Theories of Government

Presentation on theme: "Theories of Government"— Presentation transcript:

1 Theories of Government

2 What is Government? Government-makes and enforces public policies, and consists of lawmakers, administrators and judges

3 Where did it begin? The State-(country)
Aristotle-Greek Scholar, studied Polis- comes from Latin word stare (to stand) now it identifies a Political Community that occupies a definite territory and has an organized government. *almost 200 states in the world

4 Nation-sizeable group of people united by common bonds of race, language, customs, tradition, religion. ex. Quebec-French Canadians

5 Features of a State Population-nature of its stability
Consensus-share political and social beliefs (Americans and belief in democracy) Mobility-Americans move a lot-shift in population from the N & E to S & W = change in representative, political power Territory-established boundaries Sovereignty-state has supreme and absolute authority within it’s borders

6 Theories of Origin of the State
Many theories Evolutionary Theory-Head of the Family and as the extended family grew so did the complex of government Ex. Abraham’s descendents in the Old Testament

7 Force Theory-A person or group forced control over an area and people through war (soldiers)
Divine Right Theory-God chose a group of people to rule-Chinese, Egyptians, and Aztec-Monarchies

8 Social Contract Theory
Early 1600’s, Europeans challenged rule by monarchy Thomas Hobbes-England first theorize, wrote in a “state of nature” no gov’t would exist and life would be nasty, brutish, and short. SO-by contract people surrendered to the state to maintain order. They did NOT have the right to break that agreement John Locke-wrote people are naturally endowed with the right to life, liberty, and property and preserve these they contracted to give power to a governing authority-if the gov’t fails they have the right to break the contract (American rev)

9 Purpose of government Decisions are authoritative-forced on all
Maintain Social Order(Locke) Provide public service-(Lincoln)

10 Provide defense-protect against other states and threats like terrorism, states cannot fight
Provide for and control the economic system-varies between countries, still poor and rich, Material Scarcity = conflict/revolutions, work to stimulate economy by controlling inflation, encouraging trade and regulating development of natural resources.

11 Systems of Government Unitary-gives all powers to national or central government. Central government has power to create other local governments, GB-France-Italy Federal(ism)-divides powers of government between state and national-U.S

12 Constitutions Sets out ideals that people believe and share
Establishes basic structure of government and defines gov’ts powers and duties Supreme law Incomplete guides-can’t spell out all laws and may not represent actual gov’t, China talk about rights etc. but have police that spy Set Goals-Preamble (does our preamble match?)

13 Politics Effort to control or influence the conduct and policies of government Complex world-Industrialized nations and developing nations but still have to work with each other because of economics = politics, Examples-Opec, WTO (common trading goals)