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3) Governments have the power to make and enforce laws and can require people to do
things they might do voluntarily.
4) Governments provide structures such as courts to help people resolve disagreements in
an orderly manner.
5) Government controls and contains conflict between people by placing limits on what
individuals are permitted to do.
6) Governments provide a group with law and order.
F. Providing Public Services
1) One of the important purposes of government is to provide essential services that make
community life possible and promote the general welfare.
2) Government undertakes projects that individuals would or could not do on their own.
3) Provides essential serve by making and enforcing laws that promote public health and
safety.
G. Providing National Security
1) Protecting citizens from attacks and threats.
2) Protecting its national security is a major concern of each sovereign state.
3) In additional to providing national defense, governments also handle normal relations
with other nations.
4) Provides economic security by enacting trade agreements with other countries.
H. Making Economic Decisions
1) No country provides its citizens with everything they need or desire.
2) Government often intervene to help deal with the problems of material scarcity to
prevent conflicts.
3) Pass laws that shape the economic environment of the nation.
4) Make choices that distribute benefits and public services among citizens.
5) Governments usually try to stimulate economic growth and stability through controlling
inflation, encouraging trade, and regulating the development of natural resources.
A) It sets out ideals that the people bound by the constitution believe in and share.
B) It establishes the basic structure of government and defines the governments
power and duties.
C) It provides the supreme law for the country.
3) Constitutions provide rules that shape the actions of government and politics.
4) Constitutions may be written or unwritten (most are written).
5) The U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution (1787).
6) All governments have a constitution in the sense that they have some plan for
organization and operating the government.
7) Constitutional Government
A) A government in which a constitution in which a constitution has authority to
place clearly recognized limits on the powers of those who govern.
B) Often referred to as limited government.
B. Incomplete Guides
1) Constitutions themselves are important but incomplete guides to how a country is
actually governed.
2) They are incomplete for two reasons:
A) No written constitution by itself can possibly spell out all the laws, customs, and
ideas that grow up around the document itself.
B) A constitution does not always reflect the actual practice of government in a
country. (Example - Chinese constitution).
C. A Statement of Goals
1) Most constitutions contain a statement that sets forth the goals and purposes to be
served by the government.
2) Preamble the name given to this statement.
D. A Framework for Government
1) The main body of a constitution sets out the plan for government.
2) In federal states, such as the United States, the constitution also describes the
relationship between the national and state governments.
3) Most written constitutions also describe the procedure for amending the constitution.
4) Articles and Sections
A) Parts of the main body of the constitution is usually subdivided into these two
categories.
B) U.S. Constitution has 7 Articles containing 21 Sections.
E. The Highest Law
1) Constitutions provide the supreme law for states.
2) Normally accepted as a superior, morally binding force.
3) Draws its authority from the people or from a special assembly chosen by the people to
create the constitution.
4) Constitutional Law
A) Involves the interpretation and application of the constitution.
B) Primarily concerns defining the extent and limits of government power and the
rights of citizens.
4. Politics and Government
A. Overview
1) Politics The effort to control or influence the conduct and policies of government.
2) The Constitution did not prevent the development of politics because politics and
government are closely related.
B. Seeking Government Benefits
1) Participation in politics arises because people realize that government has the potential
to influence their lives in many ways.
2) In a large, diverse nation like the United States, there is a continual struggle over what
benefits and services government should provide, how much they should cost, and who
should pay for them.
3) Through politics, individuals and groups seek to maximize the benefits they get from
government while they try to reduce the costs of these benefits.
4) Through politics, people also seek to use government to turn their values and beliefs
into public policy.
C. Importance of Politics
1) Through politics, conflicts in society are managed.
4 United States Government: Democracy in Action 2008 Ed.
Chapter 1: People and Government
D) Legal requirements for voting , such as age, residence, and citizenship, are
kept to a minimum.
E) Citizens may vote freely by secret ballot, without coercion or fear of punishment
for their voting decisions.
F. Competing Political Parties
1) A group of individuals with broad common interest who organize to nominate candidates
for office, win elections, conduct government, and determine public policy.
2) An important element of democratic government.
3) While any number of parties may compete, the two-party system (Democrats and
Republicans) has developed in the United States.
4) Rival parties help make elections meaningful:
A) Give voters a choice among candidates.
B) Simplify and focus attention on key issues for voters.
C) Parties out of power serve as the loyal opposition.
i) By criticizing the policies and actions of the party in power, they can help
make those in power more responsible to the people.
4. The Soil of Democracy
A. Overview
1) Historically, few nations have practiced democracy.
2) One reason may be that real democracy seems to require a special environment.
3) Democratic government is more likely to succeed in countries that, to some degree,
meet five general criteria that reflect the quality of life of citizens.
B. Active Citizen Participation
1) Democracy requires citizens who are willing to participate in civic life.
2) Examples
A) Citizens are able to inform themselves about issues.
B) To vote in elections
C) To serve on juries
D) To work for candidates
E) To run for government office
C. A Favorable Economy
1) Democracy succeeds more in countries that do not have extremes of wealth and poverty
and that have a large middle class.
2) The opportunity to control ones economic decisions provides a base for making
independent political decisions.
3) Free Enterprise
4) If people do not have control of their economic lives, they will not likely be free to make
political decisions.
5) Countries with stable, growing economies seem better able to support democratic
governments.
D. Widespread Education
1) Democracy is more likely to succeed in countries with an educated public.
2) Public education was established in the United States in the 1830s.
E. Strong Civil Society
1) Democracy is not possible without a civil society.
2) Civil Society
A) A complex network of voluntary associations, economic groups, religious
organizations, and many other kinds of groups that exist independently of
government.
B) These organizations give citizens a way to make their views known to
government officials and the general public.
C) Provide citizens a means to take responsibility for protecting their rights and
give everyone a chance to learn about democracy by participating in it.
F. A Social Consensus
1) Democracy prospers where most people accept democratic values such as individual
liberty and equality for all.
2) There must be a general agreement about the purpose and limits of government.
B) Sellers compete with one another to produce goods and services at reasonable
prices.
C) Sellers also compete for resources.
D) Consumers compete with one another to buy what they want and need.
E) Consumers in their roles as workers try to sell their skills and labor for the best
wages or salaries they can get.
C. The Free Enterprise in the United States
1) No nation in the world has a pure capitalist system.
2) The United States is a leading example of a capitalist system in which the government
plays a relatively minor role.
3) The governments main economic task has been to preserve the free market.
4) The government has tried to encourage business competition and private property
ownership.
D. Government Influence
1) Since the early 1900s the nationals government influence on the economy has
increased in several ways:
A) As the nations government has grown it has become the single largest buyer of
goods and service in the country.
B) The United States government has increasingly regulated the economy for
various purposes.
i) The Meat Inspection Act
ii) Pure Food and Drug Act
C) Government plays a role in labor-management relations, the regulation of
environmental pollution, and contorl over many banking and investment practices.
2) The Great Depression of the 1930s.
A) The national government set up the Social Security system, programs to aid the
unemployed, and a variety of social programs.
B) The setting up of public corporations: Tennessee Valley Authority that compete
directly with private companies.
E. Mixed-Market Economy
1) An economy in which free enterprise is combined with and supported by government
decisions in the marketplace.
2) Government keeps competition free and fair and protects the public interest.
4. Socialism
A. Overview
1) The government owns the basic means of production, determines the use of resources,
distributes the products and wages, and provides social services such as education, health
care, and welfare.
2) Goals of Socialism:
A) The distribution of wealth and economic opportunity equally among people.
B) Societys control, through its government, of all major decisions about
production.
C) Public ownership of most land, of factories, and of other means of production.
3) The basic idea of modern socialism began to develop in the nineteenth century.
A) Industrialization caused several problems.
B) Low-paid workers, poverty, slums.
C) Terrible working conditions.
D) Socialism was a reaction to these problems.
B. Democratic Socialism
1) A peaceful movement that wishes to make economic changes through the democratic
processes of a nation.
2) Under this system the people have basic human rights and have some control over
government officials through free elections and multiparty systems.
3) The government, however, owns the basic means of production and makes most
economic decisions.
4) Tanzania, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden today operate under a form of democratic
socialism.
C. Opponents to Socialism
1) Socialism stifles individual initiative.
2) Socialist nations high tax rates hinder economic growth.
10 United States Government: Democracy in Action 2008 Ed.
Chapter 1: People and Government