Welcome to American Government and Politics

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Welcome to American Government and Politics

• Ms. Halt
• 2006

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• Just because you do not take an interest in
  politics doesnt mean politics wont take an
  interest in you!
• Pericles

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• Those who are too smart to engage in politics
  are punished by those who are dumber. 
• Plato

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• GOVERNMENT IS AMONG THE OLDEST OF ALL HUMAN
  INVENTIONS

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• MAN IS BY NATURE A POLITICAL ANIMAL.
• ARISTOTLE

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• Government and Politics?
• Why are we here?
• Why do we care?

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What is government?

• Government is those institutions that create
  public policy.

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• WHAT IS POLITICS?
• PROCESS
• Who gets what and how!

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• Government and politics thus can be defined by a
  formula that combines both concepts and result in
  an end goal
• government plus politics equals the creation of
  public policy.

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What is THE dominate POLITICAL UNIT IN THE WORLD?

• THE STATE!
• a body of people
• living in a defined territory
• organized politically (under a government)
• having the power to make and enforce laws without
  the consent of higher authority. 
• More than 190

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Characteristics of a State

• 4!

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1. Population

• A state consists of individuals

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2. Territory

• A state must have land with boundaries.

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3. SOVEREIGNTY

• States determine their own form of government
• A sovereign has supreme, absolute power of a
  state within its own territory. 

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  4. Government

• Government consists of the machinery and
  personnel by which the state is ruled.

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How did states come into being?
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FORCE THEORY
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Evolutionary Theory

• States originated in the family.

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Divine Right Theory

• God gave individuals or groups the right to rule.

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Social Contract Theory

• People agreed to give up power to the state in
  return for the state's service to the general
  well-being of the people.

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What does government do?
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• We the people of the United States, in order to
  form a more perfect union, establish justice,
  insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
  common defense, 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.

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Forms of Government

• Classify differences by
• Geographic Distribution of Power
• Relationship between Legislative and Executive
  branches
• Who can participate
• .

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Geographic Distribution of Power
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Relationship between Legislative and Executive
Branches

• Presidential
• Features a separation of powers.
• the executive and legislative branches are
  independent and coequal.
• The executive and legislative branches each can
  check the actions of the other branch.
• President chosen independently of the
  legislature, holds office for a fixed term, and
  has powers not subject to direct control of the
  legislature.

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Parliamentary

• Members of the executive branch are also members
  of the legislative branch (the parliament).
• Executive is made up of the prime minister or
  premier and that official's cabinet.
• Executive is leader of the majority party or of a
  coalition of parties and is chosen by parliament.
  
• Cabinet is chosen from members of parliament.
• Executive is subject to parliament's direct
  control.
• Executive remains in office only as long as
  policies have confidence of majority.
• No confidence vote requires executive resign.
• No checks and balances

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Who can participate?

• Dictatorship --
• Dictatorships exercise limited authority over the
  people.
• Participation in government is limited to the
  individual or group who rules.
• Those who rule are not responsible to the will of
  the people
• . No accountability. Dictators typically gain
  power by force.
• All dictatorships are authoritarian, i.e.,
  absolute power and totalitarian, i.e.,authority
  over nearly every aspect of life. Examples
  Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union and PR
  of China.
• One person dictatorships rare Muammar
  al-Qaddafi. Usually militaristic, have mock
  elections, and aggressive.

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Democracy

• Democracy -- In a democracy, sovereignty is
  located with the people who hold the power and
  give consent to the government to rule. 

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Direct V. Representative

• Direct democracy
• Will of people translated into public policy
  directly by people themselves, in mass meetings.
• Doesn't exist in any national level.
• Representative democracy
• Small group of people elected by the people to
  act on their behalf to express their popular
  will.
• They are held accountable to the people through
  elections

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Basic Concepts of Democracy
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• Fundamental worth of the individual
• Equality of all persons
• Majority rule and minority rights
• Necessity for compromise
• Individual freedom

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Democracy and the Free Enterprise System
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Free enterprise (Captialism)

• economic system characterized by private or
  corporate ownership of capital goods investments
  that are determined by private decision rater
  than be state control and determined in a free
  market.

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Based on four fundamental factors

• private ownership
• individual initiative
• Profit
• competition.

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How does Free Enterprise Work?

• SUPPLY AND DEMAND

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MIXED ECONOMY

• an economy in which private enterprise exists in
  combination with a considerable amount of
  government regulation

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Why does the government interfere?

• to protect the public
• to preserve private enterprise

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• The United States has been the only and only
  super power, with a strong central government
  serving as a model of democracy for the rest of
  the world.
• Why arent we a dictatorship or a totalitarian
  state?