1. Politics: Who Gets What, and How?
K. Moylan
PowerPoint adapted from
Keeping the Republic: 4th edition, Instructor’s Resource Guide

2. What is politics? Big Question:
Politics: who gets what, when, and how; a process of determining how power and resources are distributed in a society without violence
Power: the ability to get others to do what you want
Politics arranges our lives into some kind of social order
Big Question:
Why does power have to be seen as legitimate?

3. Politics and government
Government: a system or organization for exercising authority over a body of people
Authority: power that people recognize as legitimate
Rules: directives that specify how resources will be distributed or what procedures govern collective activity
The “how” of who gets what, and how
Institutions: organizations in which government power is exercised
The “where” of the political struggle

4. Authoritarian systems
The state holds all power
Several types:
Monarchy: government power vested in a king or queen (Saudi Arabia)
Theocracy: government claims to draw its power from divine or religious authority (Iran)
Oligarchy: rule by a small group of elites
Totalitarian government: a system in which absolute control is exercised over every aspect of life (North Korea)

5. Nonauthoritarian systems
Anarchy: the absence of government and laws
Democracy: government that vests power in the people; based on popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty: the concept that the citizens are the ultimate source of political power
Big question:
What is the role of the people in a democracy?

7. The role of the people
Authoritarian systems: people are subjects of their state government
Subjects: individuals who are obliged to submit to a government authority against which they have no rights
Democratic systems: people are citizens
Citizens: members of a political community having both rights and responsibilities, which include obeying laws, paying taxes, owning businesses, participating in government

8. Origins of American democracy
Ancient Greek experience: Athenian democracy
Politics in the Middle Ages
The divine right of kings: the principle that earthly rulers receive their authority from God
Enlightenment theories discredited the divine right of kings

9. Founders of social contract theory
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
Source:

10. Origins of American democracy, cont’d.
Social contract theory: the notion that society is based on an agreement between government and the governed in which people agree to give up some rights in exchange for the protection of others
Hobbes: government not due to divine right; instead people agree to be governed for protection

11. Hobbes’ View of Human Nature
“Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry…no navigation, …no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” from Leviathan

12. Huh? How did Hobbes think we would live in a state of nature?
What does that tell us about his view of human beings?

13. Origins of American democracy, cont’d.
Locke: people agree to give up some rights in exchange for the protection of other rights by the government
Legitimate government requires that people consent to it and if government breaks contract, people may form a new one

14. Locke’s view of the purpose of government
“The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property, and the end why they choose and authorize a legislative is that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society, to limit the power and moderate the dominion of every part and member of the society.”– Second Treatise on Government

15. Huh?
Big questions:
How does Locke’s view of the purpose of government differ from Hobbes’?
How are their views of human nature different?

16. James Madison: Father of the Constitution
A portrait of James Madison, our fourth president, coauthor of The Federalist Papers, and democratic theorist.
Source:

17. Political Systems and the Concept of Citizenship
Madison feared “pure democracy” because people may create “factions” (Federalist #10—from US History I—remember?)
Factions: groups that might pursue only their self-interest
Madison preferred a republic
Republic: a government in which decisions are made through representatives of the people

18. Citizenship in America, cont’d.
Madison did not trust average Americans to act beyond their own interests (is he more like Hobbes, or Locke?)
Madison’s view contrasted with the idea of “republican virtue” (citizens can put interests of community ahead of their own) (is this more like Hobbes, Locke, or neither?)
Biq Question:
What do American citizens believe about citizenship today?