United States Government: Effectiveness and Functions

1. Bellwork • What form of government does the United States have? In your opinion, is it effective? Why or why not?

2. What is Government? Government is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies. As previously discussed, government is necessary for the safety of the people • Without government, we would be living in a state of nature where people would live according to their own needs and interests  survival of the fittest.

3. Functions of Government • Foreign diplomacy* • Military defense* • Maintain domestic order* • Administer justice • Protect civil liberties • Provide and regulate elections • Provide public goods and services • Promote economic growth and development • Operate social welfare programs *These are the oldest and arguably most important functions of government

4. Foreign diplomacy • Government is responsible for conducting formally peaceful relations with other countries in order to protect and further it’s own national interests • Includes tactics such as negotiation, bargaining, compromise, treaty, alliance, warnings, and threats

5. Military defense • A government is responsible for preserving the nation’s security against foreign aggression • Includes maintaining armed forces and using them to protect territory and the people from attack and invasion

6. Domestic order • A government must control the people it seeks to govern and protect • Must maintain internal peace • This means maintaining law and order- establishing and enforcing rule of law to ensure citizens’ rights

7. Administer justice • A government must operate a system of administering justice to enforce the rule of law • Court system

8. Protect civil liberties • Government must preserve and safeguard the basic rights and liberties guaranteed to individual members of the society

9. Provide and regulate elections • A government should hold regular elections to fill policymaking offices and ensure that they are carried out honestly and fairly • This is only true of democratic governments

10. Provide public goods and services • Governments can collect taxes to raise money to spend on goods and services which will benefit all citizens but are not likely (or relied on) to be supplied through private institutions • Examples: public parks, public education, hospitals, airports, highways, post offices, water purification, garbage collection/disposal

11. Promote economic growth and development • The government of a modern society seeks to facilitate the growth and development of the nation’s overall economy, actively pursuing public policies designed to promote increased capital and production, higher levels of commercial activity, and a more favorable balance of trade with foreign nations • This in turn should maintain low levels of unemployment and economic prosperity among the nation’s citizens

12. Operate social welfare programs • Social welfare- public assistance/aid • Government programs to provide assistance to the poor/those unable to adequately support themselves due to circumstances beyond their control • Examples- Food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, WIC

13. Different forms of government

14. Forms of government • Democracy means rule of the people. It refers to a political system in which the people (direct democracy) or their elected representatives (indirect/representative democracy) govern themselves. • A republic is a government whose authority is based on citizen’s votes, which are represented by elected or nominated officials chosen in free elections. • A federation is characterized by a union of small states, groups, or parties which are self-governed in internal affairs and are united under a central government. • An oligarchy is rule of the few. It is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a faction of persons.

15. Forms of government • A socialist government puts ownership and control of the means of production and distribution of capital/land/etc. in the community as a whole, either directly or through the government. • In a communist system of government, the state owns and operates industry on behalf of the people. • In a monarchy, supreme authority is vested in a single (usually hereditary) figure, whose powers can vary from absolute to none at all. • Under autocratic rule, the government is controlled by absolute power and in the hands of a single person with minimal restraints and no method of popular control.

16. Forms of government • A dictatorship is a form of government where the power rests entirely on one person or a group of people. This rule could be acquired by force and is usually oppressive. • A totalitarian system is one in which a single political authority regulates all public and private life. • Tyranny is authority of an absolute ruler. • Fascism is a way of ruling that advocates total control of the people and seeks to promote the ancestral and cultural values and eradicate foreign influences.