Theories and Origins of Government

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Theories and Origins of Government
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I. Theories of Government

• Evolution Theory
• A population formed out of primitive families.
  The heads of these families became the
  government. When these families settled in one
  territory and claimed it as their own, they
  became a sovereign state.
• Force Theory
• An individual or group claimed control over a
  territory and forced the population to submit. In
  this way, the state became sovereign, and those
  in control formed a government.

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Theories of Government

• Divine Right Theory
• God created the state, making it sovereign. The
  government is made up of those chosen by God to
  rule a certain territory. The population must
  obey their ruler.
• Social Contract Theory
• A population in a given territory gave up as much
  power to a government as needed to promote the
  well-being of all. In doing so, they created a
  sovereign state.

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II. Contributions of the Greeks

• Athenian Democracy or Direct Democracy
• When 508 BCE 322 BCE
• What Also called pure democracy
• Occurs when the will
• of the people translates
• directly into public policy
• Works only on a small,
• local level
• Where

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III. Contributions of the Romans

• Roman Republic
• When 509 BCE 27 BCE
• What
• Classical Republicanism
• Civic virtue
• Moral education
• Small, uniform communities

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So, what kind of government do we have in the
U.S. today?
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English Origins of American Government

• The Magna Carta (1215)
• King John is forced to sign by barons
• Included guarantees of such fundamental rights as
  trial by jury and due process of law
• Protection against absolute power

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English Origins of American Government

• The Petition of Right (1628)
• King Charles I signed, by force of the Parliament
• Limited kings power
• May not impose martial law
• Can not force quartering
• Punish only be laws of the land
• Questioned Divine Right

No man should be compelled to make or yield any
gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like
charge, without common consent by act of
parliament.
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English Government Parliament Arrives

• Parliament was a council of nobility created to
  advise the monarch.
• History of hostility between parliament and
  monarch.
• Parliament House of Lords House of Commons
• House of Lords- nobility
• House of Commons - wealthy and people of standing
  in community-knights, merchants, craftsmen.

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English Origins of American Government

• The English Bill of Rights (1689)
• Signed by William and Mary of Orange during the
  Glorious Revolution
• Prohibited a standing army in peace time
• Required free parliamentary elections

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John Locke, 1632-1704
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John Lockes Natural Rights Philosophy

• State of Nature
• Natural Rights
• Human Nature
• Purpose of Government
• Social Contract Theory

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Pure Democracy and Crowdsourcing

• What is crowdsourcing?
• Definition
• Examples

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Pure Democracy and Crowdsourcing

• Pros of Delegating Decision-making
• Efficient
• Expert quality
• Pros of Pure Democracy
• Equality
• Representational quality

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Who should decide?

• The Math Condorcet's jury theorem
• One of the two outcomes of the vote is correct,
  and each voter has an independent
  probability p of voting for the correct decision.
  The theorem asks how many voters we should
  include in the group. The result depends on
  whether p is greater than or less than 1/2
• If p is greater than 1/2 (each voter is more
  likely than not to vote correctly), then adding
  more voters increases the probability that the
  majority decision is correct. In the limit, the
  probability that the majority votes correctly
  approaches 1 as the number of voters increases.
• On the other hand, if p is less than 1/2 (each
  voter is more likely than not to vote
  incorrectly), then adding more voters makes
  things worse the optimal jury consists of a
  single voter.

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Testing the theory

• Divide in half making 2 teams for chess
• One team will vote on a representative to make
  all their decisions
• The other will vote each day on their move.
• If the pure democracy team wins, voters were
  more likely than not to make the correct decision
  and more voters creates better results.

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Questions to Consider

• Should we all vote on more decisions?
• Which branch of government would most
  appropriately be replaced by this system?
• What are the problems with a pure democracy in
  America?