American Government Exam 1 political science exercise of power The study of the processes principles and structure of government and of political institutions politics purposes roles of government Maintain order enforce laws and regulate behaviors to protect life and property Provide public and collective goods things that benefit all but not likely produced voluntarily nat l defense clean air Promote equality more controversial state of nature absence of government Thomas Hobbs Solidary brutish nasty public goods goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone s consumption social values end conditions that governments may pursue Order law and order but should government preserve the social order Equality many types Basic political equality not controversial today in the US equal opportunity vs equal outcomes Freedom liberty freedom to do and act to control your own life and choices conflicts or trade offs among basic social values Freedom vs order how much individual freedom to surrender to government for sake of order Freedom vs equality pursuit of social and economic equality restricts freedoms political ideology consistent set of beliefs about values that gov should pursue how does someone make the value trade offs conservative liberal libertarian populist ideologies Libertarians freedom over order freedom over equality Conservatives order over freedom freedom over equality Liberal equality over freedom freedom over order Populists order over freedom freedom over equality collective action problems These problems arise when individuals pursuit of own self interest turns into bad collective outcomes for a society Each individual are benefits cost for me Olson s free rider problem Regarding public good benefit or collective good benefit Once good or benefit is provided cannot exclude anyone from enjoying it No one individual makes the difference in terms of whether provided Logical outcome no one contributes In each individuals selfish interest to free ride To overcome a sticks fines penalties sanctions b Selective carrots private inducements selective benefits Why isn t free riding pervasive when it comes to paying for such public goods as national defense highways public education You don t have the option to law says you have to IRS Hardin s tragedy of the commons and how to address Public good is already available Acting in self interest each individual keeps extracting from or using up the public good destruction of the public good With pollution traffic jams etc here the problem is not each of us extracting per se but rather putting in How to address Governments regulates and taxes behaviors Mutual coercion mutually agreed on to avoid universal ruin appeals to individual Privatize individuals would conserve their own land conscience and responsibility will not work but coercion does infringe on individual freedom order vs freedom Robert Putnam s social capital indicators of decline of and his explanation of why a decline be familiar with indicators of the diversity of and major changes in American society that we reviewed Social capital interpersonal networks norms of behavior and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation We gain social capital with cooperation and teamwork When people don t operate as selfish isolated actors rather as part of a community Growing body of research suggests that places where social capital is high do better politically economically educating kids Social involvement measures life expectancy Social capital itself is a public good Social capital provides a resource and one that grows with use Bridging social capital bridging individuals together with others who are unlike themselves across lines of race class religion age gender Bonding social capital brings individuals together with others like themselves Putnam s Measures group memberships and social trust result in social capital Civil duty socialized into norm of voting do not think as selfish isolate actors they vote and representative democracy is healthier Political disengagement over past 50 years Voter turnout in elections has declined Polityical efficiency has declined Trust in government has declined Partisanship has declined Trust went up then came back down Since 9 11 American political culture and core political beliefs Political culture a set of beliefs about how political and economic life ought to be carried out Core beliefs Liberty or freedom Equality and widespread consensus on some forms moral worth under the law basic political and of opportunity Democracy representative Individualism Free enterprise system and work ethic The constitution Does consideration of the tradeoffs among order freedom and equality inform our understanding of the revolution the articles of confederation and the constitutuion Attempt to produce greater order by creating stronger national government while preserving freedoms stronger national government Presidential supreme court Supremacy f national law Control of foreign policy Ability to tax and raise army Congressional control of money and trade American Revolution Fought to achieve greater freedom in response to perceived excesses of British authority and order give me liberty or give me death Patrick Henry Articles of Confederation The first constitution Reflected a victory of freedom over order Problems disorder National government role of Declaration of Independence Jeffersons justification for the revolution Unalienable rights cannot be given away or taken PEOPLE create a government to protect these rights If government fails to protect them people have reason to revolt social contract theory and John Locke An agreement among the members of an organized society or between the governed and the government defining and limiting the rights and duties of each unalienable rights You cannot surrender sell or transfer unalienable rights they are a gift from the creator to the individual and cannot under any circumstances be surrendered or taken All individuals have unalienable rights Constitutional features to prevent abuse of power e g separation of powers with checks and balances Separation of Powers the principle or system of vesting in separate branches the executive legislative and judicial powers of a government Checks and Balances The system of checks and balances is an important part of the Constitution With checks and balances each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of the others
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