Chapter One Principles of Government

1
Chapter OnePrinciples of Government

• What is Government?
• Origins of the State
• The purposes of Government

2

• Principles of Government

3
Government and the State

• What is Government?
• Government is the agency through which society
  changes public will into public policy
• Public policy is all of the things that a
  government decides to do

4
Government and the State

• Governments must have power
• Power is the ability to command or prevent action

5
Government and the State

• Every Government has three (3) kinds of power.
• Legislative power
• The power to make law and frame public policy

6
Government and the State

• Executive power
• The power to execute, enforce and administer law

7
Government and the State

• Judicial Power
• The power to interpret law, determine the meaning
  of law, and to settle disputes that arise within
  society

8
Government and the State

• Powers of government are often outlined in a
  countrys Constitution
• Constitution is a body of fundamental law

Why Madison????
Who is that?
James Madison
9
Government and the State

• Dictatorship
• Power held by a single person or small group
• Those who rule cannot be held responsible to the
  will of the people

10
Government and the State

• Democracy
• Power held by a majority of the people
• In a democracy supreme power rests with the people

We the People ...
11
Government and the State

• Aristotle observed
• man is by nature a political animal.

12
Government and the State

• Politics is a process
• Government is an institution

• Politics and Government are very different things

Politics is the process by which a society
decides how power and resources will be
distributed.
13
The State
14
The State

• The dominant political unit in the world today

15
The State

• Defined as a body of people, living in a defined
  territory, organized politically, with the power
  to make and enforce law

16
Characteristics of a State

• Population
• A people
• Territory
• Land
• Sovereignty
• Supreme and absolute power within its own
  territory

17
Characteristics of a State

• Government
• Politically organized

18
The State

• Population
• May or may not be homogeneous
• Homogeneous describes members of a group who
  share customs, a common language and ethnic
  background

19
The State

• Territory

Known recognized boundaries
20
The State

• Sovereignty
• The one characteristic that distinguishes the
  state from other lesser political units
• Sovereign states decide their own foreign and
  domestic policies
• Sovereign states can determine their own form of
  government
• Sovereign states have supreme power within their
  own territories

21
The State

• Government
• Every state is politically organized, that is,
  every state has a government
• A government is the agency through which the
  state exerts its will and works to accomplish its
  goals

22
The State

• The States within the United States are not
  sovereign and are not states in the
  international, legal sense.
• Each State is subordinate to the Constitution of
  the United States

23
The State

• Thomas Hobbes
• Without government there would be continual
  fear and danger of violent death and life (would
  be) solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

24
Principles of Government

• Origins of the State

25
Origins of the State

• Four theories have emerged as the most widely
  accepted explanations for the origin of the state.

26
Origins of the State The Force Theory

• This theory subscribes to the belief that the
  state was born of force

27
The Force Theory
When an individual or small group exerted its
will all of the elements of a state existed
Population
Sovereignty
Territory
Government
28
Origins of the State The Evolutionary Theory

• Theorizes that the state developed naturally out
  of the early family
• Matriarchal/patriarchal societies thus the
  government
• Family
• Clan
• Tribe

When the tribe ended its nomadic ways a state was
born
29
Origins of the State The Evolutionary Theory
The theory suggests the state is the natural
extension of people's family structure
30
Origins of the State The Divine Right Theory

• The belief that God created the State and God had
  given those of royal birth a divine right to
  rule
• Opposition to the divine right of Kings was
  both treason and a mortal sin
• Much of the thought upon which modern democracies
  are built developed from an opposition to the
  theory

31
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory
Thomas Hobbes
32
Social Contract Philosophers
John Locke
Jean Jacques Rousseau
33
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• Humans lived in unbridled freedom, in a state of
  nature
• No government existed
• No authority existed to protect one person from
  another

34
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• Individuals were only as safe as their own
  physical strength and intelligence could make
  them
• Survival of the fittest

35
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• Human beings overcame this condition by agreeing
  with one another to create a state

People agreed to give up to the state as much
power as was needed to promote the safety and
well-being of all
By contract
The contract, a constitution, was created, a
government, was created to exercise the powers
that the people had voluntarily given to the
state.
36
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• In short, the social contract theory argues that
  the state arose out of the voluntary act of free
  people. It holds that the state exists only to
  serve the will of the people, that they are the
  sole source of political power, and that they are
  free to give or to withhold that power as they
  choose

37
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• The great concepts that this theory promoted
• popular sovereignty
• limited government
• individual rights
• Played a huge role in shaping the American
  governmental system

38
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• Locke, Harrington, Hobbes, and Rousseau believed
  that the state exists to serve the will of the
  people

39
Origins of the StateThe Social Contract Theory

• The Declaration of Independence justified its
  revolution through the theory, arguing that King
  George III had violated the contract
• Jefferson called the document pure Locke.

40
Government and the State

• The Purposes of Government

41
The Preamble

• We the People of the United States, in Order to
  form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
  insure 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.

42
Form a More Perfect Union

• The first constitution The Articles of
  Confederation was to create a firm league of
  friendship
• It did not!
• The government was powerless to overcome intense
  rivalries and jealousies among the States

43
Form a More Perfect Union

• The Constitution of today was written in 1787
• The States adopted it in order to link them
  together
• The Constitution was built in the belief that in
  union there is strength

44
Esatablish Justice

• To provide justice, said Thomas Jefferson, is
• the most sacred of the duties of government.

No purpose, no goal of public policy, can be of
greater importance in a democracy
45
What is Justice?

• The term is difficult to define because it is a
  concept
• an idea, an invention of the human mind
• Other concepts
• Truth
• Liberty

46
What is Justice?

• It has come to mean this
• The law, in both its content and its
  administration, must be reasonable, fair, and
  impartial
• Equal Justice for all

47
What is Justice?

• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
  everywhere.

48

Insure Domestic Tranquility

• Order is essential to the well-being of any
  society, and keeping the peace at home has always
  been a prime function of government

49
Insure Domestic Tranquility

• The Federalist No. 51
• If men were angels, no government would be
  necessary.

50
Provide for the Common Defense

• Defending the nation against foreign enemies has
  always been one of governments major
  responsibilities
• The nations defense and its foreign policies are
  but two side of the same coin the security of
  the United States

51
Promote the General Welfare

• Government is the servant of its people
• Standard of living issues
• In general, the services that government provides
  in the United States are those that benefit all
  or most of the people

52
Secure the Blessings of Liberty

• This nation was founded by those who loved
  Liberty and prized it above all earthly
  possessions.

53
The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the
same time.
Thomas Jefferson
Secure the Blessings of Liberty
54

• They that can give up essential liberty to
  obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
  liberty nor safety.

Ben Franklin
Secure the Blessings of Liberty
55

• Liberty cannot be absolute
• It is, instead, a relative matter

Secure the Blessings of Liberty
56
Secure the Blessings of Liberty

• No one can be free to do whatever he or she
  pleases, for that behavior would interfere with
  the freedoms of others

57

• You can only be free if I am Free.

Clarence Darrow
Secure the Blessings of Liberty
58
Secure the Blessings of Liberty

• Both the Federal Constitution and the State
  constitutions set out many guarantees of rights
  and liberties
• The Challenge!!!!!!!
• To preserve and protect them, each generation
  must learn and understand them anew, and be
  willing to standup for them when necessary

59
Secure the Blessings of Liberty

• Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.