Download In a State of Nature

In a State of Nature
Analyzing Government
What is the purpose of government?
How do the people running the
government get the right to govern?
How should a government be organized?
What types of government should be
respected and supported & what types
should be resisted and fought?
Locke’s Foundations
Natural rights philosophy
Influenced Founding Fathers
Based on imagining what life would be like
without government
Anarchy
Thomas Jefferson called these the “Law’s
of Nature and of nature’s God” in the
Declaration of Independence
Man formed governments in order to
preserve property and justice.
Did your community have any laws?
Protecting / preserving what?
Hobbe’s Foundations
Government is necessary to regulate
humans who are basically evil
People must surrender to rulers in
exchange for protection
Man’s natural state is war and
monarchies were needed to restrain it
People must give up certain rights to
the monarch
Rousseau’s Foundations
Man is good by nature, but corrupted by
society
Political order is necessary
Ideal society has a contract between men,
not between men and government
Government should be controlled by
the general will of the people
Laws are acts of the people
Would anyone have the right
to govern you?
Locke would say “no”, nor would you have
the right to govern anyone else.
The only way that a person gets the right
to govern is through the consent of the
governed
People trade perfect freedom for
increased security – mutually agreeing to
abide by the will of the majority.
Would you have any rights?
Life, liberty, and property
Right to defend these rights if
necessary
Locke called these “natural rights”
We now call them fundamental, basic or
human rights
Locke’s Solution
Best way to solve the problem of the
state of nature is a Social Contract
People give up natural freedoms in order to
gain protection for their rights
The formation of a government which can
create and enforce laws should be agreed
upon by those involved
Basis for the formation of U.S.
government
A social contract is also known as a
compact or covenant
How do people running the
government get the right to
govern?
Social Contract
Forced
Evolutionary
Divine Right
How should government be
Organized?
Who can participate?
Democracy
Direct and indirect - examples
Dictatorship
Autocracy and oligarchy - difference?
Geographical distribution of power
Unitary
Confederate
Federal
Relationship between Legislative
Branch and Executive Branch
Presidential
Parliamentary
In a democracy, those who are
responsible for the day-to-day conduct
of government are accountable to the
people for what is done in their name.
Which form of government, presidential
or parliamentary do you think comes
closer to this ideal? Why?