1. Intro to Government in America Government

2. What is Government? Government is defined as those institutions that make authoritative policies for society There are four key institutions that make policies on the national level: Congress, the President, the Courts, and the federal administrative agencies (bureaucracy)

3. What Governments Do Regardless of how they assume power, all governments have certain functions in common 1.Maintain national defense 2.Provide public goods-things everyone can share (clean air) 3.Have police power to provide order (national guard) 4.Provide public services like schools and libraries 5.Socialize the young into the political culture (pledge of allegiance) 6.Collect taxes to pay for services they provide

4. Politics The art/game of getting into power. Politics determines whom we select as government leaders and what policies they pursue ◦“who gets what, when, and how” –Harold D. Lasswell Political participation- ways in which people get involved in politics ◦Voting, volunteering for campaigns, working a voter registration drive

5. Democracy The writers of the Constitution were actually suspicious of democracy! Democracy is a means of selecting policymakers and of organizing the government so that policy represents and responds to the will of the people Five criteria that are essential for an ideal democratic process ◦Equality in voting ◦Effective participation ◦Enlightened understanding ◦Citizen control of government’s policy agenda ◦Inclusion- citizenship must be open to all within a nation  Do we meet the criteria? Explain…. In addition to the criteria, democracies must practice majority rule and preserve minority rights Our country is a representative democratic republic.

6. The Scope of Government in America How active is American government? ◦National, state and local govt’s spends about one out of every three dollars of our gross domestic product ◦National government alone spends almost $4 trillion annually, employs three million people, and owns one third of the land in the U.S. A comparative perspective on the scope and size of our gov’t ◦The U.S. gov’t actually does less and is smaller than gov’ts of similar countries ◦The tax burden on Americans is small compared to other democratic nations…shocking, I know! American individualism is a dominant theme in American political culture ◦This developed from immigrants desire to escape gov’t oppression ◦This has limited the scope (capacity or extent) of American gov’t ◦Individualism remains highly valued in the U.S.

7. How does policy happen?