Chapter 1 Notes

1. Chapter 1 Notes

2. What is Civics? • A branch of political science which focuses on the study of the rights and duties of citizens. • Rights and duties presupposes a reciprocal give (obligation) and take (receive). • Between whom?

3. Citizen: a person’s membership into a political community • Political: the social relationship involving authority (the right to use power) and/or power (the ability of one to get another to act in accordance with the first’s intentions).

4. What if there was no government? • Assignment: • One Page Essay (Paragraphs) • Introduction: Introduce the topic • what is the topic? • Insert your Thesis Statement (Answer the question. The purpose) • Body: Evidence to support your thesis • Conclusion: What is to be understood or learned from this essay? • What if government just stopped EVERYWHERE?!?

5. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) • English Political Writer • Pro-Monarchy • Early Enlightenment writer/thinker. • English Civil War (1641-1651) • Wrote The Leviathan (1651)

6. The Leviathan (1651)

7. The Leviathan • When was it written? • What is a civil war? • What would life be like during a civil war? Why? • Thomas Hobbes was one of the earliest Enlightenment thinkers. • The Enlightenment: A period of intellectual thought that used reason and logic to be applied to politics and society with the belief that society was perfectible. • Period from 1650 to 1800. • Primary source vs. Secondary Source • Primary Source: a physical source (documents, creative work, artifact) from the time period under study. • Secondary Source: interprets and analyzes primary sources.

8. In-Class Assignment • Read the segment of The Leviathan given to you in small groups of 3 to 5. • Answer the questions using the reading. • The questions are written in order with the reading. • I will help you in class, but you are on your own at home. Use time wisely. • Answers to questions are due at the beginning of next class.

9. The State of Nature • A hypothetical condition of humanity before the creation of state, government, legitimate authority, and law. • The State of Nature => Need for a legitimate authority • Hobbes political philosophy or belief was that “the Leviathan” (great power) should be a Monarch (king). • Government serves to protect us from the natural state. • Natural rights- individuals are born with natural rights that their mind and body are capable of doing. Hobbes would argue that “every man has the right to every thing” in the state of nature. • Law creates an obligation and duty to another (to society). • We must give (duty) our natural rights (freedoms and liberties) to the government in order to be removed from the state of nature (right) • The State of Nature is why individuals submit to a government power.

10. Example of State of Nature

11. Functions of Government • Keep Order: Laws and courts to protect those within society from one another. • Provide Security: utilities, roads, schools, and hospitals. • Provide Security: foreign diplomacy and defense from outside of our society. • Guide the Community: regulate (regulation: constrains rights and defines responsibility), research, use of resources. • Public Policy: government action to achieve a community goal • Budget: plan for collecting and spending money to achieve public policy.

12. Types of Government 1. Authoritarian: power is held by an individual or group who are not accountable to the people they govern. • Totalitarian: control of all aspects of people’s lives.

13. A. Autocracy • Rule belongs to a single individual. • Absolute Monarchy: government with hereditary ruler • Unlimited authority • Example: King Louis XIV b) Dictatorship: removal by opposition - no means for new leader - example: Adolf Hitler

14. B. Oligarchy • Ruled by a few or small group. • Example: Military of North Korea

15. 2) Democracy • Government by which the people rule • Etymology: Greek- Demos = “people, mob, or many” Kratos = “rule or power” • Direct Democracy (Pure Democracy): power is placed in the assembly of all citizens who participate. • Ancient Athens: citizens (free males) would meet on a hill to discuss and vote on policy. • Problems?

16. Athenian Democracy

17. B) Representative Democracy • Citizens choose a smaller group of citizens to represent and govern on their behalf. • Majority Rule: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions that bind the whole group. • Problems? • A Republic…”And to the Republic for which it stands…”

18. C. Parliamentary Democracy • A system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their legitimacy from the legislature, and are accountable to that body such that the executive and legislative branches are run by the same political party. • Executive is the Prime Minister • Elected by the legislature which is elected by the people • Plurality: winner take all system. Candidate with the most votes (support) wins. • Problem?

19. Governments in b/t the Spectrum • Theocracy: Political power is controlled by religious leaders. • Constitutional Monarchy: Monarch limited by a constitution and laws. Example: Iran

20. Who are Citizens?

21. 14th Amendment • All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State they reside. • Who are citizens? • Losing citizenship: • Improperly obtained citizenship • Voluntarily give it up (can’t get it back)

22. Aliens: non-citizens within the borders • Immigrant: person who moves to a new country. • Emigrant: person who moves from a country. • Legal immigrants get most services that citizens get except: no jury duty, no vote, no federal government jobs, and have to carry an I.D. card. • Nativism: political movement against immigration.

23. A Nation • “Let every man honor and love the land of his birth and the race from which he springs and keep their memory green. It is a pious and honorable duty. But let have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans and German-Americans, and so on, and all be Americans…If a man is going to be an American at all let him be so without any qualifying adjectives; and if he is going to be something else, let him drop the word American from his personal description.” • Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S Congress (1888) • Does anybody take offense to this quote? Who is missing?

24. What makes the United States a Nation? - Post it!

25. A Nation • A nation can refer to a country. • A nation can refer to a community or people who share a common territory or government. • A nation can refer to an ethnic group with a common language, race, religion, or history. • Sweden is 81% Swedes • Denmark is 90% Danes • Bosnia, Israel, Croatia, Albania

26. Nationalism • the positive attitude members have towards their national identity. • The actions that members of a nation take when seeking to achieve self-determination (the right of a nation to govern itself).

27. What makes the United States a nation?

28. What does this mean for us? • Politically, the United is pulled in many directions. • How big is our government? • What powers should the government have? • What rights should the people have? • We need to understand: • Our foundations and traditions • The system we’ve created • Alternatives to our system/How to make changes • Our role in the system