Government and its Purpose

Government

• Government is composed of the formal and informal institutions, people, and processes used to create and conduct public policy.

• “Who gets what, when, and how” - Harold Lasswell

Public Policy

• Government doing the things that are necessary to maintain legitimate authority and control over society

Purposes of Government

• Each nation must decide what the purpose of their government must be

• The Preamble to the United States Constitution lays out the goals for the American government (“We the People…”)

Purposes Outlined in the Preamble

• The “more perfect union” is the goal, while the following lists are used more as the target points that needed to be established - similar to a list, rather than a sentence.

• Forming a “More Perfect Union”

  • Creating a strong union of the states while maintaining state sovereignty

• Establishing Justice

  • Reasonable, fair, equal law

• Insuring Domestic Tranquility

  • Preservation of public order

• Providing for the Common Defense

  • Protection and maintenance of national defense

• Promoting the General Welfare

  • Providing public services and economic health of the nation

• Securing the Blessings of Liberty

  • Promoting individual freedoms

  • They were secured “to ourselves and to our posterity”: maintaining the freedoms throughout not only that time, but for their descendants and into the future.

Forms of Government

Anarchy - Lack of government

Autocracy - Rule by one

• Absolute Monarchy

  • Ruler gains power through inheritance

  • No restrictions on power

• Constitutional Monarchy

  • i.e. England today

  • Ruler gains power through inheritance

  • Formal restrictions are imposed on the power

  • Often, these monarchs are restricted to a ceremonial status.

• Dictatorship

  • Ruler seizes and maintains power by force

  • Opposition to regimes are restricted

  • No restrictions are imposed on the dictatorship

Oligarchy - Rule by a few

• Aristocracy

  • Rule by the elite

  • Usually determined by social status or wealth

• Theocracy

  • Rule by religious leaders

Democracy - Rule by the people

• Direct Democracy

  • Citizens meet and make decisions about public policy issues

  • EVERY citizen in the society participated actively in the government

  • Most famously represented by Ancient Athens, but early New England used a form of direct democracy

• Representative Democracy

  • Citizens choose officials (representatives)

  • Representatives make decisions about public policy

Foundations of American Democracy

Creating the Democracy

• In 1776, colonists presented the Declaration of Independence to the British Crown to break away from Britain’s control

• Following the American Revolutionary War, the U.S. government operated under the Articles of Confederation

  • The Articles of Confederation were ineffective in practice

  • Several mistakes were included in the articles

  • They created the Constitution as a replacement

• Delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft a new constitution

• Fierce debate occurred between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists when drafting a new constitution, and whether what was created should be implemented

  • Federalists were in favor of the Constitution

  • Anti-Federalists were against the Constitution and thought it needed more work

• After the conflict, the states ratified the Constitution in 1788

Parts of the Constitution

• The Constitution defined three branches of government, relations among the states, national and state powers, and the process to alter (amend) the Constitution

• One important concept included is checks and balances

  • Keeps any one branch from becoming too powerful

• The amendment process allowed for the Bill of Rights to be added in 1791

Federalism in America

• Established by the Constitution

• Federalism is a system of government that divides the power between national and state governments

• As new national concerns have emerged, Congress has used its power to set policies to address those issues

• States have used their powers to maintain jurisdiction over other issues

• For example, public schools are a state power, rather than a federal power.

American Independence and Early National Government

The Years of the 1770s - The American Colonists and British government came into conflict over a series of taxes levied by King George III

• Leaders of the 13 Colonies challenged British authority

Enlightenment Inspiration

• Argued for natural, God-given rights

• Social Contract

  • The agreement between a democratic government and the people

  • “The government should exist only if the people allow it to exist.”

  • The concept that the government serves the people, and if they don’t serve the people, then it should be removed

Taxation in the 1770s

• Britain levied taxes on the colonists to pay for the debts created by the 7 Years War

  • The French & Indian War

• The American Colonies had plenty of resources that could be turned into revenue

• Mercantilism

  • A country making as much money as possible by exploiting the resources of its colonies (profiting off of the colonies without offering anything in return).

  • England wanted to conquer the land and exploit its resources without harming their own

  • The addition of NEW taxes to the mercantilism they were doing on America was the largest spark of the Revolutionary War

• 1764 - Sugar Act

  • Tax on sugar

• 1765 - Stamp Act

  • Tax on legal documents

• 1773 - Tea Act

  • Tax on tea

• American colonists began to oppose taxes for practical and economic reasons

Taxation and the Colonies

• “No taxation without representation”

  • Parliament argued that the colonists were “virtually represented”

  • Conceptualized that if the colonists were British, those in the Parliament were also British, and thus their ideals would be aligned

  • 90% of the British population did not have the right to vote - only the rich, wealthy, and important did.

• In 1775, Colonist leaders send the Olive Branch Petition to King George

  • King George III rejected the petition

  • He refused to even read the letter

Influence of Enlightenment Thought

The Enlightenment

• The Sons of Liberty and other advocates for freedom were inspired by political theories of the Enlightenment

  • John Locke

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • Baron de Montesquieu

John Locke

• Believed that people could learn from experiences and improve

• People had the  natural ability to govern their own affairs and look after the welfare of society

• Natural rights of life, liberty, and property

• It is the government’s duty to protect these rights, and the people’s duty to rise up if the government didn’t.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Influenced by the writings of John Locke

• “Discourse on Inequality” (1754)

  • Thoughts on human state of nature

  • Private property is the original source of inequality

• “The Social Contract” (1762)

  • Classical republicanism

  • Sovereignty through direct democracy

• The only reason government exists is that the people allow it to exist

Baron de Montesquieu

• “The Spirit of the Laws” (1748)

• If you give one person all the control, they have absolute authority, and it doesn’t work.

• Separation of powers

Types of Democracy

Participatory Democracy

• Depends on direct participation of many, if not most, people in a society

• Not only government related matters, but public life as well

• People vote directly on laws and other matters that affect them

• Examples:

  • 5th Century Athenian Democracy

  • 20th and 21st century protest movements

Pluralist Democracy

• Non-governmental groups organize to try to exert influence on political decision-making

• Interest Groups

  • Policy advocates or labor unions

Elite Democracy

• Elected representatives make decisions and act as trustees for the people who elected them

  • Recognizes an inequity in the spread of power among the populace and the elites

• Individuals with the most time, education, money, and access to the government will take more action than those with less privilege

Declaring Independence

The Declaration of Independence

• By summer of 1776, the Continental Congress commissioned a committee to draft an official statement to summarize the colonists’ views

  • Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston

• This document became the Declaration of Independence

  • Justified a break from Britain and gave reasons for independence

  • Signed by the delegates on July 4, 1776