Dates don t need to know specific year but know century and know order of sequence Day 1 What is government 1 Why do we need it a Thomas Hobbs English philosopher uses liberal language but not a classical liberal i 1651 wrote Leviathan talks about government and why we need it 1 Describes a society without a government 2 Calls it a State of Nature a Every man is enemy to every man in this State of Nature Men live without anything that they do not gain themselves No culture because of lack of discovery Fear Solitary poor nasty brutish and well short b Hobbs doesn t like the state of nature without government we all live with continual fear 3 No government no authority to protect yourself or possessions a The small won t live long ii We make a government through a social contract so they will protect us a conscious decision b It s easy for us as Americans to be critical and distrusting of government because we have such a stable form of government i We know that our government will not crash ii Hobbs knows what it s like to not have a stable government 1 He has lived through governmental crisis a Lived in English Civil War with NO government c UN calls them collapsed states i No government in a nation ii Rwanda in the 1990s 1 Trust between people had completely broken down without a government a When you ordered a bottle of something to drink came with a cap on still sealed i Same thing if you were in someone s house ii No one has tried to poison you b If you drank out of a community thing the host had to drink first to prove its safety d Definition of government for any type c Basic trust is gone i Institutions and procedures through which a land and it s people are ruled p 6 1 To govern actually means to control 2 Talk about how it has the authority to act over the land and people 3 Capacity the government has ability to control the land and people 4 There s only the authority within that territory What do governments do 1 Maintain order a First thing because if they can t do this they can t do anything else i Must protect life and property b To do so must use force i Use coercive powers to maintain authority 1 Tickets for poor driving 2 In harsher governments death penalty ii Governments have to institute system of laws 1 Democracy would be different than dictatorship 2 Maybe through courts and punishing those that don t follow c Internal job domestic job 2 National defense a Protecting your government from everybody else i Military may be large or small ii Defending national sovereignty b External job 3 Provide public goods a May vary greatly from one nation to another b Public vs private good i Private 1 You or someone for you purchases it 2 You don t have to share it 3 No one else is made to buy it for you ii Public 1 No one person has an incentive to supply for someone else but makes all of us better 2 Therefore government steps in to supply it a Cars b Houses c Soda a Police force b Fire force c Roads d School 3 Regardless of having paid taxes or not you will still get it 4 All governments provide these a Some more than others 5 Don t ask if you ve paid taxes before they give it to you 4 Socialize their young into political government a All governments do it i Pledge of Allegiance every day ii National Anthem iii Civics classes b Instills pride and tradition all the way to government is everything i political culture is about learning about how it works ii supposed to tell you how it works at a young age iii patriotism 5 Taxes a All governments need revenue b No matter how well you ve done on socialization i Very few will just give money freely to the government ii This is a coercive power c Tax rates varies widely as well as how they tax you d Everything else the government does takes money 6 Thomas Jefferson That government is best which governs least a b Most Americans agree with that statement limited government i Certain aspects of your life government should not be involved in ii Certain freedoms which the governments should be limited in 1 Civil liberties and civil rights iii Don t always agree on which ones but we all believe that there are some c North Korea etc governments there are not limited i Governments here can do anything they want to ii Zimbabwe North Korea idea of limited government does not exist 1 Z government decided to go and take over all of the various farms it a did not penalize groups of people who did it because they did wanted to b no private property Liberalism Classical 1 Does not denote Democrats or left wing politics 2 James Madison a In framing the government to be administered by men Must be able to control the government then it must be able to control others 3 Most Americans would be a classical liberal a Nothing about taxes or welfare 4 About government s authority 5 Liberal believes the government is only there to protect your rights a Limits government to only protecting your rights b Division in parties comes in which rights are the most important rights to be protected 6 Definition a The name for a certain kind of theory of government one centering on the individual and primarily concerned with protecting the individual s rights through a social contract i About the individual one individual person 1 We all have the same rights 2 Government doesn t give us our rights we already have them 3 About the individual because that s where the rights are liberalism centers on the INDIVIDUAL 4 5 were not talking about groups talking about individual people 6 concerned with rights government should protect individual rights 7 you have rights because of your individual rights 8 has the authority to protect your rights through a social contract a what gives them the power ii We have a social contract to decide what kind of government we like so they will protect our rights 1 Where does liberalism come from US is the first to ever try to put it into practice other than 2 May be called a bourgeoisie freemen of the city form of government Background Athens or Sparta a Middle class i Shopkeepers ii Craftsmen b Things centered on land before this c Bourg don t make money from land but from their shops 3 Go back to the 17th century a Middle class is growing in size and economic power i No political power ii Politics only in the hands of King and land gentry b Most governments here were absolute monarchs c Middle class embraces parliaments i Parliaments not very powerful mostly put into law what …
View Full Document
Unlocking...