1. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

2. Warm-Up #1
Consider the following question: (this is your first warm-up: copy down and answer this question in your notebook)
What would your life had been like, if from and early age, you had been absolutely free to do whatever you wanted without parental oversight?

3. What is Government?
Government, as defined, is the institution through which society makes and enforces its public policies. Government is made up of those people who exercise its powers, all those who have authority and control over people.
List five (5) authority figures within the Government

4. What is Government?
Public Policies of a Government are all the things that a Government decides to do.
For example, the Federal Government is responsible for the defense of the entire United States of America. Defense is a public policy
Another example, would be schools. Education is a public Policy of Government.
Other public policies include: taxation, defense, crime, health care, public transportation, the environment, civil rights, welfare, and working conditions. **However, please know that the list of public policies is almost infinite.***

5. What MUST a Government have in order to operate?
Government, above all else, MUST have POWER to function properly.
In this sense, Power is the ability to command or prevent action, the ability to achieve a desired end.

6. How does a Government exercise the “powers” that it has?
All Governments have three basic types of power:
Legislative Power: the power to make law and to frame public policies. (What does “frame public policies” mean?)
Executive Power: the power to execute, enforce, and administer law.
Judicial Power: the power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within society.

7. Where are the rules for Government outlined?
A constitution is the body of fundamental laws setting out to the principles, structures, and processes of a government
Depending on the country in question, one person or a group of people may hold the ultimate responsibility of carrying out these laws.
For example, in a dictatorship one person has the responsibility of carrying out these laws.
Another example is a democracy where the majority of the people are responsible for the supreme authority of the country in a representative form of Government.

8. Origins of Government
The actual origin of Government is lost in history and often is shaped by a person’s religious beliefs.
The earliest known form of Government originated in ancient Egypt.

9. Origins of Government
Aristotle, a philosopher that lived more than 2,300 years ago was the first person to actually coin the phrase politics.
Aristotle stated that, “…man is by nature a political animal.”
Aristotle had put into words what had already been happening at that time period as well, that is to say that in order to have a society, then society must have some sort of order.
Politics became known as that process, a process used to maintain order.

10. Politics
Politics in recent years has become, to some people, almost immoral. However, what people fail to realize is that even if the entire government of the United States of America was dismantled and a new government was put into place the new government would also have “politics.”
If we had no politics we would have NO Government. Rather we would be in a state of Anarchy. Which is to say that we would be living with NO laws.
Is that necessarily, a good thing? (think about it)

11. The state
Let’s begin with a question: how many “states” are in the United States of America?
What does the term “state” actually mean?

12. The State
The “state” is actually a country. Any country that has sovereignty is a “state.”
For example, Mexico is a state, China is a state, Canada is a state. HOWEVER, THEY ARE NOT STATES WITHIN THE POLITICAL BOUNDARIES OF THE “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
The United States is a collection of fifty states or fifty “sovereign political units.” If we had NO federal Government then we would have fifty separate countries. And even then we could have more or less because the political boundaries could be geographically different.