Mrs. Smith’s Power Point CHAPTER ONE Mrs. Smith’s Power Point

Why Is Government Necessary? Order Liberty Authority and Legitimacy Liberty is the greatest freedom of individuals that is consistent with the freedom of other individuals in the society; it can be promoted by or invoked against government.

Leviathan, Hobbes’s All-Powerful Sovereign. This engraving is from the 1651 edition of Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes. It shows Hobbes’s sovereign brandishing a sword in one hand and the scepter of justice in the other. He watches over an orderly town, made peaceful by his absolute authority. But note that the sovereign’s body is composed of tiny images of his subjects. He exists only through them. Hobbes explains that such government power can be created only if people ‘‘confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will.’’ p. 10

Forms of Government Totalitarian Authoritarianism Aristocracy Oligarchy Democracy Derived from the Greek words demos (“the people”) and kratos (“authority”) Political authority comes from citizens Totalitarian Regime: government controls all aspects of the political and social life of a nation. Authoritarianism: a type of regime in which only the government itself is fully controlled by the ruler. (But social and economic institutions exist that are not under the government’s control. )

Figure 1.1: Ideology and the Scope of Government. We can classify political ideologies according to the scope of action that people are willing to allow government in dealing with social and economic problems. In this chart, the three rows map out various philosophical positions along an underlying continuum ranging from least to most government. Notice that conventional politics in the United States spans only a narrow portion of the theoretical possibilities for government action. In popular usage, liberals favor a greater scope of government, and conservatives want a narrower scope. But over time, the traditional distinction has eroded and now oversimplifies the differences between liberals and conservatives. Figure 1.2 offers a more discriminating classification of liberals and conservatives. Fig. 1-1, p. 23

U.S.A. is a REPUBLIC Yes, we are a Democracy but we are not a TRUE DEMOCRACY. 2 types of Democracy 1) DIRECT DEMOCRACY 2) REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY- REPUBLIC

Direct Democracy Political decisions are made by the people directly, rather than by elected representatives Attained most easily in small communities The purest model of a direct democracy is the ancient Greek city-state of Athens. All citizens debated and voted on proposed laws. However, women, foreigners and slaves were excluded from citizenship status, and thus, a vote. Voter registration in Chicago AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Representative Democracy Constitution established a representative democracy Framers called this a Republic Experimental Power (votes) resides with citizens Representatives make policy and law

Direct Democracy Today Initiative: voters can propose a law or a constitutional amendment Referendum: referred by the legislature to the voters for approval/ disapproval Recall: allows voters to dismiss an elected official from office before term expires

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The Traditional Political Spectrum Socialism falls on the left side of the political spectrum, and has a very minor role in the American political system. Libertarianism, which falls on the right, is marked by skepticism and opposition toward most government activities. Libertarians support laissez-faire capitalism.

Figure 1.2: Ideologies: A Two-Dimensional Framework. The four ideological types are defined by the values they favor in resolving the two major dilemmas of government: how much freedom should be sacrificed in pursuit of order and equality, respectively. Test yourself by thinking about the values that are most important to you. Which box in the figure best represents your combination of values? Fig. 1-2, p. 28