What
is the purpose of government?
Protect ◦ People from each other and outsiders ◦ Individual rights and liberties
Provide public goods and services ◦ Parks, monuments, environmental regulations, anti-monopoly policies, commerce, welfare, medical, etc…
THOMAS HOBBES ◦ “Every man is against every man… and the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” ◦ SO, give power to a KING to…
Enforce Laws Punish Criminals Defend people from invasion
**SOME RIGHTS HAVE TO GO IN ORDER TO HAVE LAW AND ORDER.
◦ “Life, liberty, and the enjoyment of personal property” ◦ GOVERNMENT EXISTS TO GUARANTEE PEOPLE’S “NATURAL RIGHTS” ◦ Power to the People
**NO RESTRICTIONS ON CITIZENS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT.
Anarchy
◦ Absence of government
Theocracy
◦ Control of governance by a religion, church and/or clergy. Church law above civil law (Iran)
Pure (direct) Democracy
◦ Direct citizen participation in daily governance (ancient Athens, colonial New England town meetings)
Representative Democracy – REPUBLICANISM
◦ Election of government officials to manage the state (USA, many others)
Types of Governments Continued:
Absolute Monarchy
Constitutional Monarchy
Dictatorship
◦ Government by a monarch with absolute power descending from God (absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV) ◦ Government by a monarch with a constitution, limited monarchy (Great Britain and Denmark today) ◦ Single leader rule by force, no consent of the governed at all (USSR under Stalin, IRAQ under Saddam Hussein)
•Democracy •rule by many
•Oligarchy •rule by few
•Autocracy •rule by one
Find an example of democracy today in a news article
◦ CNN (politics); BBC; NPR (politics section); The Economist
On this section of notes, please write down (on these notes) for your article: ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
Who? What? When? Where? How does the article relate to democracy?
