Unit 1- Foundations of Government and Citizenship
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Define Government
The institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies. Government is made up of those people who exercise its powers, all those who have authority and control over people.
Define Public Policies
All of those things a government decides to do.
Define Power
Power is the ability to command or prevent action, the ability to achieve a desired end.
What are the three kinds of power a government possesses?
Legislative-Executive-Judicial LEJ
Define Legislative Power
The power to make laws and to frame public policies.
Define Executive Power
The power to execute, enforce, and administer laws. EEA
Define Judicial Power
The power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within the society. IMD
Define Constitution
The body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of a government. PSP
Define Dictatorship
A form of government where those who rule cannot be held responsible to the will of the people.
What are some characteristics that distinguish democracies from dictatorships?
State control of the media, a lack of political and personal freedoms, corruption of public officials, a lack of governmental transparency, and the lack of any mechanisms through which citizens can change the government.
Define Democracy
A form of government where supreme authority rests with the people.
When the emerging Roman republic was threatened by war with neighboring Sabine tribes, the Roman senate appointed _____ as a dictator to defeat the enemy.
Lartius
Who was Aristotle?
An important Greek philosopher.
What did Aristotle say?
Man is by nature a political animal.
Define Politics
The process by which a society decides how power and resources will be distributed within that society. PR
Define State
A body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically (that is, with government), and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority.
What are the four characteristics of states?
Population, territory, sovereignty, and government. PTSG
What is the world’s most populous state and what is the world’s largest state?
China-Russia
Define Sovereign
Having supreme and absolute power within its own territory and being able to decide its foreign and domestic policies.
According to _____, the absence of government would lead to the war of every man against every man.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
What are the four theories that explain the origin of a state?
Force-Evolutionary-Divine Rights of Kings- Social Contract FEDS
Explain the Force Theory
When one person or a group of people claimed control over an area and forced all within it to submit to that person’s or group’s rule.
Explain the Evolutionary Theory
The claim that states developed naturally out of the early family.
Which philosophers contributed to the development of the Social contract theory?
Thomas Hobbes, James Harrington, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau HHLR