Foundations of American Government

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• Unit I
• Foundations of American Government
• Objectives
• Define Government and examine the purposes of
  government.
• Government is the institution through which a
  society makes and enforces its public policies.

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• Purposes of Government
• Form a more perfect union
• Establish Justice.
• Insure domestic tranquility
• Provide for common defense
• Promote general welfare
• Secure blessings of liberty.
• Every government has 3 basic powers
• Legislative
• Executive
• Judicial

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• Objective 2
• Differentiate between state and national
  governments and recognize the essential features
  of a state.
• State-
• Body of people living in a defined territory,
  organized politically and with the power to make
  and enforce laws without the consent of a higher
  authority.

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• Features of a state
• Population
• Territory
• Sovereignty supreme and absolute authority
  within its boundaries.
• Government

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• Objective 3
• Compare and contrast various theories of
  government, including Evolutionary, Force, Divine
  Right, and Social Contract.
• Evolutionary Theory
• Force Theory
• Divine Right
• Social Contract

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• Objective 4
• Understand the development of Social Contract
  theory as expressed by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan
  and John Locke in Two Treatises on Government.
• Social Contract
• Hobbes said that people were originally free in
  nature.

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• No one was subject to a superior power.
• People owned what they took by force.
• No authority existed to protect people from
  others.
• People agreed to create a state for protection.
• People agreed, by contract, to give the state as
  much power as it needed to protect them.

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• Social contract theory argues that the state
  arose out of the voluntary act of free people.
• The state only exists to serve the will of the
  people and they are the sole source of political
  power.
• People are free to give or withhold that power as
  they choose.

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• Objective 5
• Classify the types of government including
  autocracy (dictatorship and absolute monarchy),
  oligarchy, theocracy, anarchy, democracy (direct
  and representative)

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• Autocracy
• Government in which one person holds unlimited
  power.
• Can be a dictatorship or an absolute monarchy.
• Dictatorship
• Exists where those who rule cannot be held
  responsible to the will of the people.
• Oldest and most common form of government

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• Kim Il Jong

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• Momar Khadafy

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• Oligarchy
• Government in which power is held by a small,
  usually self-appointed elite.
• Theocracy
• Government ruled by religious leaders.
• Iran

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• Anarchy
• No formal government.
• Somalia
• Democracy
• Direct everyone is involved in decision making
  process. (Ancient Athens)
• Representative people vote for representatives
  to represent them in their government.

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• Objective 6
• Recognize the structures of government to include
  unitary, confederate and federal systems and
  distinguish between presidential and
  parliamentary systems of government.

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• Unitary Structure
• Commonly called a Centralized Government.
• All power belongs to a single centralized
  government agency.
• The National Government creates local governments
  for convenience.
• They only have powers given them by the National
  Government.

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• Most governments in the world are Unitary.
• Ex Great Britain
• Parliament holds all power and local governments
  exist to relieve Parliament and aid it in
  governing regarding local matters.
• Parliaments powers are limited by Britains
  constitution however.

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• Federal Government Structure
• Government in which powers are divided between a
  central government and local governments.
• Both levels act upon people through their own
  laws, officials, and agencies.
• A Constitution is the supreme law and cannot be
  changed unless all levels agree.

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• U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, India, Switzerland
  and about 20 other countries.

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• Confederate Government Structure
• Alliance of independent states.
• Usually a weak central government that only has
  powers the states give it.
• Usually cant make laws that apply to individuals
  because states have this power.

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• Confederations are rare.
• Ex European Union, U.S. under the Articles of
  Confederation, Confederate States of America.
• Presidential Government
• Features a separation of powers between the
  Executive Branch and Legislative Branch.
• Chief Executive is chosen separately from the
  legislature.

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• All branches usually have separate powers spelled
  out in a constitution.
• U.S. invented the Presidential form of
  government.
• Most are located in the Western Hemisphere.

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• Parliamentary Government
• Executive is the Prime Minister and his/her
  cabinet.
• They are members of Parliament.
• Prime Minister is member of majority party in
  Parliament.
• Cabinet members are selected by PM from members
  of Parliament.

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• Prime Minister and Cabinet are known as The
  Government.
• They stay in power as long as Parliament supports
  them. If they lose support of Parliament, they
  resign and Parliament selects another PM.
• People vote for members of Parliament NOT for the
  PM.

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• Majority of governments in world today are
  Parliamentary in form.
• Parliamentary governments do not have deadlock
  between Executive and Legislature that
  Presidential governments can have since PM and
  the majority party of Parliament are the same.
• Parliamentary systems do not have system of
  checks and balances however.

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• Prime Minister of England, Gordon Brown

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• Benjamin Disraeli PM 1874-1880

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• Winston Churchill

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• Margaret Thatcher