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Understanding Government: Roles, Types, and Processes

Explore the concept of government, its role in society, types of governments, and the importance of individual participation in the U.S. governance system.

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Understanding Government: Roles, Types, and Processes

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Logic and Form of Government

  2. Administrative Matters • Seating Chart • Turn in “Statement of Student Responsibility” • Meet Your Neighbors!

  3. Overview • What is “government” and why does it exist? • How can we characterize or describe different types of governments? • What is the role of the individual in U.S. government?

  4. What Is “Government”? • People form communities • Government = institutions, rules, and procedures that regulate communities • Governments make choices and develop norms, then impose those choices and norms on all members of the community

  5. Why Do Governments Exist? • Keep us from killing each other • Maintain order and security • Define and enforce property rights • Redistribute wealth • Provide public goods • Makes government palatable • Increases productivity which provides payoff to government

  6. Forms of Government • Can characterize government on two dimensions: • Who makes the choices? • How much control is permitted? (i.e., what is the universe of options from which the choice is made)

  7. Who Makes the Choices? • Autocracy • Oligarchy • Democracy • Representative v. Direct Democracy • Representative Democracy • Popular v. Responsible • Who are “the people”? Suffrage

  8. Continuum of “Who Makes Choices” Representative Autocracy Responsible Popular Direct Oligarchy Democracy

  9. Pros and Cons of Democracy • Cons • Inefficient • Cannot respond to immediate crises • Pros • More stable • Normatively easier to defend

  10. How Large Is the Universe of Options? • Totalitarian (no limits) • Authoritarian (informal limits) • Constitutional Government (formal limits)

  11. Pros and Cons of a Constitutional Government • Cons • Some problems more difficult to address (crime, security, etc.) • Pros • More stable

  12. What Do We Have in the U.S.? • Representative Democracy • Between Responsible and Popular • Relatively Broad Suffrage • Constitutional Government

  13. What Do We Need to Make That Work? • Because individuals are ultimately responsible for the choices government makes, we need • Trust in government • Sense of “political efficacy” • Knowledge of government

  14. In Sum • Many different types of governments can achieve the goals of having a government (creating order) • Constitutional democracies may be slower and less efficient, but they are ultimately more stable because people are happier, less apt to revolt • But in a constitutional democracy, it is the responsibility of every individual to understand how government works and to participate

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