Download Outcome: SWBAT Recall the characteristics of states and theories of

KECSS
MS. MURREN
ECONOMICS
2/17/12
OUTCOME: SWBAT
RECALL THE CHARACTERISTICS OF
STATES AND THEORIES OF GOVERNMENT
EXAMINE THE PURPOSES OF AMERICAN
GOVERNMENT
INITIAL ACTIVITY
WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION
SEPARATE THESE POWERS?
•Executive
•Judicial
•Legislative
The president is the
Head of State, and
executes the laws
The Supreme Court
interprets the laws to
ensure they are
constitutional
Congress creates the
laws and frames
public policy
MINI LESSON
•
What is a State? A nation or country. A body of people living in a defined territory ,
organized politically and with the power to make and enforce law without the
consent of a higher authority.
• Nation – An ethnic term used to refer to races or large groups of people
• Country – A geographic term used to refer to a particular place, region or area of
land
•
What are the characteristics of a state?
•
•
•
•
Population
Territory
Sovereignty
Government
MINI LESSON – CHARACTERISTICS OF A STATE
•
Population- For a state to exist it must be inhabited. The size of the state is
irrelevant to it’s existence. The world’s largest state is China (1.3 billion). The
United States of America is the 3rd most populous state with 300 million
inhabitants. Vatican City is the world’s smallest state with about 800 permanent
residents
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population
•
Territory – Just as a state cannot exist without people, it cannot exist without land
(territory). The size of the land is also inconsequential. Vatican City is 109 acres,
Russia is the largest state a6.6 million square miles, The United States is about
3.8 million square miles.
MINI LESSON – CHARACTERISTICS OF A STATE
•
Sovereignty – Every State is sovereign that is they have supreme and absolute
power within its own territory and can decide its own domestic and foreign
policies. The States within the US are not states in the legal and international
sense they are all sovereign to the laws of the American Constitution
•
Government- Every State is politically organized, that means that they all have a
government.
Medial Critical Thinking Summary – Is Cuba a State? Is Puerto Rico a state? Is
Bangladesh a state? Explain why or why not
MINI LESSON – THE ORIGINS OF THE STATE
How did States originate?
•
Force Theory- This theory assumes that states were born of force that one person
or group of people claimed control of a particular area and forced others to
submit to that person’ s or group’s rule. When that rule was established , all the
basic elements of the state – population, territory, sovereignty and government
were present.
•
Evolutionary Theory- A population formed out of primitive families. The heads of
these families settled in one territory and claimed it as their own and became a
sovereign state. A family
A clan
A tribe
A State
MINI LESSON – THE ORIGINS OF THE STATE
•
The Divine Right Theory- This theory was widely accepted in the 15 th – 18th
centuries. It stated that God created the state making it sovereign and God had
given those royal birth the divine right to rule. Opposition the ‘divine right of the
kings’ was both treason and a mortal sin. Europeans, Chinese, Mayans Egyptians
all believed in divine right – The Japanese Emperor governed by divine right until
1945
•
Social Contract Theory- A population in a given place gave up as much power as
needed to a government to promote the well being of all. This theory was
developed philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau. – This theory argues that
the state of Nature is so brutish that the state arose out of a voluntary act of free
people.
CRITICAL THINKING SUMMARY
•
Which of the four leading theories of the origin of the state best describes the
origin of dictatorships? Explain your answer
•
Examine the Preamble to the Constitution to determine which origin of state
theory describes the origin of the United States
We the people,
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.