1. An Introduction to Government
Participation in Government
Johnstown High School
Mr. Cox

2. Bellringer Essential Question
Give me three reasons why you stop at a stop sign when driving.
Essential Question
What are the fundamental reasons why government exists?
How do Locke and Hobbes differ in their interpretations of human nature?

3. Laws and Governance
What is the relationship between the people and the government?
Take a moment and think about a society without laws…why are they necessary? Are they?
Reading: Why we have laws in Society..

4. Laws, Governance, and People
Anarchy - a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.
Do people want government?
Do we like order and structure? Or have we just been conditioned to it?
What would people be like without government?
State of Nature
Is society natural, or man made?

5. Part II – Where do our ideas about government come from?
18th and 19th Century Enlightenment Thinkers
Hobbes
Locke
Rousseau
Montesquieu
Voltaire

6. Political Thought Related to Law
John Locke
Thomas Hobbes
Human Nature
Social
Anti social/self interested
State of Humans in Nature
Exist in communities and groups with leaders, this occurs naturally
Societies only exist because strong leaders force them to.
Rights
All people have inalienable rights, can never be taken away
Believes that the rights people have are relinquished when ruled by a government
Social Contract
People give up their freedoms to government in exchange for safe haven/protection/justice
When humans give up their natural freedom and are ruled by a sovereign, they also lose their rights

7. Grolier Comparison of Hobbes/Locke
Locke’s considerable importance in political thought is better known. As the first systematic theorist of the philosophy of liberalism, Locke exercised enormous influence in both England and America. In his Two Treatises of Government (1690), Locke set forth the view that the state exists to preserve the natural rights of its citizens. When governments fail in that task, citizens have the right—and sometimes the duty—to withdraw their support and even to rebel. Locke opposed Thomas Hobbes’s view that the original state of nature was “nasty, brutish, and short,” and that individuals through a social contract surrendered—for the sake of self-preservation—their rights [...]

8. Essential Question Homework
How do Locke and Hobbes differ regarding their political theories?
Homework
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