Foundations of Government WHAT IS GOVERNMENT AND WHY

Foundations of Government WHAT IS GOVERNMENT, AND WHY DO WE HAVE IT?

What is a government At its very basic definition, government is the institution through which a society makes and enforces public policies. Public policy = what a government decides to do Every government has three basic types of power Legislative makes the laws Executive enforces the laws Judicial interprets the laws Government exists to run the state

Population and Territory First and foremost for a state to exist there must be a population, a group of people who inhabit the state Second, they must have a territory that is known with recognized borders Recognized borders meaning that other countries acknowledge they exist Size of both the population and territory do not matter I. e. Russia and Vatican City

Sovereignty and Government If a state is sovereign, that means it has supreme and absolute power within its territory Can decide its own foreign (international) and domestic (internal) policies For example the U. S. government cannot tell other countries what to do inside their territory…but we often do anyways Every state that exists today has some sort of government, whether it be democratic or a dictatorship A government is the way a state exerts its will and accomplishes its goals

Where did the state come from? No one can say for sure how the state first developed There are four theories that are acceptable explanations for why people developed the state in the first place Force Evolutionary Divine Right Social Contract

Force Theory Force theory believes that one person, or possibly a small group, somehow took control Made Popular everyone submit to their rule explanation found throughout the world People believed that some divine force gave royalty the authority to rule them Meant that going against the crown was not only illegal but also a mortal sin

Evolutionary Theory The state developed naturally out of the early family One person was the head of the house, and served as the “government” As time goes on, the family expands to a network of related families, then a clan, and finally a tribe Tribe eventually turns to agriculture, and gives up its nomadic roots

Social Contract Theory Developed in part by John Locke The people within a given area agree to give up some of their own power to the state Must be voluntary In return the state uses its resources to protect and assist the people Most relevant to the development of the U. S. Declaration of Independence justified the American Revolution through social contract theory