Download Government and the State

Government and the State
What is government?
• Government is: the institution through
which a society makes and enforces its
public policies.
• Governments have the power to coerce or
to make you do something (coercion)
Coercion
• The State has a monopoly on the
legitimate use of violence- Max Weber
• Who is legally allowed to kill? Only the
state.
• All others are viewed as criminals.
Some types of government
• Dictatorship- all powers are held by a
single person (can also be called an
autocracy)
• Democracy- powers rest with the majority
of the people
• Oligarchy- powers rest with a small group
of people
The State
• The state is the dominant political unit in
the world
• All states have:
• 1) people living in them (a population)
• 2) a defined territory
• 3)Sovereignty- the state is not controlled
by another state
• 4) All states have government
Is Sealand a state?
The earliest states
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Egypt
Mesopotamia (Iraq, Iran Syria)
India
China
• Notice anything about the geography of
the places mentioned?
The first civilizations- River
valleys
• Fertile river valleys grow crops well.
• Growing crops well means people can
have healthy women that have healthy
babies
• Healthy babies reach adulthood more
often
• Result= population increase in these areas
How do you deal with so many
people?
• Political scientists are not quite sure how
the state first was created. There are four
theories
• All of them deal with the question of
governing people.
What if government disappeared?
• Thomas Hobbes said “without government
there would be war of every man against
every man”
• It is necessary to have government so that
we aren’t constantly watching our back to
make sure our neighbor isn’t attacking us.
• Without government the people with the
better weapons would be able to take from
us at will. Life would be brutally short
Why do we need government?
• Protection
• To meet basic needs safely
Anarchy
• Anarchy- the total absence or lack of
government.
How was the state created?
• 4 different theories
• 1) force- somebody back in the day got a
band of warriors together and took over
some land and the people on it. Everyone
then had to submit to that person’s rule
• 2) Evolutionary theory- the family evolved
into a larger family, then a clan, then a
tribe and then a state
• 3) Divine right theory“I am king, therefore since I am king that is
proof that God wanted me to be King”
• If you opposed a divine king it was both
treason and sin
• 4)Social Contract theory- argued that
originally people were completely free.
Problem is that everyone is completely
free and you are only as safe as you are
strong. People agreed to band together
and form states and to give up as much
power as was necessary to be safe.
Hammurabi’s code
• Around 1750BCE a warrior King named
Hammurabi took power in Babylon
• His people had different customs and laws
• He unified them all under a single code…
• So that there was no dispute what the law
was…
He placed them in the center of
town
• All the laws had a
punishment
• This way the local
magistrate could
simply look up the
crime and pass
judgment on the spot.
Some of the laws of Hammurabi’s
code
• “if a man practice robbery and be
captured, that man shall be put to death”
• “If a son has struck his father, they shall
cut off his hand”
• “Eye for an eye”
Other things in the code you don’t
need to copy
• If a builder builds you a house and it falls
down and kills your son, you get to kill the
builder’s son.
• If your home catches fire and while you
are out getting water to put it out
somebody comes by and steals from you,
they get thrown into the fire.
History of Governments
• Ancient Egypt had the
Pharaohs which were
Kings that were
worshiped as Gods
on Earth. We call this
a theocracy
– Who is power vested
in?
Who can participate?
There are two types of democracy- Direct and
Representative (Also called a Republic)
Direct Democracy- everyone has a say or a vote in
what happens. (works great in very small
groups)
Representative Democracy- this is where the
people vote a representative to represent them
and vote for them. This is the method and
system the United States uses. Your elected
officials vote for you so that you can get other
things done.
What does Democracy mean and
where does it come from?
• The word Democracy comes from the
Greek words “Demos” meaning people
and “Kratos” meaning rule.
• The word implies a system where the
people have a say in their government and
are not lead by a single authoritarian
leader
• The first democracies came out of ancient
Greece.
Athens
• Athens is considered
the birthplace of
Democracy
• In Athens only
citizens of Athens
could vote.
• To be a citizen meant you were male and
not a slave and also from Athens.
• Citizens of Athens gathered in the
assembly and voted all at once on
important matters.
Wait a minute…. Not fair
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What about the women?
What about slaves?
What about the men who had no property?
These people were not allowed to vote
The slaves worked while the elite passed
the laws and the women were confined to
their homes unable to leave without an
escort.
What kinds of issues were
important to the ancient Athenians?
• They held court and voted on mass juries
of over 500 people.
• They voted to pass laws or not.
• They had a system by which unpopular
people could be kicked out of Athens for
ten years called Ostracism that they would
also put to a vote.
Sparta
• In Sparta there were two Kings, one for at
home and one for at battle
• To vote you would reach first have to
reach the age of 60 and be male.
• Sparta also had a council of 28 males who
would cast these votes. (they were the
ones who had to be 60 years of age)
Rome
• Rome took a different
approach originally
• Offices were to be
elected (even if they were
from the elite)
• There was a Senate and
gradually people won the
right to vote for Senators
• This era in history was
called the Republic
because republics are
any governments that
allow for representative
government
What?
• You have a busy life
• You don’t have time to vote on whatever
bill has been brought before the people
today.
• Imagine if everyday you had to meet in the
center of the city and vote on every bill or
piece of legislation.
How would you get your work done?
• Representative Democracy hires someone
else to do it for you!
Do we use Representative
Democracy in the United States
• Yes we do.
• Any person you vote for to pass laws for
you is an elected representative.
Social Contract
• A theory proposed by Jean Jacques
Rousseau, french philosopher of the
enlightenment.
• Answers the question “Which do you
prefer absolute freedom or being the most
secure you can be?”
A delicate balance
• In order to be secure we must sacrifice
some amount of freedom.
• We enter into a type of “social contract”
when we agree to live in society.
Other options
• Suppose we didn’t want to live in this
society what could we do?
• Live somewhere where other people don’t
live.
– Not easy to do.
• Break societies rules.
– There are consequences to this choice.
Dictatorship
1) Things get done quickly and effectively.
2) Personal freedom doesn’t exist. In many
cases the people belong to the state.
Dictatorships do not answer to the will of the
people, the people answer to the dictator
Examples of Dictatorships
• In ancient Rome during emergencies the
Republic would had over power to one
powerful leader
• During the 1930’s and 40’s: Adolph Hitler,
Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin and
Francisco Franco were all dictators
• Recent places that have had dictatorships:
Libya, Burma (Myanmar), Iraq, Chile,
Pakistan, Cuba to name a few.
What is patriotism? What is
nationalism?
• Patriotism- a feeling of pride in one’s
country
• Nationalism- a feeling of pride in one’s
country. (may be taken a step further than
patriotism) “My country is better than your
country.”
Things to consider
• What makes you proud of your country?
• Do you suppose if you were a citizen of
another state (country) you would feel just
as strongly about that place?
• 1. Government ruled by the few is called what?
• 2. Government that is lead by one person and
answers to no one is called what?
• 3. List one of the four theories of how the state
was created.
• 4. Which system of democracy does the United
States use?
• 5. Where did the first democracies come from?
• 6. Who could vote in Athens?
• 7. Why are dictatorships sometimes more
effective at getting things done?
• 8. What often doesn’t exist under a dictatorship?
• 9. What is anarchy?
• 10. What is coercion?