4) Constitutional Law
A) Involves the interpretation and application of the constitution.
B) Primarily concerns defining the extent and limits of government power and the rights of citizens.
4. Politics and Government
A. Overview
1) Politics – The effort to control or influence the conduct and policies of government.
2) The Constitution did not prevent the development of politics because politics and government are closely related.
B. Seeking Government Benefits
1) Participation in politics arises because people realize that government has the potential to influence their lives in many ways.
2) In a large, diverse nation like the United States, there is a continual struggle over what benefits and services government should provide, how much they should cost, and who should pay for them.
3) Through politics, individuals and groups seek to maximize the benefits they get from government while they try to reduce the costs of these benefits.
4) Through politics, people also seek to use government to turn their values and beliefs into public policy.
C. Importance of Politics
1) Through politics, conflicts in society are managed.
2) Provides a peaceful way for people to compete with one another.
D. Special Interest
1) The Constitution says that government should promote the general welfare.
2) The Framers believed government should operate in the interests of all the people, not favoring any special group or persons.
3) The Framers feared special interest would undermine the new government.
4) Some people equate politics with bribery or corruption.
5) They believe the general welfare may be sacrificed to the desires of a special-interest group.
5. Governing in a Complex World.
A. Major Inequalities Among States
1) Because of the great inequalities among countries, the world today is full of contrasts.
2) Industrial Nations
A) Roughly 21 countries in the world fall into this category.
B) Industrialized nation have generally large industries and advanced technology that provide a more comfortable way of life than developing nations do.
C) Examples of industrialized nations include the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain.
3) Developing Nations
A) Nations that are only beginning to develop industrially.
B) Well over 100 countries fall into this category.
C) In the poorest countries, starvation, disease, and political turmoil is a way of life.
D) Examples of developing nations are found in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
B. Growing Interdependence
1) Although each state is sovereign, nations today exist in a world of global interdependence.
2) Our lives can be directly impacted not only by the decisions of foreign governments but also by the combined effect of billions of individual choices made by people across the world.
3) Global interdependence is increasing due to growing industrialization and rapid technological advances in manufacturing, transportation, and telecommunications.
4) Global interdependence is affecting highly developed as well as developing states.
C. Non-state International Groups
1) Terrorist groups / Quasi-military organizations
A) Al-Queda
B) 9/11 Attacks
2) National Liberation Organizations.
A) Aim to establish an independent state for a particular ethnic or religious group.
B) Irish Republican Army (IRA), Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
3) Multinational Corporations
A) Huge companies with offices and factories in many countries.
B) “Stateless” Corporations – When a corporation is so international in ownership, management, workforce, and areas of operations that it is impossible to identify them with any single nation.
4) International Organizations
A) Example – World Trade Organization (WTO)
i) Seeks to improve economic development around the world.
ii) Carry out their activities on a global scale.
B) Composed of many nations working together for common goals.
C) Multinational corporations influence international politics and the internal decisions of their host countries.
D) Noted International Organizations
i) General Motors
ii) ATT
iii) British Petroleum
Section 3 – Types of Governments
1. Overview
A. The United States has established a representative democracy that serves as a model for government and inspires people from around the world.
B. Today democracies outnumber all other forms of government.
C. Over the centuries, people have organized their governments in many different ways.
2. Major Types of Governments
A. Overview
B. Governments can be classified in many wasys.
C. Aristotelian method – Who governs the state?
D. Under this system of classification, all governments belong to one of three major groups:
1) Autocracy – rule by one person.
2) Oligarchy – rule by a few persons.
3) Democracy – rule by many persons.
E. Autocracy
1) Any system of government in which the power and authority to rule are in the hands of a single individual is an autocracy.
2) The oldest and most common forms of governments.
3) Historically, most autocrats have maintained their positions of authority by inheritance or the ruthless use of military or police power.
4) Totalitarian dictatorship
A) An absolute autocracy.
B) The ideas of a single leader are glorified.
C) The government seeks to control all aspects of social and economic life.
D) Examples:
i) Adolph Hitler / Nazi Germany
ii) Benito Mussolini / Fascist Italy
iii) Joseph Stalin / Soviet Russia
E) In such dictatorships, government is not responsible to the people, and the people lack the power to limit their rulers.
5) Monarchy
A) Another form of autocratic.
B) A king, queen, or emperor exercises the supreme powers of government.
C) Monarchs usually inherit their positions.
D) Absolute Monarchs
i) Have complete and unlimited power to rule their people.
ii) Example – The King of Saudi Arabia
E) Absolute monarchs are rare today.
F) Constitutional Monarchs
i) When a monarch serves as the ceremonial figurehead of the state.
ii) These monarchs may share some governmental powers with elected legislature
6) Oligarchy
A) Any system of government in which a small group holds power.
B) Power is derived from wealth, military power, social position, or a combination of these elements.
C) Sometimes religion is a source of power.
D) Modern oligarchy – Communist China.
E) Both dictatorships and oligarchies sometimes claim to rule for the people:
i) Hold elections but only one candidate.
ii) May have some type of legislature or national assembly elected by or representing the people – approve only the policies and decisions already made by the leaders.
F) Dictatorships and oligarchies usually suppress all political opposition – sometimes ruthlessly.
7) Democracy
A) Any system of government in which rule is by the people.
B) Democracy comes from the Greek demos and kratia – “the people” and “rule”.
C) The key idea of democracy is that the people hold sovereign power.
D) Direct Democracy
i) The people govern themselves by voting on issues individually as citizens.
ii) Exists only in very small societies where citizens can actually meet regularly to discuss and decide key issues and problems. (Example – New England town meetings).
iii) No country today has a government based on direct democracy.
E) Representative or “Indirect” Democracy