Chapter 1-People and Government

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Chapter 1-People and Government

• Principles of Government

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The State

• Aristotle-Greek scholar in ancient (you guessed
  it) Greece-one of 1st students of government
• He studied polis (ancient Greek city-state)
• State identifies political community that
  occupies definite territory with organized
  government-has power to make enforce laws

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Section 1 continued

• US is one of 200 states in world today
• Nation-any sizable group of people who are united
  by common bonds of race, language, custom,
  tradition, sometimes religion
• Nation-state-country in which territory of a
  place and the state coincide

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Characteristics of State

• Population
• Territory
• Sovereignty-state has supreme absolute
  authority within its territorial boundary
• Government

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Theories of the Origin of the State

• Evolutionary Theory-
• Force Theory-
• Divine Right Theory-
• Social Contract Theory-

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Purposes of Government

• Maintaining social order
• Providing public services
• Providing national security
• Making economic decisions

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Section 2-Formation of Government

• Unitary system-gives all key power to the
  national or central government
• Federal system-divides powers of government
  between national government and state or
  provincial governments (sound familiar?)
• Confederacy-loose union of independent states
  (should also sound familiar-blast from the past!)

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Section 2

• Constitution-plan that provides the rules for
  government does several things-1)sets out ideals
  that people bound by constitution believe in
  share 2)establishes basic structure of
  government-defines governments powers duties
  3)provides supreme law for country

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Section 2

• Constitutional government-government in which a
  constitution has authority to place clearly
  recognized limits on powers of those who govern
• Preamble-intro to Constitution states major
  goals of American government
• Look at page 14 starting with quotations-Break
  down the preamble line by line without using
  their words! Put this in your notebook! We will
  discuss together.

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Section 2

• Constitutional law-interpretation and application
  of the constitution
• Politics-conduct and policies of government
• Industrialized nations-page 14
• Developing nations-page 14

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Types of Government-Section 3

• Autocracy-oldest, most common forms of
  government power and authority to rule in hands
  of single individual
• Totalitarian dictatorship-type of autocracy
  ideas of single leader maintaining power

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Section 3

• Monarchy-autocratic government where king, queen,
  or emperor exercises supreme powers of government
• Absolute monarchs-complete unlimited power to
  rule people (King of Saudi Arabia)

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Section 3

• Constitutional monarchs-share governmental powers
  with elected legislatures (Great Britain, Sweden,
  Japan, Netherlands)
• Oligarchy-system of government in which a small
  group holds power (hint Think about oligopoly
  in econ!)

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Section 3

• Democracy-system of government in which rule is
  by the people
• Term democracy comes from Greek demos-the
  people kratia-rule
• People rule key idea is that the people hold
  sovereign power (think back to honest Abe what
  he described democracy as government of the
  people, by the people, for the people.

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Section 3

• Direct democracy-people govern themselves by
  voting on issues individually as citizens (exists
  only in very small societies where citizens are
  able to meet regularly to discuss issues New
  England town meetings cantons of Switzerland)

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Section 3

• Representative democracy-people elect
  representatives and give them responsibility
  power to make laws and conduct government
• Republic-voters are source of govt. authority

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Characteristics of Democracy

• Individual liberty
• Majority rule with minority rights
• Free elections
• Competing political parties

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Soil of Democracy

• Active citizen participation
• Favorable economy
• Widespread education
• Strong civil society
• Social consensus

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Create a Preamble for the Class

• Have fun creating a class preamble